Elliot Hershberg | Genome mining for molecular tool discovery
Foresight Institute Molecular Machines Group
Genome mining for molecular tool discovery
Elliot Hershberg is a Scientist, Writer, and Investor. His fundamental mission is to accelerate The Century of Biology.
He has worked on a range of problems in biotechnology. He has helped design cancer vaccines, built computational tools for spatial genomics technologies, and worked as a software engineer on a modern genome browser. While these experiences are quite different, his North Star has been to work on cutting-edge technology problems in genomics with the potential for high impact.
Currently, his research is focused on mining through massive metagenomic databases for new molecular tools.
Abstract: In molecular biology, new technologies are primarily discovered, not invented. From the discovery of the enzymes that enabled the recombinant DNA revolution, to the CRISPR enzymes capable of programmable gene-editing, microbes have been the richest source of new molecular tools. Now, in the post-genome era, we have more bacterial genomes (hundreds of thousands!) than we know what to do with. My research efforts are focused on computationally mining through these genomes to discover the next generation of molecular machines for engineering biology.
Foresight Institute Molecular Machines Group
This seminar is part of Foresight's Molecular Machines Seminar Series. To join future seminars in this program please apply here.
A group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and institutional allies who cooperate to advance molecular machines, applications in energy, medicine, and material science, and long-term progress toward Richard Feynman’s vision of nanotechnology.
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