Molly Gasperini

About Molly Gasperini

I am Associate Director of the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology at the Allen Institute, where I lead a team of six developing next-generation methods to advance lineage tracing technologies.Previously, I was an Assistant Investigator in the Molecular Genetics group at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. There, I led a team of three focused on gene regulation, single-cell genomics, computational biology, and the development of neurogenomics technologies.Before joining the Allen Institute, I worked in biotechnology startups at the intersection of functional genomics and drug discovery. At Cajal Neuroscience, I led a team of six conducting novel in vitro neuronal CRISPR screens to power a neurodegeneration-focused target discovery platform. Prior to that, I was an early scientist at Octant Bio, contributing to the development of its drug discovery platform.I earned my PhD in Genome Sciences at the University of Washington in Jay Shendure’s lab, where I was an early developer of CRISPR-based genome engineering and single-cell RNA-seq approaches to functionally test thousands of genetic elements per experiment.Before graduate school, I spent four years building expertise in human genetics as a research associate in Mary-Claire King’s lab at the University of Washington and Lou Kunkel’s lab at Harvard Medical School.

Experience

1. Scientific Consultant

   Variant Bio

   May 2023 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

Education

• University of Washington

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Molecular Biology (Human Genetics Focus)

  2008 — 2012

• University of Washington

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Genome Sciences/Genomics

Skills

• Molecular Biology
• Cell Culture
• Biochemistry
• Science
• Tissue Culture
• Machine Learning
• Research
• Western Blotting
• Pcr
• Transfection
• Laboratory