William Lenh

Work History

Stealth-Stage Biotech Startup

03.2022 - 12.2023

Successfully conducted a directed evolution campaign using the PANCE(phage-assisted non-continuous evolution) technology to evolve a protease to cleave a therapeutic target
Constructed and implemented two separate arms of the evolution platform: one to increase the desired enzymatic activity and another to eliminate off-circuit activity
Developed and established a PCR detection based system for unwarranted phage-display contaminates for the evolution platform
Conducted luciferase screens to identify viable proteases/protease substrates for the system and evolution starting points
Pioneered and implemented a directed evolution logic/decision tree system to cut timelines by 3-4 months
Cloned expression vector, substrate, and accessory plasmid libraries required for the evolutions via USER assembly cloning
Gathered, arranged, and corrected research data to create representative graphs and charts highlighting results for presentations for managers/other departments
Worked with other departments to conduct experiments and hand off research materials
Organized chemical/consumable inventory and maintained facilities.
Recorded results in both a master excel spreadsheet and an ELN(benchling)

Fog Pharma

09.2021 - 03.2022

Constructed focus and naive phage display libraries to discover peptides that have the ability to bind to key cancer targets such as KRAS, MDM2 and CHIP.
Developed cloning methods for the modification of PVIII protein of M13 phage to investigate the viability of phage and how eliminating negative charges on the n-terminus can reduce background noise on phage screens

NanoView Biosciences

03.2021 - 06.2021

Maintained laboratory equipment, reagents, buffers, consumables and certifications
Conducted and plan experiments for assay development under the guidance of the senior scientist
Hosted meetings within the company to share data from conducted experiments

Rosbash Lab

10.2017 - 05.2020

Investigated the molecular and neural mechanisms behind temperature compensation of circadian rhythms on Drosophila melanogaster and the role of Doubletime (DBT) in temperature compensation
Created transgenic constructs using methods of CRISPR-Cas9, site-directed mutagenesis, Gibson Assembly, PCR, transformation, and mini/midiprep.
Performed immunostaining, confocal microscopy, dissection of brains, DNA extraction/purification, and behavior experiments on Drosophila melanogaster
Designed luciferase reporter systems to analyze mRNA levels of specific gene products in specific neurons in Drosophila melanogaster
Communicated results of research daily with supervisor, hosted group meetings, and presented posters at Scifest 2018 and 2019 and 2019 Watch:City Science & Technology Forum