Translational Development Externship: Commercializing Bioinformatics and RNA Modifications

Mentor(s)

Company Overview

We are commercializing a patented next generation sequencing library preparation (MSR-seq) that simultaneously measures all small non-coding RNAs including abundance, charging, fragmentation and epitransciptomic modifications.  When combined with our proprietary bioinformatics pipeline we enable the study of these biologically relevant molecules for their function in biological pathways and applied fields such diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.  We reduce multiple experiments into a single library preparation and reduce the amount of technical knowledge required to interpret very large data sets.

Externship Description

Are you a PhD or Postdoc in chemistry or biology interested in entrepreneurship and seeing how a life science tools company works to commercialize? In this externship you will learn how to identify customers, modify our products to fit customers specific needs, and prepare the company for future opportunities.  As a small company you will have much more exposure to all aspects of a business compared to working for a larger company

You will

• Learn how we link public domain information into our proprietary analysis software.
• Gain insight into the questions that our customers are asking and how our tools answer their specific questions
• Meet regularly with the team and CEO or Head of R&D

Specific Activities

As we expand our commercialization efforts, we need to have a broader understanding of the existing scientific literature.  This would be a two-pronged approach:

• Reviewing current literature on the tRNA modifications, fragments by specific location with a link to other methods especially mass spec. These modifications would also be cross referenced to links to diseases of high medical interest.
• Review the currently available pharma diseases of interest and pathway they are exploring. This information would be linked with the information in bullet above.
• If time allowed the intern would be welcome to build a MSR-seq library.

Specific Deliverables: There would be two deliverables expected.  The first would be weekly status updates presented to the MesoRNA team.  A final larger report or presentation would be made which synthesizes the research.  In addition the finding on modification per location would be put into the MesoRNA database on modifications for inclusion in our bioinformatics analysis.

Qualifications

• PhD student or postdoctoral associate, preferably with a chemistry or biology background and interest in entrepreneurship.