David Schaffer is the Hubbard Howe Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and he also serves as Director of QB3 and Bakar Labs. He completed his B.S. in chemical engineering at Stanford University in 1993, his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT in 1998, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1999 before joining Berkeley in 1999. There, he applies engineering principles to optimize gene and stem cell therapies, work that includes developing the concept of applying directed evolution to engineer targeted and efficient viral gene therapy vectors as well as new technologies to investigate and control stem cell function. He has published >250 papers, has advised >90 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, is an inventor on >50 issued patents, and developed technologies that are being used in 9 human clinical trials. In addition, he has co-founded eight companies, including 4D Molecular Therapeutics (NASDAQ FDMT), Ignite Immunotherapies (acquired by Pfizer) and Rewrite (acquired by Intellia). Finally, he has received recognitions including the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Inventors, Andreas Acrivos Professional Progress Award, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award, the American Chemical Society Marvin Johnson Award, the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Shaffer Young Investigator Award, and others.

Lise Barbé is the Grants Coordinator at QB3 and leads the conceptualization and fundraising for collaborative projects across the three QB3 campuses; UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UCSF. Her goal is to unite researchers with complementary skills to enable ground breaking research that is far beyond what any one laboratory can do. Lise gained experience in grant writing as a Staff Scientist at Gladstone Institutes, earned a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Free University of Brussels, and has over a decade of experience in stem cell research, neuroscience and disease modeling.

Katarina has spent over a decade working in bioengineering labs across the world in both academia and industry. Through these experiences, she built a strong understanding of engineering and biology. Most recently, Katarina completed her doctorate from Stanford University, where she worked at the crossroads of stem cell biology and engineering. During her doctoral work, Katarina joined a biotech venture team. While there, Katarina operated as a core team member, where she advised early-stage founders in the portfolio, landscaped market trends, and performed due diligence on potential investment opportunities. Katarina is deeply passionate about translating ongoing research to viable technologies that can make a major impact on patient lives and the planet. 

Kaspar Mossman is managing director at QB3. He plays a central role in QB3 strategy and manages its early-stage entrepreneurship support including the precommercial mentorship program, SBIR workshop, FTO program and Startup in a Box. He also leads marketing & communications at QB3 and Bakar Labs. Previously, he worked on the media staff at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and held an AAAS mass media fellowship at Scientific American. He earned a PhD in biophysics from UC Berkeley.

Noem has been working in biology and biotechnology at Berkeley for 18 years and overall at UC for 24 years, including biological research, lab operations, and company startup. Through her work at QB3, she runs several programs to help the 35 startup biotechnology companies at Bakar Labs, the largest university owned and operated biotech incubator in the country. In addition, she has co-founded two companies that are advancing gene and cell therapies to the clinic. She has since provided the companies extensive operational support, including professional development, HR, finance, and lab operations.

Erica Yab is Program and Events Specialist at QB3. She plans and ensures the execution of events and assists with administrative work. Erica graduated with honors from San Jose State University, where she majored in Communications and minored in Economics. Previously, Erica worked at Sarika Music School as an Event Planner in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. There, she helped to execute the soft opening event and various promotional events.

Sanjay Kumar, MD, PhD, is Chancellor’s Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley. He holds joint appointments in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 1996, Kumar earned his BS in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota, and in 2003, he earned his MD and PhD in molecular biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. He then completed postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 2005 and chaired the Department of Bioengineering from 2019-2022. Kumar’s research program focuses on understanding and engineering cell mechanobiology and cell-biomaterial interfaces, particularly in the context of brain cancer and stem cell technology.

Dr. Krogan received an undergraduate degree in chemistry and an MSc in biology from the University of Regina, and a Ph.D. in medical genetics from the University of Toronto. He came to UC San Francisco as a Sandler Fellow in 2006 and started as a faculty member the following year. In 2011, he became an investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, and in 2016 he was appointed director of QBI, which is part of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. He has joint UCSF appointments in the School of Medicine’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences. In 2022, Dr. Krogan was awarded the highest honor in France, the Legion of Honor, which was bestowed for his leadership in forming international research collaboration across academic and industry organizations around the world and for their significant scientific contributions utilizing a novel methodology of identifying the viral modifications of human proteins that fueled SARS-CoV-2 pathology to identify potential treatments against COVID-19.

Richard E. Green (Ed) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1972. He graduated from the University of Georgia (B.Sc. Genetics) in 1997. Ed was a Peace Corps Volunteer (Barentu, Eritrea) in 1997-98. Ed studied with Steven Brenner at the University of California, Berkeley where he got his PhD in 2005 on computational algorithms for sequence analysis and alternative splicing. As an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Ed pioneered the use of high-throughput sequencing in ancient DNA. He was first author of the paper in Science describing the Neanderthal genome which won the Newcombe-Cleveland prize. As Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Ed co-directs the UCSC Paleogenomics lab. His research focuses on comparative genomics, population genetics, and DNA technology development. Ed is co-founder of Dovetail Genomics, Claret Biosciences, and Astrea Forensics. He is a Kavli Scholar, a Searle Scholar, and a Sloan Scholar, author of more than 100 research manuscripts and 12 US patents.