About
Vikram's been working a wet lab since middle school, In high school, he designed and ran experiments that led to recognition as an Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Life Sciences and Management dual degree program with a bachelor’s from Wharton with dual concentrations in finance and healthcare management, and a bachelor’s in biology with honors. His undergrad research experience ranged from high throughput CRISPR knockout screening in iPSCs to studying lncRNAs in Arabidopsis. At college, he founded Etcetera Bio, Here, he designed an automated nano-injection system to precisely deliver genetic payloads of arbitrary size into cell nuclei using Carbon Nanopipettes. The vision was to enable engineering of highly sophisticated cell therapies with genetic logic and safety switches. He funded R&D with a small amount of dilutive funding from Pear VC and grant funding from various sources including Y Combinator’s Startup School Grant. Through this startup, he found his way to Biotech Without Borders, the community bio movement, and ultimately CCL. After winding down his startup early in the pandemic, he gained an interest in tackling agricultural and environmental challenges with synthetic biology. His work with Luteolin pigments and Mogroside sweeteners progressed to the point of receiving LOIs from potential commercial partners including a fortune 500 company. Now, by day he’s self-taught software engineer at a clinical trials startup, and by night he’s a citizen scientist and a board member at CCL, the community lab where this project is based.
Joined
June 2023
