Li has a PhD in Applied Physics from Dr David Weitz’s lab at Harvard University focusing on single cell analysis. Prior to founding ShennonBio, Li spent 5 years as a deep VC, first starting at Bessemer Venture Partners, later as a Partner at Foundation Capital, evaluating startups that employ technology innovations to solve critical global scale problems. She is passionate about inventing technologies that transform human life and turning those technologies into products that have a lasting positive impact on the world. Li also has a M.Eng in Materials Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Business from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Li loves the outdoors and enjoys hiking, painting, and gardening. Li once built a rooftop vegetable garden back in Boston. 

Kaveh has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.Sc in Materials Science from UC Berkeley. He has over a decade of experience in building life science tools. Prior to ShennonBio, Kaveh started and ran two companies in the space. Kaveh initially did the diligence on ShennonBio for one of our investors, before becoming an advisor, later CTO of the company. Kaveh loves building stuff and owns over five 3D printers in his apartment in San Francisco. 

Ian has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and B.A.Sc.in Nanotechnology Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In his Ph.D. work, Ian designed and fabricated microfluidic devices to simulate nano-bio interactions for cancer research. Prior to ShennonBio, Ian worked at Luna Nanotech while designing a COVID-19 diagnostic assay with the government of Canada as part of Canada’s Pandemic Response Challenge. Ian enjoys taking microscopy pictures of biological structures that he fabricates, and one of these images was briefly featured at the French Embassy to Canada. He also enjoys writing science fiction stories, two of which were featured in Medgadget’s Science Fiction Writing Competition.

Kaitao graduated from the joint Georgia Tech & Emory University Biomedical Engineering PhD program and worked at Georgia Tech as a research faculty before joining ShennonBio. Kaitao’s research was mainly focused on two arms of T cell biology: T-cell antigen recognition and its regulation by cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic mechanisms, as well as the biology of immune checkpoint molecule PD-1. Kaitao enjoys hiking and classical music in his spare time.

Prior to joining ShennonBio, Michael did his PhD in Bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania focusing on the multi-dimensional profiling of immune cells through the lens of the immune repertoire. Prior to that, he finished his Bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at UC Santa Cruz where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Michael also brings a wealth of knowledge in NGS based assays. Michael believes in high throughput approaches to unlock the immune system's potential to fight against cancer and was drawn to Shennon for this reason. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, biking, playing retro video games and writing music.

Olga obtained her Ph.D. from Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA, receiving co-mentorship from Dr. Owen Witte and Dr. Thomas Graeber. She has a decade of research experience in cancer biology and is passionate about developing cancer therapies. Her thesis focused on incorporating transcriptional multi-omics and single cell sequencing to understand advanced prostate cancer progression. During her postdoc, she worked on developing TCR immunotherapy against prostate cancer. In her free time, she enjoys doing hot yoga, pilates, traveling, trying new restaurants and coffee shops, as well as everything about her dog, Remy.

Nicole graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor's in Bioengineering and from the University of Tokyo with a Master's in Materials Engineering. During her time at Berkeley, she worked with heart-on-a-chip microfluidic devices as well as tardigrades and their cold-resistant proteins, and spent her free time in the marching band. For her Master's she focused on self-oscillating gels and changing the anisotropy of their oscillation. Nicole joined Shennon right after graduation and now works on optimizing the platform with the engineering team. She enjoys video games, board games, desserts, and cardio kickboxing in her free time.

Naomi has a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin - Madison. During her undergrad, she gained research and lab operations experience in an academic lab focused on elucidating mitochondrial protein mechanisms. Since graduating, she has worked in public health, wine fermentation, and recruiting for small biotech startups. As the operations manager at Shennon, Naomi brings her ‘jack of all trades’ mindset to help with general lab operations, recruiting, and mammalian cell culture. In her spare time, she enjoys trying new restaurants, drinking good California wine, and spending time outdoors hiking and skiing.

Chang has a B. A. in Molecular and Cell Biology and B. A. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. As an undergraduate, he worked in a immunometabolism lab at UCSF focusing on how glucose metabolism affects T cell response in inflammatory disease. Prior to joining Shennon, he worked as a Research Associate in a lab at UCSF focused on preclinical and translational CAR T cell validation using CRISPR site specific HDR integration. In his spare time, Chang enjoys surfing, the beach, and long road trips.

Sonali (Soni) has a B.S. in biomedical engineering from University of Southern California. During her undergraduate years, she worked in two research laboratories: one focusing on nanoparticle treatment for atherosclerosis and the other on CAR T cell therapy using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to control inducible tumor antigen expression. Soni now works with the immunology team at Shennon, supporting scientists in various experiments, including T cell isolation and engineering. In her free time, Soni enjoys trying new boba tea spots, going on walks with her dog, and playing soccer with friends.