Founder & CEO of ColorSpace Bio
I am working to enable straightforward, bright cell type labeling and mapping on standard fluorescence microscopes, drawing on my background in the development and commercialization of spatial biology technologies. This cell type mapping underpins how researchers study disease and how clinicians increasingly decide how to treat it. Through CoMotion’s Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program, I am turning this work into ColorSpace Bio.
I entered the emerging field of spatial biology a decade ago at the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School, where I worked on the development of fluorescence in situ sequencing (FISSEQ). When the technology was spun out into ReadCoor, Inc., I joined the new company, helped build its research and development team, and worked to turn academic chemistry into commercial reagent kits. ReadCoor was acquired by 10x Genomics in 2020.
During my graduate work with Brian Beliveau here at UW, I developed software tools and a molecular probe platform that enables high-fidelity cell type labeling, along with wet-lab chemistries that make labeling brighter and able to target more cell types at once. Through customer discovery interviews, I have found a consistent unmet need among researchers: a straightforward way to brightly label their target cell types without new instrumentation.
In 2023 I took part in the inaugural Nucleate Seattle Activator program, where my team won the Main Activator Prize. Since then, I have worked with CoMotion through several of their commercialization training programs, including NSF I-Corps, Pitch Mastery, Plan to Launch, and the Innovation Gap Fund, which have provided critical education, mentorship, and commercialization funding, and have helped shape and support the ColorSpace vision. Having completed my PhD in the Genome Sciences program at UW, I am now focused on turning this technology into reproducible, scalable kits and placing them with pilot partners.
For the researchers and clinicians who need to label cell types in tissue, the cost and complexity of spatial biology technologies present major barriers to adoption. By enabling simple and bright cell type labeling on the equipment they already own, ColorSpace Bio will bring spatial biology within reach of these researchers and help drive it toward the clinic, where it can benefit patients.