Silvana Konermann

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Silvana Konermann
Born (1988-05-18) May 18, 1988 (age 36)
Baden, Switzerland
Education
Spouse Patrick Collison
Scientific career
Fields Bioengineering, Neuroscience
Institutions Stanford University, Arc Institute
Thesis Interrogation and control of mammalian transcription  (2016)
Doctoral advisor Feng Zhang

Silvana Konermann is a Swiss-American bioengineer and neuroscientist whose research focuses on CRISPR, genome engineering, transcription and epigenetics, and Alzheimer's disease. She is an assistant professor of biochemistry at Stanford University, as well as co-founder and executive director of the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California.

Contents

Life and work

Konermann attended the prestigious Sächsisches Landesgymnasium Sankt Afra zu Meißen in Saxony, Germany, before matriculating in 2006 at ETH Zurich, where she completed her bachelor of science degree in neurobiology in three years.

She then moved to the United States and worked in the lab of Carlos Lois before entering the doctoral program in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving her Ph.D. in 2016 working in Feng Zhang's group. Since 2017, she has been an HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) Hanna H. Gray Fellow. She has also been a CZ Biohub Investigator and a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, Berkeley working with Patrick Hsu. In 2019, she joined Stanford as an assistant professor. [1]

Konermann's research uses genome engineering technologies to investigate the genetic and molecular drivers of Alzheimer’s disease risk.

21546 Konermann, a minor planet, was named after her, in honor of her 2006 second-place finish in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. At that time she was a senior at Sankt Afra in Meissen, Germany. [2]

In June 2022, Konermann married Irish tech billionaire Patrick Collison, the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, with whom she co-founded Fast Grants and later the Arc Institute. [3] Konermann met Collison during the 2004 EU Young Scientist competition. [3] [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Collison</span> Irish entrepreneur (born 1988)

Patrick Collison is an Irish entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, which he started with his younger brother, John, in 2010. He won the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005 at the age of sixteen. In 2020, he founded Fast Grants to accelerate COVID-19-related science with Tyler Cowen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph DeRisi</span> American biochemist

Joseph Lyman DeRisi is an American biochemist, specializing in molecular biology, parasitology, genomics, virology, and computational biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Bjorkman</span> American biochemist

Pamela Jane Bjorkman NAS, AAAS is an American biochemist and molecular biologist. She is the David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her research centers on the study of the three-dimensional structures of proteins related to Class I MHC, or Major Histocompatibility Complex, proteins of the immune system, and proteins involved in the immune responses to viruses. Bjorkman's goal is to improve current therapeutic applications. Bjorkman is most well known as a pioneer in the field of structural biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Gelsinger</span> American businessman (born 1961)

Patrick Paul Gelsinger is an American business executive and engineer, and CEO of Intel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan R. Wessler</span> American biologist

Susan Randi Wessler, ForMemRS, is an American plant molecular biologist and geneticist. She is Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolyn Bertozzi</span> American chemist (born 1966)

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Petsko</span> American biochemist and academic

Gregory A. Petsko is an American biochemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is currently Professor of Neurology at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He formerly had an endowed professorship in Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and is still an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, and is also the Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor, Emeritus, in biochemistry and chemistry at Brandeis University. On October 24, 2023, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Joe Biden presented Gregory Petsko and eight others with the National Medal of Science, the highest honor the United States can bestow on a scientist and engineer.

Barbara J. Meyer is a biologist and genetist, noted for her pioneering research on lambda phage, a virus that infects bacteria; discovery of the master control gene involved in sex determination; and studies of gene regulation, particularly dosage compensation. Meyer's work has revealed mechanisms of sex determination and dosage compensation—that balance X-chromosome gene expression between the sexes in Caenorhabditis elegans that continue to serve as the foundation of diverse areas of study on chromosome structure and function today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxine Singer</span> American biologist

Maxine Frank Singer is an American molecular biologist and science administrator. She is known for her contributions to solving the genetic code, her role in the ethical and regulatory debates on recombinant DNA techniques, and her leadership of Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.

Julie A. Theriot is a cell biologist, who studies the molecular mechanics and dynamics of cell movement and organization. Her work spans many fields from microbiology to biophysics, and lab studies eukaryotic cell motility as well as the hijacking of the cytoskeleton by intracellular parasites like listeria. She has also published work that describes the mechanisms of Galvanotaxis in vertebrate cells. She is a professor at the University of Washington, Department of Biology, a continuing Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, and Chief Scientist at the Allen Institute for Cell Science. She was previously a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and before that, she was a Predoctoral Fellow and Investigator at HHMI. She was also a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Smith</span> American engineer

Megan J. Smith is an American engineer and technologist. She was the third Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development and early-stage partnerships across Google's global engineering and product teams at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org, a vice president briefly at Google[x] where she co-created WomenTechmakers, is the former CEO of Planet Out and worked as an engineer on early smartphones at General Magic. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, was a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. Today Smith is the CEO and Founder of shift7. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until January, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Doudna</span> American biochemist and Nobel laureate (born 1964)

Jennifer Anne Doudna is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a Nobel in the sciences. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing." She is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin K. O'Shea</span> American biologist

Erin K. O'Shea is an American biologist who is president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In 2013, she was named HHMI's vice president and chief scientific officer. Prior to that, she was a professor of molecular and cellular biology and chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. In 2016, her appointment as future, and first woman, president of HHMI was announced. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator since 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feng Zhang</span> Chinese–American biochemist

Feng Zhang is a Chinese–American biochemist. Zhang currently holds the James and Patricia Poitras Professorship in Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has appointments with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is most well known for his central role in the development of optogenetics and CRISPR technologies.

Dominique C. Bergmann is a plant scientist with a specific focus on developmental biology and plant biology. Correspondingly, she is a professor of Biology at Stanford University and is in association with the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Additionally, Bergmann is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Catherine (Cathy) Drennan is an American biochemist and crystallographer. She is the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Biochemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Xiaole Shirley Liu (刘小乐) is computational biologist, cancer researcher, and entrepreneur. She has been a Professor in the Department of Data Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is now the co-founder and CEO of GV20 Therapeutics.

Molly Schumer is an American scientist who studies evolution, hybridization, and population genetics. She is an assistant professor of biology at Stanford University. She is a member of Stanford Bio-X and a Hannah H. Grey Fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Manyika</span> Zimbabwean-American consultant, researcher and writer

James M. Manyika is a Zimbabwean-American academic, consultant, and business executive. He is known for his research and scholarship into the intersection of technology and the economy, including artificial intelligence, robotics automation, and the future of work. He is Google's first Senior Vice President of Technology and Society, reporting directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. He focuses on "shaping and sharing" the company's view on the way tech affects society, the economy, and the planet. In April 2023, his role was expanded to Senior Vice President for Research, Technology & Society and includes overseeing Google Research and Google Labs and focusing more broadly on helping advance Google’s most ambitious innovations in AI, Computing and Science responsibly. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute.

Christopher O. Barnes is an American chemist who is an assistant professor at Stanford University. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he studied the structure of the coronavirus spike protein and the antibodies that attack them. He was named one of ten "Scientists to watch" by Science News in 2022.

References

    • "Silvana Konermann". Stanford Biochemistry.
    • "Arc Institute". arcinstitute.org.
    • Thompson, Derek (20 January 2022). "Silicon Valley's New Obsession". The Atlantic .
    • "HHMI Selects 15 Hanna Gray Fellows to Support Diversity in Science". hhmi.org.
  1. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2012). "21546 Konermann". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (6th ed.). Springer. p. 1020. ISBN   9783642297182.
  2. 1 2 Butler, Roisin (29 June 2022). "Inside Stripe CEO Patrick Collison's family life as he weds childhood sweetheart". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  3. "Backed by tech entrepreneurs, Arc Institute adds to its scientific ranks". www.bizjournals.com. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  4. Piper, Kelsey (21 April 2020). "This new charity offers scientists coronavirus grants in 48 hours". Vox.