Leo D'espaux
Director, RNA Biology & Optimization
Emeryville, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolLeo D'espaux is a molecular engineering leader with a decade of experience at the intersection of genome engineering, RNA biology, and cell engineering, currently directing RNA Biology & Optimization at Metagenomi. He has built and led teams translating CRISPR/gRNA and mRNA engineering into high-throughput platforms for improved genome editing, and previously launched nucleic acid and stem-cell engineering programs in therapeutic startups. His background spans academic synthetic biology (Caltech, Berkeley/Keasling lab, Smolke lab) and hands-on process development for clinical cell therapies, giving him rare depth across discovery, scale-up, and IP-driven productization. Notably, he was the first employee at a microbial-production startup where he developed foundational IP to overcome a key biosynthetic bottleneck in yeast. Based in the Bay Area, he combines deep RNA design expertise with a track record of mentoring teams and pushing lab-scale innovations toward commercial and clinical impact.
10 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
California Institute of TechnologyB.S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, B.S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University
Spanish, Portuguese
Github Skills (1)
react3
Programming languages (1)
Github contributions (5)
Leodespaux/CASdesigner
Mar 2016 - Sep 2017
Contributions:6 pushes, 1 branch in 1 year 5 months
Leodespaux/SynBioCADbeta
Jan 2016 - Feb 2016
Contributions:24 pushes, 1 branch in 1 month
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