Semiconductor circuits were once laid out manually, with scalpels and stencils being the primary tools to pattern silicon with photolithography.
The future will be
genetically engineered
Engineered biology will be the most important technology of the 21st century. We empower the genetic designers who are building the future.
History
Computer-aided design has transformed our world
Every engineering discipline has been revolutionized by computer-aided design in the past 50 years.
We’re building the first CAD platform for biology
By applying abstraction, standardization, characterization, and modeling to biology, we aim to transition genetic engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline.
roadmap
Our story so far
As genetic designers, we started Asimov to build the tools we always wanted.
01
Roots in the Voigt and Densmore labs
Our company's story begins in the labs of our co-founders, Chris Voigt (MIT) and Doug Densmore (Boston University). Over the course of a multi-year collaboration, Chris and Doug worked to build the foundations of genetic logic circuit design to program living cells. Alec Nielsen, Asimov's co-founder and CEO, joined the Voigt lab as a PhD student during this time.
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02
Cello for genetic circuit design
In 2016, Chris, Doug, Alec, and collaborators at NIST released Cello, a platform for automated genetic circuit design. Cello was made possible through extensively-engineered modular genetic logic gates, standardized host cells, and software for algorithmic design and simulation.
03
Asimov founded to tackle genetic design
In 2017, Chris, Doug, Alec, and Raja Srinivas founded Asimov, receiving early backing from Andreessen Horowitz and DARPA. Our approach stems from the same philosophy used for Cello – integrate state-of-the-art synthetic biology in the lab with computational tools.
our values
Ours is a culture of recombination
Recombination
Genetic engineering recombines genes from different species into new systems. At Asimov, we're working toward an ambitious mission that will only be possible by recombining disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Mission first
Our prime directive is to radically advance humanity’s ability to design living systems, enabling biological technologies with outsized societal benefit. Every decision flows from this mission.
Continuous learning
Biotech is advancing rapidly – we’re surfing that wave and also helping drive it forward. A curiosity to learn new things and an ability to teach other team members is critical to living at the cutting edge.
Thoughtful communication
Our team comes from varied technical domains; we constantly strive to consider people's backgrounds, tailoring our communication to maximize understanding and alignment.
Evolution
As we grow, we’re unafraid to evolve, adapt, and improve all aspects of our company's technology, products, and operations. We must avoid getting trapped in a local optimum.
Urgency
Time is of the essence to deliver on our mission. We channel this pressure into a superpower that lets us make decisions quickly, prioritize with purpose, and operate with a sense of urgency.
Our team
Meet our people
Julie Andriolo
VP Finance
Xander Balwit
Asimov Press
Nathaniel Braffman
Scientist II
Adam Carcella
Scientist
Arturo Casini
Senior Scientist, Team Lead
Michelle Chang
Senior Synthetic Biologist
Gong Cheng
Head of Analytical Sciences
HaeWon Chung
Senior Synthetic Biologist
Evan Cofer
Computational Biologist
Joe Collins
Scientist II
Jorge Conde
Board Member, a16z
Lucas Corley
Senior Software Engineer
Martín Cárcamo
Senior Director Commercial Product Strategy
Douglas Densmore
Co-Founder
Manali Desai
Research Associate II
Kate Dray
Computational Biologist II
Omar El-Ghouch
Business Development Associate
Amanda Embree
Senior Automation Engineer
Nick Emery
Software Engineer II
Scott Estes
Head of Cell Line Development
Alina Ferdman
Senior Software Engineer
Jamie Freeman
Vice President, Business Development
Prarthana Gadekar
Lab Equipment Maintenance Tech
Jeremy Gam
Principal Synthetic Biologist
Imroz Ghangas
Senior Director of Business Development
Akash Gopaluni
Scientist I
Ben Gordon
Chief Innovation Officer
Julie Hachey
Senior Scientist, Team Lead
Traci Haddock
Director of Community
Woo Han
Associate Software Engineer
Emily Hickman
Research Associate II
Brianna Jayanthi
Senior Synthetic Biologist
Will Johnson
Head of Process Modeling
Aida Kalantari
Technical Program Manager
Ravi Kommajosyula
Senior Computational Scientist
Ally Kotopoulos
Associate Scientist
Thibault Laurent
Strategic Alliance Director
Kevin LeShane
Head of Software Design
David Lei
Senior Associate Scientist
Michael Leonard
Synthetic Biologist
Ao Liu
Scientist
Devon Mars
Staff Software Engineer
Niko McCarty
Head of Creative
Paul McCracken
Board Member, CPPIB
Jeff McMahan
Senior Synthetic Biologist
Han Mei
Scientist II
Anaïs Moisy
Lead User Experience Designer
Kevin Muszynski
Associate Scientist II
Wendy Ni
Senior Research Associate
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Alec Nielsen
Co-founder & CEO
Casey O'Connor
Associate Scientist II
Jaclyn Ostrowski
Head of Quality
Katelin Pratt
Associate Scientist
Anna Prendeville
Scientist I
Ashwin Rajput
Head of Partnerships
Stephany Ramos
Scientist II
Felicity Rudge
Director of Commercial Operations
Vinicius Schettino
Senior Software Engineer
Yash Shah
Product Manager
Alexis Sloane
People Operations and Talent Acquisition Manager
Kevin Smith
Vice President of Cell Technologies
Samuel Smith
Research Associate II
Jordan Sorensen
Technical Lead Manager
Raja Srinivas
Co-founder
Christopher Stach
Senior Synthetic Biologist
Mark Stockdale
Strategic Alliance Senior Director
Chris Thorne
Director of Marketing
Georgian Tutuianu
Software Engineer
Christopher Voigt
Co-Founder
Steve Von Stetina
Senior Scientist
Rob Walsh
Associate Scientist
Jenny Won
Senior Research Associate
Lila Wroblewska
Director of Synthetic Biology
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Niko Zeh
Senior Scientist
Andy Zinsser
Technical Lead Manager
