Our team consists of world-class computer scientists, bioinformatics experts, software engineers and industry veterans from some of the best institutions.
Our team consists of world-class computer scientists, bioinformatics experts, software engineers and industry veterans from some of the best institutions.
Technical Team
Steven Banerjee
Founder & CEO
Steven founded NExTNet with the vision of bringing an Explainable version of Artificial Intelligence to the biologists and scientists who are at the forefront of drug discovery and development. Prior to that, he founded and led Mekonos, a pre-Series B biotechnology company in Silicon Valley, pioneering cell engineering and gene editing platforms. Steven graduated with mechanical engineering degree from the University of Canterbury and did cutting-edge research at the University of California, Berkeley. Steven's work has received media attention within the US, Europe, New Zealand, Japan and China. He also serves as an Advisor to multiple promising startups in the Valley.
Pavan Holur
CTO
Pavan Holur is a computer scientist who is finishing his graduate research at UCLA having received prestigious fellowships from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He earned his BS and MS from UCLA as well. Pavan has co-authored highly-cited and widely publicized work in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning and Graph Representation Learning in top journals and venues. He loves music of most types and chess.
Tyler Myers
VP of Bioinformatics
Tyler is a bioengineer to the core and has a combination of wet lab and dry lab expertise at several startups and in academia. He is finishing his PhD in bioengineering from UC San Diego having received prestigious fellowships. Tyler came into undergrad as a music and Electrical Engineering double major and graduated with a BS in bioengineering. As a native Californian, he is big fan of downhill skiing, cross country skiing, and hiking.
Derek Park, PhD
Chief Bioinformatics Scientist
Dr. Derek Park is a computational biologist with varied interests. His research focus was on mathematical, computational, and machine learning methods for improving cancer chemotherapy. This was the focus of his doctoral work at the University of Oxford, funded through a Marshall Scholarship, and for part of his undergraduate work at Yale University. His scholarly work has been featured on the cover of Cancer Research, and has also been published in PLoS Computational Biology and other journals. He has worked in various areas in medicine, biotech, and the defense sector. All of that has shown him the importance of gaining a comprehensive understanding of a subject, and drives his determination to make NExTNet's Sapiens the tool for these key insights.
Daniel Goodman, PhD
Bioinformatics
Dr. Daniel B. Goodman is a synthetic biologist who specializes in the high-throughput computational design and engineering of bacterial and mammalian genomes. He completed his PhD at the Harvard-MIT HST program in the lab of Prof. George Church. His work has been featured in journals including Science, Cell, PNAS, Nature Biotechnology, and Genome Research. Dan is currently Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is developing new multiplexed genome editing and measurement technologies to engineer primary human immune cells to treat disease.
Emmanuel Alofe
Software Engineer
Emmanuel Alofe is a software developer with a BSc in Honor’s Science and a minor in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, who’s very passionate about solving problems. When not writing code (or debugging it), he regularly exercises, trains in Muay Thai, and enjoys reading.
Matt Fan
Software Engineer
Matt Fan is a software engineer and architect finishing his math and computer science degrees at UCLA. When not working, he enjoys cooking, baking, language learning, and spending time with friends and loved ones.
Brandon Hsu
Software Engineer
Brandon Hsu is a software engineer and architect working toward a Bachelors in Computer Science at UCLA. He brings experience in a breadth of topics from data science to bioinformatics and his deep expertise in full stack development.
Steven Banerjee
Founder & CEO
Steven founded NExTNet with the vision of bringing an Explainable version of Artificial Intelligence to the biologists and scientists who are at the forefront of drug discovery and development. Prior to that, he founded and led Mekonos, a pre-Series B biotechnology company in Silicon Valley, pioneering cell engineering and gene editing platforms. Steven graduated with mechanical engineering degree from the University of Canterbury and did cutting-edge research at the University of California, Berkeley. Steven's work has received media attention within the US, Europe, New Zealand, Japan and China. He also serves as an Advisor to multiple promising startups in the Valley.
Pavan Holur
CTO
Pavan Holur is a computer scientist who is finishing his graduate research at UCLA having received prestigious fellowships from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He earned his BS and MS from UCLA as well. Pavan has co-authored highly-cited and widely publicized work in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning and Graph Representation Learning in top journals and venues. He loves music of most types and chess.
Tyler Myers
VP of Bioinformatics
Tyler is a bioengineer to the core and has a combination of wet lab and dry lab expertise at several startups and in academia. He is finishing his PhD in bioengineering from UC San Diego having received prestigious fellowships. Tyler came into undergrad as a music and Electrical Engineering double major and graduated with a BS in bioengineering. As a native Californian, he is big fan of downhill skiing, cross country skiing, and hiking.
Derek Park, PhD
Chief Bioinformatics Scientist
Dr. Derek Park is a computational biologist with varied interests. His research focus was on mathematical, computational, and machine learning methods for improving cancer chemotherapy. This was the focus of his doctoral work at the University of Oxford, funded through a Marshall Scholarship, and for part of his undergraduate work at Yale University. His scholarly work has been featured on the cover of Cancer Research, and has also been published in PLoS Computational Biology and other journals. He has worked in various areas in medicine, biotech, and the defense sector. All of that has shown him the importance of gaining a comprehensive understanding of a subject, and drives his determination to make NExTNet's Sapiens the tool for these key insights.
Daniel Goodman, PhD
Bioinformatics
Dr. Daniel B. Goodman is a synthetic biologist who specializes in the high-throughput computational design and engineering of bacterial and mammalian genomes. He completed his PhD at the Harvard-MIT HST program in the lab of Prof. George Church. His work has been featured in journals including Science, Cell, PNAS, Nature Biotechnology, and Genome Research. Dan is currently Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is developing new multiplexed genome editing and measurement technologies to engineer primary human immune cells to treat disease.
Emmanuel Alofe
Software Engineer
Emmanuel Alofe is a software developer with a BSc in Honor’s Science and a minor in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, who’s very passionate about solving problems. When not writing code (or debugging it), he regularly exercises, trains in Muay Thai, and enjoys reading.
Matt Fan
Software Engineer
Matt Fan is a software engineer and architect finishing his math and computer science degrees at UCLA. When not working, he enjoys cooking, baking, language learning, and spending time with friends and loved ones.
Brandon Hsu
Software Engineer
Brandon Hsu is a software engineer and architect working toward a Bachelors in Computer Science at UCLA. He brings experience in a breadth of topics from data science to bioinformatics and his deep expertise in full stack development.
Board, Corporate & Advisors
Steven Banerjee
Founder & CEO
Steven founded NExTNet with the vision of bringing an Explainable version of Artificial Intelligence to the biologists and scientists who are at the forefront of drug discovery and development. Prior to that, he founded and led Mekonos, a pre-Series B biotechnology company in Silicon Valley, pioneering cell engineering and gene editing platforms. Steven graduated with mechanical engineering degree from the University of Canterbury and did cutting-edge research at the University of California, Berkeley. Steven's work has received media attention within the US, Europe, New Zealand, Japan and China. He also serves as an Advisor to multiple promising startups in the Valley.
Laura Oliphant,PhD
Independent Board Member
Dr. Laura Oliphant is an experienced CEO, Board Member, and Investor. She was an Investment Director in Intel Capital from 2001 until her retirement from Intel in 2016. During her career in venture capital, she brought over $1B in strategic and financial value to Intel through her investments and was awarded Intel’s highest award, the Intel Achievement Award, for her contributions to Intel. She is on the Board of multiple public and private semiconductor companies. Laura received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where her thesis research was centered on candidate batteries for electric cars.
Manish Singhal, MD
Corporate & Biz Dev
Dr. Manish Singhal is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of healthcare and biopharmaceutical industry experience. He is a founding member of MedCI, a consulting firm facilitating international business and corporate development transactions, and Arbormed, a Series A biotech startup developing therapeutics for rare diseases. He received his MD degree from the University of Texas and his MBA degree from the University of Michigan.
Cassian Yee, MD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Cassian Yee is a pioneer in the field of adoptive cellular therapy and over the last two decades has developed specialized forms of antigen-specific T cell therapy for the treatment of patients with cancer. As a physician-scientist, his research converges multi-disciplinary approaches in bioengineering, metabolism, epigenetics and molecular immunology into enabling technologies that render adoptive cell therapy more effective and accessible as a treatment modality for patients. Dr. Yee is currently a Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Department of Immunology at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Director of the Solid Tumor Cell Therapy Program. He previously held the position of Professor at Division of Oncology at the University of Washington and a Member in Program in Immunology, Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Michael Fenn, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Michael Fenn is currently the Director of External Innovation at Dewpoint Therapeutics. Previously, he led the Healthcare & Life Sciences group at Harvard Innovation Labs and Co-led planning of Life Lab Longwood at Harvard Medical School. Mike is a Former Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Center for Medical Materials & Biophotonics at Florida Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, and B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry, all from the University of Florida. Mike has cofounded multiple startups that led to $35M+ in venture funding, FDA clearance, formation of strategic partnerships, scale-up to GMP manufacturing, creation & licensing of intellectual property, as well as a successful exit.
Gerald Dennig
Advisor
Gerald Dennig is ex-Goldman Sachs CIO and former Head of Portfolio Management UBS Asia. He built complex enterprise solutions for Chase, UBS, and Goldman over a span of two decades. He also has worked extensively with Ultra High Net Worth Families. Gerald graduated from Princeton University with Bachelor's degree in History and Development Economics.
Steven Banerjee
Founder & CEO
Steven founded NExTNet with the vision of bringing an Explainable version of Artificial Intelligence to the biologists and scientists who are at the forefront of drug discovery and development. Prior to that, he founded and led Mekonos, a pre-Series B biotechnology company in Silicon Valley, pioneering cell engineering and gene editing platforms. Steven graduated with mechanical engineering degree from the University of Canterbury and did cutting-edge research at the University of California, Berkeley. Steven's work has received media attention within the US, Europe, New Zealand, Japan and China. He also serves as an Advisor to multiple promising startups in the Valley.
Laura Oliphant,PhD
Independent Board Member
Dr. Laura Oliphant is an experienced CEO, Board Member, and Investor. She was an Investment Director in Intel Capital from 2001 until her retirement from Intel in 2016. During her career in venture capital, she brought over $1B in strategic and financial value to Intel through her investments and was awarded Intel’s highest award, the Intel Achievement Award, for her contributions to Intel. She is on the Board of multiple public and private semiconductor companies. Laura received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where her thesis research was centered on candidate batteries for electric cars.
Manish Singhal, MD
Corporate & Biz Dev
Dr. Manish Singhal is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of healthcare and biopharmaceutical industry experience. He is a founding member of MedCI, a consulting firm facilitating international business and corporate development transactions, and Arbormed, a Series A biotech startup developing therapeutics for rare diseases. He received his MD degree from the University of Texas and his MBA degree from the University of Michigan.
Cassian Yee, MD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Cassian Yee is a pioneer in the field of adoptive cellular therapy and over the last two decades has developed specialized forms of antigen-specific T cell therapy for the treatment of patients with cancer. As a physician-scientist, his research converges multi-disciplinary approaches in bioengineering, metabolism, epigenetics and molecular immunology into enabling technologies that render adoptive cell therapy more effective and accessible as a treatment modality for patients. Dr. Yee is currently a Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Department of Immunology at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Director of the Solid Tumor Cell Therapy Program. He previously held the position of Professor at Division of Oncology at the University of Washington and a Member in Program in Immunology, Clinical Research Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Michael Fenn, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Michael Fenn is currently the Director of External Innovation at Dewpoint Therapeutics. Previously, he led the Healthcare & Life Sciences group at Harvard Innovation Labs and Co-led planning of Life Lab Longwood at Harvard Medical School. Mike is a Former Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Center for Medical Materials & Biophotonics at Florida Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, and B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry, all from the University of Florida. Mike has cofounded multiple startups that led to $35M+ in venture funding, FDA clearance, formation of strategic partnerships, scale-up to GMP manufacturing, creation & licensing of intellectual property, as well as a successful exit.
Gerald Dennig
Economic Development
Gerald Dennig is ex-Goldman Sachs CIO and former Head of Portfolio Management UBS Asia. He built complex enterprise solutions for Chase, UBS, and Goldman over a span of two decades. He also has worked extensively with Ultra High Net Worth Families. Gerald graduated from Princeton University with Bachelor's degree in History and Development Economics.