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Vera Huang has worked in the biotechnology industry since 2008, when they began their postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. During their fellowship, they identified and functionally characterized Ccnb1-promoter targeting miRNAs in mouse cells and their implications in tumorigenesis. In 2013, they began working at Genentech as a Senior Research Associate, and at eFFECTOR Therapeutics as a Research Scientist I. At eFFECTOR, they supported small molecule drug discovery and development programs for selective translation regulators (STRs) and played a key role in advancing eFT508 (first-in-class dual MNK1/2 kinase inhibitor) from concept to Phase I trial.

In 2016, Vera joined Molecular Stethoscope as a Scientist in Assay Development. There, they optimized exRNA extraction protocols and contributed towards the development of cell free mRNA (cf-mRNA) liquid biopsy based molecular assays for neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases using NGS and multiplex qPCR platforms.

In 2018, Vera joined Atreca, Inc. as a Scientist II/Manager in Target Biology. At Atreca, they characterized molecular targets of tumor specific patient-derived antibodies by proteomics, peptide arrays, and other biochemical approaches. Vera also designed and executed hypothesis-based experiments and investigated mechanism of action (MOA) for an engineered version of a patient-derived human antibody targeting a tumor-restricted ribonucleoprotein complex (ATRC-101).

In 2020, Vera became a Senior Scientist II in Oligonucleotide Biology at Aligos Therapeutics and a Chief Scientific Officer at POL Scientific. Currently, they are a Senior Director in R&D at Ractigen Therapeutics.

Vera Huang holds a Ph.D. in Molecular/Cancer Biology from UC San Diego and a B.A. with Honors in Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB), Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) emphasis from the University of California, Berkeley.