Ephrem Kassa

Senior research scientist with 4+ years of industry experience in design, conduct and analysis of interdisciplinary projects. Proven expertise in generating and applying new protocols and technologies. Demonstrated success in training and supervising a team of scientists for various molecular biology tasks. Specialization in molecular target deconvolution and screen hit validation using high-throughput imaging, cutting-edge techniques such as HCR sm-FISH and other complementary assays.

• Introduced and developed the following cutting-edge assays; mRNA pulldown protocols (HyPR-MS and TRIP), mRNA/protein half-life estimation (RoadBlock qPCR and FUNCAT), smFISH assays (Stellaris, HCR, BranchFISH, FISH-IF & FLARIM) and Target deconvolution assays (smiFISH, Timing and inhibitor similarity assays)
• Trained and supervised multiple scientists on the aforementioned assays
• Initiated and managed company-wide knowledge exchange platform – Beer & Paper
• Coordinated with data/IT team to introduce and employ RNAseq projects: MACE-seq and Iso-Seq
• Generation of massive amounts of imaging and sequencing data intended for AI training

• Dr. Willem Been Award for outstanding graduate students, 2017

• Type III secreted effectors that target mitochondria . 2021 Sep;23(9):e13352. Cell Microbiol doi: 10.1111/cmi.13352. Epub 2021.
• Enteropathogenic E. coli Hijacks Host Endosomes to Promote Endocytic Turnover and Breakdown of Surface Polarity, PLoS Pathog, 06/26/2019, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1007851, 31242273
• Stinging Tight Junctions with WASPs, Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol, 01/03/2018, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmgh.2017.12.007, 29675455