I was born and raised in Minnesota to a refugee family. My parents were boat people who were born in war-torn Vietnam and escaped during the communist regime. Their difficult experiences overcoming innumerable challenges have deeply inspired me. I am really lucky to have the opportunities that my parents could not have due to the hardships they went through. For that, I am very thankful.
I began my education at an early age at the University of Minnesota. I was part-time student at 14 years old and full-time student at 16 years old. After graduating with my bachelor's degrees in physics and biomedical engineering, I attended Stanford University for my graduate studies in bioengineering. I recently defended my PhD thesis, which focused on building computational tools to study immune cell activity and dysfunction. In parallel with my academic training, I established an advisory business called Ergo Bio. I advised healthcare investors and companies on equity investments, asset in-licensing, and business development partnerships. I also organized investment opportunities via special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
Generally, I am excited about advancing biotechnology and computational innovations with applications in precision medicine, healthy aging, etc. Investing in these technologies can have tremendous impact and uplift every member of our society. Moreover, supporting ambitious endeavors is a very meaningful use of capital and time.
Doctor of Philosophy in Bioengineering
Master of Science in Bioengineering
Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Abbott Laboratories Fellow
Stanford Ignite Certificate, Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering, summa cum laude
Bachelor of Science in Physics, sigma pi sigma
Minors in Chemistry and Mathematics
Accelerated, pre-marticulation programs
Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) - 16 years old
Talented Youth Mathematics Program (UMTYMP) - 14 years old
Designed computational and experimental tools to study immune cell activity and dysfunction
Built structured data pipelines and subroutines using R and Python to analyze biological datasets, including bulk and single-cell RNA transcriptomics and atomic-resolution protein structures: extraction, cleaning, transformation, non-linear dimensionality reduction, graph-based clustering, generalized linear model fitting, etc.
Conducted original research on developing a transcriptional score of human T cell exhaustion and its application in aging T cells, CAR and non-engineered T cells in cancer patients, and endogenous T cells in non-malignant disease (e.g. infection, autoimmunity)
Impact: new tool for quantifying the severity of immune cell dysfunction from bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing to study immune cell phenotypes and patient outcomes
Conducted original research on engineering drug- and light-switchable proteins
Impact: new tool for interrogating cell signaling biology in healthy and disease states
Advised >15 healthcare investors and companies on proprietary deal opportunities, including equity investments, asset in-licensing, and business development partnerships
Conducted due diligence on behalf of private equity firms, family offices, and angel investors
Syndicated >$3M in early-stage biotech deals through special purpose vehicles (SPVs)
Built a biotech venture community and organized networking events, which typically had 40 to 100+ attendees and served as a unique deal sourcing platform (Ergo Bio Meetups)
Provided strategic guidance on philanthropic investments in cancer research, collaborating with leading institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Dana-Farber, and UNC to advance innovative scientific programs
Fostered partnerships with academic medical centers to accelerate breakthroughs in cancer treatment, which research reports including:
Analyzed millions of single-cell transcriptomes of extracted liver tissues from 100+ obese patients
Built structured data pipelines to process and analyze single-cell datasets using Python and ScanPy; investigated numerous literature-reported and company-defined (proprietary) cell types
Integrated donor-level genotyping to evaluate direct and indirect effects of SNPs and identified numerous enriched genes that likely altered disease course
Documented progress and code on Confluence and ReadTheDocs
Wrote marketing abstracts on invention disclosures and ideated on commercial applications
Identified companies to solicit technology licensing and support the deal process for out-licensing
Built relationships with venture capital firms for the tech transfer office
Invested in publicly-traded stocks of small- and mid-cap biotech companies
Organized partnership meetings and trained analysts on conducting diligence
Reformed accounting practices and consolidated transaction records
Engineered optogenetic proteases using structure-guided rational design
Constructed cellular assays to evaluate proteolytic performance
Engineered proteins using directed evolution through yeast display and flow cytometry
Used Python to evaluate protein variant enrichment in sorted populations
Characterized stability and structure of evolved proteins with spectroscopy and chromatography
Compiled a literature database on clinical interventions in vulnerable patient population
Utilized and navigated biomedical bibliographic databases
In the course of my academic training at Stanford and Minnesota, I co-authored the following research reports:
Photoswitchable binders enable temporal dissection of endogenous protein function (bioRxiv, 2023)
Therapeutic peptides: market and manufacturing (Peptide and Peptidomimetic Therapeutics, 2022)
Enhanced T cell effector activity by targeting the Mediator kinase module (Science, 2022)
Other media:
Here are videos about me from my undergrad: