Jing Ke

Associate Principal Scientist @ Merck

About

• Scientist with 19+ years hands-on biochemical research experience, together with 10+ years lab automation operation and development experience.• Published 30+ high quality journal papers with 1600+ citations in HT production/characterization, synthetic biology, molecular biology, and lab automation.• Strong background in genome editing, cell physiology, metabolic flux, and bioprocess optimization for bio-actives production by means of lab automation and data science.• Extensive expertise in lab automation development, API integration, strategy optimization for antibodies, gene and cell therapy.• Experienced in leading internal research teams and managing external partners.

Country

United States

City

San Francisco Bay Area

Industry

Higher Education

Skill

Molecule Production, Molecular & Cellular Biology, LCMSMS, Process Optimization, DNA Extraction, Data Science, Programming, Project Management, LNP formulation, Customized workflow, Lab automation, Biofuels, Biomass, Molecular Biology, Renewable Energy, Spectroscopy, HPLC, Purification, Microscopy, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Experience

Associate Principal Scientist

Merck

2023-1 - Present · 3 yrs 9 mos

South San Francisco, California, United States

• Discovery Biologics: therapeutic proteins lead generation, lead optimization. • Innovating digital and physical automation across needs exploration, system and workflow design, method development, evaluation, and implementation. • Enabling seamless, end-to-end automation for enhanced efficiency across sample and data management, production, processing, preparation, and characterization. • Enabling automated error handling and real-time decision-making for robotics. • Establishing data and automation infrastructure enabling AI- and ML-ready database. • Optimizing workflows through advanced statistical modeling. • High-throughput production and characterization. • Web design and development.

Senior Automation Scientist

Unchained Labs

2021-8 - 2022-12 · 1 yr 5 mos

Pleasanton, California, United States

• HT Cell & Gene Therapy. • Developed HT customized automation platforms for processing & characterization of proteins, DNA and RNA. • Built high throughput production and characterization strategies for lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) based nucleic acid delivery. • Established customized automation solutions for gene/cell therapy and life science research.

HT Production & Characterization Scientist

Berkeley Lab

2015-5 - 2021-8 · 6 yrs 4 mos

Berkeley, California, United States

• Led 10+ research projects with 11 high quality publications, including 6 first/co-first author papers/book chapters . • Established high-throughput phenotyping and bioassay platforms achieving enhanced biosynthesis of bioactive molecules & proteins (e.g. anti-tumor short peptides, polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides, phenazines, terpenes, lipids, biopolymers, redox enazymes). • Established cell-free expression workflow for peptide production. • Established high-throughput expression and multi-comics characterization of wide-range cells. • Experienced in cell culture, cell physiology and metabolomic flux, along with protein production and characterization. • Led internal and external projects, managed cross-functional collaborations for characterizing, designing and optimizing bio-actives production. • Recruited and mentored postdoc researchers.

Lab Safety Manager

Berkeley Lab

2019-1 - 2021-1 · 2 yrs 1 mo

Berkeley, California, United States

Postdoc Fellow

Washington State University

2012-12 - 2014-12 · 2 yrs 1 mo

• Funded by NSF to explore mechanisms in natural bio-systems for biopolymers breaking down. • Design and validate bioprocess and bioreactors for biomolecules production from lignocellulose mimicking natural systems. • Production & characterization of biomolecules. • Biomolecules interaction.

Group Lead

Washington State University

2010-10 - 2013-9 · 3 yrs

Mentoring graduate students and coordination group research & collaboration.

Graduate Research Assistant

Washington State University

2008-8 - 2012-12 · 4 yrs 5 mos

• Finished PhD in four years with 15 high quality publications (including 1 book chapter, 11 first author journal articles) and 1 patent. • Successfully funded by NSF for exploring effective polymer degradation in natural bio-systems.

Project Manager

Bioprocessing & Bioproducts Engineering Laboratory

2012-8 - 2014-11 · 2 yrs 4 mos

Pullman, WA

• Took lead in project conception, design, plan and proposal writing; and got funded. • Elucidated & evaluated pretreatment mechanism of bio-systems for biomass conversion.