First Look SoCal Bioscience Innovation Showcase at UCLA’s LABEST 2026

Charles’s expertise in biotechnology, medicine, and biochemistry extends from his years of experience in both industry and academia. As a research associate at a biotech company, he was integral to the development of vector-based therapeutics for ocular diseases and vaccines for malaria. In his graduate work, Charles appropriated molecular biology and embryonic cell culture techniques to elucidate mechanisms of intrinsic neuroinflammation in the rare pediatric disorder Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome.  His work led to a discovery of several FDA-approved medications that could be repurposed to treat affected patients. Throughout the years, Charles’s research has been published in a number of top-tier journals, including Cell Stem Cell, Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology, Journal of Virology, and Molecular Therapy.

Charles has established a practice that focuses on prosecution of emerging technologies in the various fields of biology and chemistry, including therapeutic discovery, immunology, cytometry, cell culture, molecular biology, bioinformatics, recombinant biology, and small molecule chemistry. Through detailed communications and diligent effort, Charles strives to provide the most robust patent protection for his clients.

PRACTICE AREAS
Patent Protection

EDUCATION
Virginia Tech, B.S., Biochemistry; B.S., Biology; B.A., Chemistry, summa cum laude
University of California, San Diego, Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences
University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, J.D.

BAR ADMISSIONS
California State Bar
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Duncan Huston-Paterson is a member of the Technology Business Development group. Duncan focuses on scouting and deal-making to access innovative technologies and platforms that enable the next generation of therapeutics at Amgen. Prior to joining Amgen in 2020, Duncan spent 4 years at Integral Molecular where he led a team that developed, launched, and commercialized a novel target discovery platform, resulting in multiple partnerships with large Pharma. Duncan grew up in South Africa and completed his early scientific training at University of Pretoria, before going on to receive his DPhil at Oxford University in the UK, where he studied the biochemical determinants of bird flu transmission to humans.

Sonia is an Investment Partner at Civilization Ventures, leading scientific diligence on early-stage biotech companies. She earned her PhD at USC, where she developed liquid-biopsy assays—including an early breast-cancer test in collaboration with clinical sites—and previously helped advance two targeted immunotherapies into clinical trials. Sonia also brings hands-on oncology BD experience and has served as VP of Nucleate HQ and Biotech Connection Los Angeles.

Dr. El-Nachef is a physician-scientist who is a board-certified gastroenterologist with a clinical focus on neurogastroenterology and GI motility disorders. While on faculty at UCLA, Dr. El-Nachef founded a clinic exclusively dedicated to patients with Parkinson’s disease suffering from gastrointestinal issues.

Dr. El-Nachef completed medical school at Northwestern University and Gastroenterology training at UCLA. He obtained his PhD studying the development and regeneration of the enteric nervous system, and this work was completed at the California Institute of Technology.

Tying together his unique clinical experience with a basic science perspective, Dr. El-Nachef strives to serve his patients with compassion to address their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

Dr. Benjamin Tully is the Co-founder and CEO of Branchpoint Biosciences. Holding a Ph.D. in microbial ecology and large-scale genomics, he brings extensive expertise in bioinformatics, algorithm design, and the development of advanced qPCR assays. At Branchpoint Biosciences, Dr. Tully leads efforts to solve the “quantification bottleneck” facing the microbiome and probiotic industries. By setting rigorous validation standards and building high-precision platforms for microbial quantification – including strain-specific differentiation – he is dedicated to advancing the broader microbial bioeconomy. Dr. Tully actively collaborates with top academic and industry leaders to drive data-driven innovation forward.

Katie Sicinski obtained her PhD in Chemistry from Tufts University, where her dissertation focused on developing novel chemical methods to improve the in vivo stability and delivery of GLP-1 peptides for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and Alzheimer’s disease. This work resulted in foundational patents that form the basis of Velum, Inc., a Tufts University spinout. Following her PhD, she joined PepGen, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based startup, where she helped establish discovery chemistry operations and develop antisense medicines for rare neuromuscular diseases. Katie then received an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral fellowship to study protein engineering at Caltech in the lab of Nobel laureate Prof. Frances Arnold, where she met her co-founder Dr. Casey Ritts. Together, they are combining their expertise in organic chemistry, protein engineering, oligonucleotide synthesis, and in vivo translational research to build Censera, a therapeutics company focused on improving the delivery of antisense medicines to the brain.

Zipeng Zeng, PhD, is the Co-founder and CEO of DeepNephro, Inc., a biotechnology startup developing next-generation human kidney organoid platforms for disease modeling, drug discovery, and nephrotoxicity assessment. He received his PhD in Development, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, where his research focused on kidney progenitor cell differentiation and expansion, kidney regeneration, and kidney organoid engineering. 

Prior to founding DeepNephro, Zipeng worked in Business Development & Licensing at Biocytogen, focusing on strategic partnerships and technology licensing in the biotechnology and therapeutics space. He also previously interned at Flagship Pioneering and Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, and was a co-founder of the Nucleate Los Angeles chapter, supporting the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs.

Dr. Adam Klie is Head of Technology at Gaius Therapeutics, where he leads the artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform for discovery and design of cell type-specific genetic switches for in vivo CAR-Treg therapies. He earned his B.S. in Bioengineering and Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology from UCSD under the guidance of Dr. Hannah Carter, a global leader in computational immuno-oncology. His thesis developed AI/ML methods for decoding the cell type-specific regulatory genome. During his Ph.D., he was also a visiting scholar in the lab of Professor Anshul Kundaje at Stanford, a global pioneer in applying AI/MLto gene regulation. He went on to become an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellow. His work brings together AI/ML and regulatory genomics to enable the next generation of precision cell therapies.

Hairuo is a machine learning expert with experience at the intersection of AI, aerospace, and scientific discovery. He is leaving a position as an engineering manager in the Data Science and AI Department at The Aerospace Corporation, where he served as a primary researcher on AI methods for early wildfire detection and as a tech lead for an internal LLM-powered RAG application. His earlier work includes anomaly detection on rocket launch telemetry, machine learning for orbital rendezvous with non-cooperative targets time, and time at Meta as a data scientist. Holomorph, his team, was a finalist and Demo Day golden ticket winner in the 2025-2026 Nucleate Los Angeles Activator program. He holds an M.Eng. and S.B. in Computer Science and Engineering, along with an S.B. in Comparative Media Studies, all from MIT.

Dr. Kazarian is an experienced biotech leader with a background in protein biochemistry and structural biology. After postdoctoral training, he transitioned into industry, holding roles from project management to VP-level leadership across leading CDMOs including Oxford Biomedica, Northway Biotech, Rentschler Biopharma, and Pyramid Pharma Services. He brings extensive experience in CMC strategy, manufacturing scale-up, partnerships, and early-stage company building.

Samuel Lobo is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of ProFoldBio, a UCSB spinout developing amyloid-targeting diagnostics and therapeutics. He recently completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering at UCSB, where he developed biophysical and AI methods to study amyloid formation.

Dr. Chao Peng is an assistant professor at UCLA. He has more than 13 years experiment in
Alzheimer’s disease. Focusing on Alzheimer’s disease mechanism study and drug development. He has built various novel disease models for Alzheimer’s disease drug development.

Dr. Casey Ritts earned his degree (BS) in biochemistry from University of Wisconsin–Madison and his PhD in chemistry from University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. He is an expert synthetic chemist whose thesis was based in mechanism-driven methodology development and natural product total synthesis. Following his doctoral studies, Casey earned a prestigious American Cancer Society (ACS) Postdoctoral Fellowship to immerse himself in protein engineering at Caltech under the advisement of Prof. Frances Arnold—the 2018 Nobel laureate in chemistry for inventing directed evolution. He was additionally made a member of the ACS/Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Cancer Stem Cell Consortium that focuses on translational medicines that target cancer resistance and recurrence. Motivated to make an impact on patient health, Casey has worked at the interface of protein engineering and organic synthesis (alongside his co-founder, Katie Sicinski) to invent innovative technology for antisense medicine. He and Katie will be the devoted co-founders of their start-up, Censera.