OUR PEOPLE
Academic Credentials
- Ph.D., Ecology & Evolution, Stony Brook University, 2014
- B.A., History, University of California, Berkeley, 2003
- B.A., Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 2003
Academic Appointments
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Science, Pratt Institute, 2013-2016
- NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science & Policy Management, 2016-2019
Dr. Gill relies on broad industry experience in consulting and research and development roles across therapeutics, synthetic biology, and diagnostics companies, combined with deep expertise in functional and population genomics as a PhD and postdoc in Ecology and Evolution. Focal areas in his work have spanned environmental and host-associated microbiomes, gene editing tools including RNAi and CRISPR-like systems, and AI-enabled enzyme engineering. As a seasoned computational biologist and bioinformatician, Dr. Gill has led projects to devise custom computational pipelines for a host of needs including taxonomic, functional, and multi-omic profiling of genomes and metagenomes, AI and machine learning model development, bioinformatics workflows for clinical and regulatory analyses, and data mining.
Dr. Gill utilizes his experience in functional and predictive genomics, community ecology, and population-level variation to enhance risk assessment for ecotoxicology and off-target effects of gene silencing and editing technologies like RNAi and CRISPR. Prior to 51ÉçÇø, he used co-analysis of metagenomic sequence and environmental data to understand how Green Infrastructure installations for stormwater management shape the diversity and function of soil microbial communities with respect to nutrient cycling and pollution degradation pathways. More recently, Dr. Gill used large language models (LLMs) trained on protein sequences and in silico binding assays to discover and engineer enzymes for therapeutics and bioeconomy applications, including DNA detection and editing, plastic degradation, and greenhouse gas capture and conversion. His experience with in vitro diagnostics includes curation of comprehensive pathogen genomic databases, target identification and off-target analysis, and FDA regulatory analyses for analytical sensitivity and specificity. He also has extensive experience conducting gene expression studies using RNA-seq and RT-qPCR, and epigenetic analysis using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.