Lauren Fitch, PhD

Lauren Fitch, PhD has a diverse work experience in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. Lauren currently serves as the Head of Computational Biology at ArkeaBio. Prior to this, they worked at Zymergen, where they held multiple roles including Staff Biological Data Scientist, Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, and Bioinformatics Scientist III. At Zymergen, they utilized phylogenetic, structural, and machine learning-based methods to optimize and redesign enzymes for microbial strain engineering. Lauren also played a significant role in integrating enEvolv's computational platform with Zymergen's operations.

Before joining Zymergen, Lauren worked as a Bioinformatician and Program Development Lead at enEvolv. Lauren was responsible for developing bioinformatics programs and contributed to various aspects of protein design, synthetic biology library builds, NGS/3rd generation sequencing analysis pipelines, and machine learning/data science.

Earlier in their career, Lauren worked as a Research Scientist in Bioinformatics at Clarivate Analytics. Lauren also gained teaching experience as an Adjunct Professor in the Science and Engineering Department at Bunker Hill Community College.

Lauren's academic background includes a PhD from Northeastern University, where they focused on understanding antibiotic tolerance in bacteria, discovered the mechanism of action of an anti-infective drug, and collaborated on scientific publications. Lauren also served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Tufts University School of Medicine, investigating the role of the mar multiple antibiotic resistance locus in uropathogenic E. coli using various molecular techniques such as RNA-seq and Northern blotting.

Prior to their work in the scientific field, Lauren gained experience as a Rules Queuemaster Associate at athenahealth, where they debugged and implemented rules updates and enhanced communication between business and development teams.

Overall, Lauren Fitch, PhD has extensive experience in computational biology, bioinformatics, and microbial strain engineering, with a strong focus on enzyme optimization and redesign for industrial applications.

Lauren Fitch, PhD, attained their education in the field of Biology through their academic journey. Lauren pursued their Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Boston University from 2006 to 2010. Later on, they further enhanced their knowledge and skills by completing their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Biology at Northeastern University, where they studied from 2010 to 2015. Additionally, Lauren Fitch also earned a certification in People Manager Qualification (PMQ) from SHRM in May 2023.