Patrick Metz

Patrick Metz is currently a Principal Scientist in Biology at Recludix Pharma. Prior to this role, they were a Senior Scientist at Pfizer in Cancer Immunology Discovery from 2019 to 2021. From 2016 to 2019, they were a Postdoctoral Fellow at Pfizer in Oncology Research & Development, where they uncovered unexpected precision with which PRMT5 regulates precursor mRNA splicing and identified an associated selectivity for symmetric arginine dimethylation in controlling type I and type III interferon signaling downstream of T cell receptor and pattern recognition receptor stimulation in human T lymphocytes and undifferentiated human THP-1 monocytes. Patrick also applied an integrated experimental approach including RNA sequencing, ATAC sequencing, CRISPR, SILAC-mass spectrometry, lentiviral transduction, flow cytometry, qPCR, MSD, western blotting, and chemical biology techniques through collaboration with Biochemistry, Epigenetics, Chemical Biology, and Computational Biology groups. From 2009 to 2016, they were a PhD Student and Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, San Diego, where they investigated the role of the atypical protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, PKCζ and PKCλ/ι, in regulating asymmetric division and fate specification of CD8+ T lymphocytes during an adaptive immune response to microbial infection by utilizing flow cytometry analysis and sorting, confocal microscopy, tissue culture, single-cell gene expression, and murine adoptive transfer techniques. Patrick also collaborated with lab members and additional campus labs to characterize multiple knockout mouse strains, including Ezh2, Musashi2, Zeb2, March1, and Talin, which led to several co-author publications. Additionally, they optimized a deconvolution microscopy RNA-FISH approach to visualize a long non-coding RNA, Malat1, in activated CD8+ T cells and employed an LCMV infectious model to investigate its role in CD8+ T cell differentiation. Prior to this, Patrick Metz was an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Purdue Cancer Center from 2008 to 2009, a Visiting Scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2008, and a Lab Technician at Xanthostat Diagnostics, Inc. from 2007 to 2008 and at the Purdue Cancer Center from 2006 to 2007.

Patrick Metz earned a Bachelor's Degree in Honors Biochemistry and Chemistry Minor from Purdue University in 2009. Patrick then went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego in 2015.