Mike Ihnat

Mike Ihnat is currently an advisor at Vuja De Sciences. Prior to that, they were a manager at SQZ Biotech for three years, where they oversaw and coordinated the patent portfolio as well as academic and industrial collaborations. Before that, they were a postdoctoral scholar/fellow at Duke University Medical Center for five years. There, they utilized high-throughput and high content compound screening to identify environmental chemicals that increase proliferation of breast cancer cells and attenuate anticancer drug efficacy, while determining the mechanisms by which these compounds act. Mike also investigated mechanisms of oxidative stress, proliferative signaling and acquired therapeutic resistance in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) culminating in co-first author publication. Additionally, they elucidated mechanisms of resistance towards cancer immunotherapy and identification of targeting strategies to overcome this resistance, leading to second author publication. Mike directly oversaw the design and execution of individual projects, as well as projects for undergraduate mentees, developed and wrote individual postdoctoral grants (5) as well as co-wrote laboratory grants with PI (15; 3 funded).

Mike Ihnat has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Duke University, and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.