Liz Shepherd is a Co-Founder of Novome Biotechnologies, a pre-clinical biotech company developing engineered gut bacteria as therapeutics. Liz received her PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University, where she worked on Novome's foundational platform technology in the laboratory of Justin Sonnenburg. There, she developed a strategy for robust and reliable engraftment of engineered bacteria into the gut microbiome, and published this work in Nature. Prior to her work at Stanford, Liz received her undergraduate degree in Microbiology from the University of Washington, where she worked in the laboratory of David Baker redesigning the active site of an acid-stable protease to target the immunogenic portions of the gluten protein. This enzyme has been further improved, and is now in first-in-human studies for the treatment of celiac disease. Current efforts at Novome are focused on bringing the company's lead drug candidate into phase I clinical trials, and continuing to expand the platform into new therapeutic areas.