Laurakay Bruhn is Section Manager of Biological Chemistry in Agilent Research Labs and manages programs and projects aimed at developing technology breakthroughs in nucleic acid synthesis, gene editing and control, proteomics and metabolomics as well as other efforts related to developing new technologies for the life sciences research to diagnostics continuum. The group she leads has leveraged a novel RNA oligo synthesis chemistry developed at Agilent to invent new ways to use chemical modifications in guide RNAs to enhance the activity and specificity of CRISPR systems.
After receiving her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of Oregon and a Postdoctoral Fellowship studying gene regulation at UCSF she joined Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 1996 where she worked on an inter-disciplinary team of scientists that developed Hewlett-Packard’s first DNA microarray products. She joined Agilent Technologies as part of Agilent Laboratories when the company was formed in 1999 and became a manager in 2000. She has 18 years experience leading inter-disciplinary teams of chemists, biochemists, molecular and cellular biologists, and computational biologists innovating sample manipulation and measurement solutions to advance the next generation of research and diagnostics in key areas such as cancer, developmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, stem cell research, and synthetic biology.