Troy Lionberger, Senior Manager of Technology Development at Berkeley Lights.
Troy Lionberger is the Senior Manager of Technology Development at Berkeley Lights, an Emeryville startup that has created the Beacon platform, a high-throughput, fully automated, microscopy system that uses light to move single cells and leverages the unique properties of a microfluidic device produced by Berkeley Lights to perform high-precision, quantitative assays from cultured cell populations. Dr. Lionberger invented applications on the Beacon platform that overcome a central problem faced by biologists: most of the time required for completing scientific projects is often spent waiting for cells to grow. This theme cuts across most areas of cell biology and often limits the numbers of experiments that can be completed for practical reasons (e.g., not enough time, people, money, and/or capacity). Dr. Lionberger’s technical contributions to the Beacon platform technology make it possible to accelerate the pace of science by making high-precision measurements from only a few cells in a manner that is relevant to and predictive of downstream cell performance. As a result, Beacon compresses the time required to complete complex, biological experiments by often tenfold or more. In my current role at Berkeley Lights, I am currently applying Beacon technology to impact a wide number of areas that use cell biology to create high-value products, ranging from cellular therapies and biologic pharmaceuticals to food and textiles. My goal is to make better products, faster.