InnovATEBIO Leadership Team

Assistant Director for Science at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s DNA Learning Center.

Bruce Nash holds an undergraduate degree in genetics from the University of Alberta and a doctorate in medical and molecular genetics from the University of Toronto, where he studied the genes that guide axonal growth cones and migrating cells during development. He has expertise in developmental biology, cell biology, genetics and microscopy. After completing a postdoctoral position at the University of Oregon he joined the DNALC in 2005, where he develops, disseminates, supports and teaches high school and college level curricula. While at the DNALC, he has developed approaches that support authentic research by students using RNA interference, DNA barcoding, and metabarcoding. In each case, this curriculum is designed to integrate bioinformatics, molecular biology, and the flexibility to support many research projects with unified methods. He is an avid sailor and gardener.

InnovATEBIO Co-PI

Founder and executive director of the DNA Learning Center (DNALC)

Dave Micklos is the founder and executive director of the DNA Learning Center (DNALC), the world’s first science center devoted to public genetics education. The DNALC is an operating unit of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), ranked #1 among academic institutions worldwide for the proportion of research articles published in high impact journals of the Nature Index. The DNALC was the model for hands-on lab programs at 18 museums and higher education institutions around the world. Dave’s three textbooks, DNA Science, Laboratory DNA Science, and Genome Science helped popularize DNA education in high school and college classrooms. Each year, over 500,000 students use commercial lab kits developed by the DNALC, analyze DNA sequences using DNALC bioinformatics tools, or do experiments at the DNALC or an allied center. In addition to InnovATEBIO, Dave is co-PI of CyVerse, a national cyberinfrastructure for biology research. Through these and other grant-funded programs, Dave advocates for broad participation in student research using DNA sequence analysis and high-performance computing. He received the 1990 Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, the 2011 Science Prize for Online Resources in Education, and the 2012 Genetics Society of America Award for Excellence in Education. Dave is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is the only CSHL staff member to receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree from its Watson School of Biological Sciences.

InnovATEBIO Co-PI

Professor of Biology, Finger Lakes Community College

Professor Hewlett is a Pre-med graduate of Bucknell University (B.S. in Biology) and the University of Connecticut (M.S. in Physiology/Marine Science). After graduating from the University of Connecticut, he entered a doctoral training program within the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester, where he worked on adenoviral vectors for gene therapy.  Professor Hewlett currently serves as the Director of Biotechnology/ Biomanufacturing at FLCC.  In addition to teaching, he serves as the Executive Director/Principal Investigator for the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI).  He also serves on the Editorial Board of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science and the Editorial Board of The American Society of Cell Biology’s CBE Life Sciences Education journal.  He serves on the Advisory Board for Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Bioscience Education and Technology (CBET) and is a member of the Steering Committee for the University of Georgia’s RCN-UBE Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet).

Professor Hewlett serves on the Editorial Board of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University of Buffalo and is on the Editorial Board of The American Society of Cell Biology’s CBE Life Sciences Education journal. He serves on the Advisory Board for Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Bioscience Education and Technology (CBET) and is a member of the Steering Committee for the University of Georgia’s RCN-UBE Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet) and the Ecological Society of America’s Next Generation Careers RCN-UBE.  Professor Hewlett served as the Chair of the Advisory Board for “Taking Delaware's Biotechnology Education to the Next Level,” a state-wide program designed to address the workforce demand in the region's growing biotechnology industry by expanding and enhancing educational capacity at Delaware Technical and Community College system. He is currently a member of the Committee on Strengthening Research Experiences for Undergraduate STEM Students at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

InnovATEBIO Principal Investigator

Biotechnology Department Chair, Austin Community College

Dr. Linnea Fletcher enjoys all forms of exercise but especially biking, hiking, and swimming. Her favorite pastimes are family events in the  outdoors and travel. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin, did two postdocs one at the Southwestern Medical Center and another in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Texas. She joined Austin Community College as a Department Chair in Biology, and started the Biotechnology Program in 1999. At the same time she joined the first NSF Funded National Biotechnology Education Center, Bio-Link and received her first NSF funded ATE grant to start Biotechnology high school programs in Texas. She worked as an NSF Program Officer from 2008 to 2010 and was involved setting up the first Vision and Change Meeting. In 2015, she received an Emerging Technology Fund Grant to build a Bioscience Incubator at ACC and several Wagner Peyser Grants to equip it. Today the incubator is full of start up companies and students interning or working for these companies. She was PI of the AC2 Bio-Link Regional Center, and is now the PI of InnovATEBIO, the NSF funded National Biotechnology Center. Combining economic development with educational opportunities is her passion. 

InnovATEBIO Grant Manager

Poornima Rao works at Austin Community College as a Grant Manager and instructs cell culture techniques and principles in bio-manufacturing as a faculty member in the Biotechnology Department. She has over a decade of experience in the bioscience industry, having worked as a QA analyst at GlaxoSmithKline plc, a research scientist developing multi-analyte detection systems for Labnetics. Inc, and a product scientist developing test kits at NSDiagnostics Inc. She has technical expertise in the downstream process development of bio-manufacturing as well as in R&D at XBiotech, a therapeutic antibody-based company. 

Poornima is also an accomplished musician and enjoys teaching Carnatic vocal and instrumental music in the Indian classical genre.

InnovATEBIO Communications Director

President and Founder, Digital World Biology

Dr. Sandra Porter is an artist, scientist, entrepreneur, bioinformatics geek, and writer.  She received her PhD in microbiology from the University of Washington, worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and spent ten years leading a biotechnology education program at Seattle Central Community College.  She left Seattle Central to work at Geospiza, Inc., a bioinformatics software company later purchased by PerkinElmer.  In 2009, Porter started Digital World Biology (DWBio.com), a company that develops molecular modeling apps, games, and other educational tools for exploring biotech and molecular biology.  Dr. Porter has been teaching students how to use bioinformatics tools for studying biology for several years and writes about using bioinformatics in her blog: Discovering Biology in a Digital World.  Currently, Porter is the PI of Bridge to Bio-Link’s Future, a National Science Foundation ATE Project grant related to biotechnology careers, a Co-PI on START Immuno-biotechnology, an ATE grant based at Shoreline Community College, and part of the leadership team of InnovATEBIO, a National Advanced Technology Center of Excellence in Biotechnology based at Austin Community College.

InnovATEBIO Chief Software Architect and Data Scientist

Chief Technology Officer, Digital World Biology

Todd M. Smith PhD is a successful entrepreneur. He received his BS degrees in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota; after which he worked in the Seattle Biotechnology industry for nearly five years. Dr. Smith then continued his education to earn his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington. After receiving his PhD, he developed bioinformatics software in Leroy Hood’s laboratory as his team sequenced the BRCA1 gene in collaboration with Mary Claire-King. In 1997 he co-founded the bioinformatics software company Geospiza and led the commercial development of laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and high throughput data analysis systems for all forms of DNA sequencing and microarray technologies. The company’s free Sanger electropherogram trace viewer, FinchTV, became a standard tool that is still widely used.

PerkinElmer acquired Geospiza in 2011, and in 2013 Dr. Smith joined Digital World Biology to lead business development and provide business and bioinformatics consulting services. Through Digital World Biology, Dr. Smith participates in Bio-Link where he advises on industry trends and develops the websites (Bio-Link.org, Biotech-Careers.org, and others) that link industry with educators, students, and job seekers. Most recently, Dr. Smith has been working to help design a course on immuno-bioinformatics as part of an ATE funded project at Shoreline Community College.

Dr. Smith also serves as an entrepreneur mentor for the University of Washington’s CoMotion business incubator. In that role, he participates in startup workshops and works with emerging biotechnology businesses to perform market assessments for technologies in genomics and bioinformatics. Dr. Smith currently serves on advisory boards at Phase Genomics (business advisor) and Stratos Genomics (scientific advisor).