Geof Hannigan

Director

2023 - Current

Summary: Technology, data and digital strategy for Merck. Portfolio manager for innovation initiatives and investments. * Portfolio manager for a key internal investment fund to advance strategic digital innovation & laboratory technology. The over 20 key investments have yielded significant advancements in drug development throughput and success rate. * Led financial and strategic planning efforts to build out a new lab and digital capabilities, including AI enablement. Led cross-departmental collaborations, OKR design, timelines, and proposal writing that yielded millions in project funding. * Served as site IT lead for three major research and development site, providing strategic leadership and guidance on IT operations including software procurement, laboratory computing, networking, and maintenance. * Advised for external digital partnerships, including deal structure, intellectual property, and due diligence to reduce deal turnaround time.

Executive Director

2021

Summary: Leader for Merck’s startup accelerator program, in collaboration with Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Microsoft, McKesson Ventures, Northpond Ventures, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. * Designed, raised funding, and launched startup accelerator that supplements internal innovation through startup engagement. Publicly launched in 2022 and annually invests $1.8M in early stage digital startups. Accelerator has yielded opportunities for additional partner investments and strategic engagements. * Executive leader responsible for overseeing $3M yearly total budget, managing over 30 yearly legal agreements, overseeing six member operations team, chairing Merck executive steering committee to ensure strategic alignment and realization, and managing alliances both external and within Merck. * Established and maintain formal partnerships with three Fortune 100 companies, a major university, and three renowned venture capital firms that together provide broad resources while minimizing financial risk. * Chair of investment board with a track record of identifying and strategically investing in high-performing ventures, attracting over 200 yearly startup applications. Over 20 investments have yielded strategic ROI by accelerating innovation and application of technologies in data analytics, data provision, data ops, and data generation.

Principal Scientist

2020 - 2023

Summary: Systems Biology team lead within Merck Research Labs, delivering internal and external innovation * Collaborated across scientific and business development teams to structure, negotiate, and execute $4M deal with an undisclosed startup for digital drug discovery study (oncology) including recruitment of over 800 patients. * Led design and development of a digital GxP platform which improved manufacturing turnaround time by up to 20% and reduced false positive signals by up to 95%. Program yielded a patent application and a scientific publication. * Led microbiology/immunology discovery portfolio re-prioritization which focused ongoing projects from 30 to 12, resulting in increased resources per project and accelerated immediate delivery of three projects within three months. * Managed a team of six computational biologists that contributed to programs across therapeutic areas. * Designed and established a systems biology platform that leveraged cloud, Nextflow, and a variety of R and Python programs to perform analyses of vaccine multi-dimensional data. Yielded two scientific publications and contributed to over ten internal discovery programs.

Associate Principal Scientist

2017 - 2020

Summary: Systems Biology team lead within Merck Research Labs, delivering internal and external innovation * Led and developed deep learning algorithm to accurately identify important genomic signatures using applied natural language processing. Yielded a patent and two high impact publications, and contributed to internal natural product discovery and medicinal chemistry design programs. * Designed and led an infectious disease experimental strategy that used multi-omics profiling to design and discover new therapeutics by leveraging the microbiome and immune system. This yielded one scientific publication and was applied to a major internal oncology program. * Established computational team infrastructure as a founding member of a 45 person discovery site. Setup the team collaboration platform, data ops infrastructure, coding standards and practices, which resulted in streamlined research and employee onboarding.

Podcast Host

2023

Host and producer of the Planet Bio podcast, a podcast for founders and startups with a focus on digital sciences and biology.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

2015 - 2017

Led research focusing on the human gut microbiome and virome in health and disease. Experience both at the bench and at the computer. 1) Developed machine learning techniques to predict interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages (bacterial viruses), and use those techniques to create microbiome networks for more robust analysis (network theory). 2) Used molecular and computational techniques to evaluate the association between the gut virome and colorectal cancer. Found that the virome offers diagnostic information which is independent of bacterial signatures. Also used paired sequencing techniques (16S rRNA gene sequencing, whole shotgun metagneomics, purified virus metagenomics) to begin understanding the biology underlying the Colorectal Cancer virome and microbiome.

Scientific Advisor

2015 - 2017

Member of the scientific advisory board for SmartPhage, a biotech startup focused on building a platform to enable the development of effective, precise therapies based on modern disease models. Involved in facilitating academic collaborations, exploring grant and other funding opportunities, and providing insight into future scientific directions of the company.

Graduate Research Fellow

2011 - 2015

Led and performed research on the human microbiome. Focused on the impact of the microbiome on wound healing and charactering the human skin virome. Utilized both molecular and computational techniques in clinical research projects.

Undergraduate Research Assistant

2009 - 2011

Undergraduate Research Assistant

2008 - 2009

Undergraduate Research Fellow

2010 - 2010