Biography
Dr. Mellios is a neuroscientist and RNA Biologist with leading expertise on circRNAs and their applications in precision medicine. He is the cofounder and CSO of Circular Genomics. He has published pivotal studies on the role of noncoding RNAs in brain function and disease and through his work at Circular Genomics has pioneered methods for the use of circRNAs for the better diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Clinical Dx Showcase:
Circular Genomics Inc
Circular Genomics is a pioneer in precision medicine, leveraging brain-derived circular RNA biomarkers for the better diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. We are committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions that will revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat neurological and psychiatric illnesses.

Biography
Nicole Gaudelli is a life sciences entrepreneur in residence and joined the GV team in 2024. She focuses on the interface of chemistry and biology with a particular emphasis on harnessing the principles of organic chemistry to enable the creation of precision genetic medicines. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University, in the laboratory of Professor Craig Townsend, where she studied monocyclic beta-lactam antibiotics and elucidated the mechanism through which they are biosynthesized. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the laboratory of Professor David Liu, where she expanded the capabilities of base editing technology by inventing and creating the first adenine base editor (ABE) through directed evolution and engineering. Her doctoral and postdoctoral work culminated in prominent Nature publications in the fields of natural product chemistry and gene editing, and her foundational patent in adenine base editing was licensed by Beam Therapeutics and Verve Therapeutics. Nicole is an inventor on numerous base editing patents and was the vice president of gene editing at Beam Therapeutics, where her team advanced and engineered precision gene editing tools. Her work enabled new and expanded pipeline development within the Beam enterprise. In addition, she served as the program leader for Beam’s hematology program “ESCAPE,” working to create next-generation autologous cell therapy opportunities for patients with sickle cell disease by developing innovative non-genotoxic conditioning strategies. Nicole is a recipient of the 2018 American Chemical Society’s “Talented 12” award, recognized as a 2018 STAT News Wunderkind, a 2018 TEDMED Hive honoree, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News “Top 10 Under 40 of 2019”, BioSpace’s 2019 “10 Life Science Innovators Under 40 to Watch”, MIT’s 2019 Technology Reviews’ 35 Innovators Under 35, Business Insider’s 30 Under 40 in 2020, Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 in Healthcare, Endpoint News’s 2021 20 Under 40 in biopharma, and John Hopkins University’s Distinguished Alumna Award of 2022.

Biography
Dr. Velculescu led the first genome wide sequence analysis in human cancers, identifying key genes and pathways dysregulated in tumorigenesis. He developed methods for global gene expression analyses and coined the word transcriptome" to describe the patterns that could now be obtained in cancer and other cells. These analyses identified a variety of genes not previously known to be involved in neoplasia, including PIK3CA as one of the most highly mutated genes in human cancer. His team's discoveries have led to new FDA approved therapies against PI3K and IDH1, and diagnostic tests for comprehensive tumor profiling. More recently, his group has created noninvasive machine learning liquid biopsy approaches for early detection and monitoring of cancer patients. His work has provided new paradigms for understanding human cancer that have benefited patients worldwide. He has been a Founder and CoCEO of Personal Genome Diagnostics and is Founder and CEO of Delfi Diagnostics.