Biography
David Schaffer is the Hubbard Howe Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and he also serves as the Director of QB3, Bakar Labs, and the Bakar Fellows Program. He completed his B.S. in chemical engineering at Stanford University in 1993, his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT in 1998, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1999 before joining Berkeley in 1999. There, he applies engineering principles to optimize gene and stem cell therapies, work that includes developing the concept of applying directed evolution to engineer targeted and efficient viral gene therapy vectors as well as new technologies to investigate and control stem cell function. In addition, he has also co-founded seven companies from his lab that have advanced technologies into 10 human clinical trials. Finally, has received numerous recognitions including being elected to the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Inventors.