Ajamete Kaykas PhD

Ajamete “Aj” Kaykas Chief eXploration Officer and Head of Neuroscience & Ophthalmology Current Focus ● Technology Leadership: Leads the Integrated Technology Exploration (iTX) group, piloting technologies such as disease modeling, imaging, and genomics for company-wide deployment. ● Therapeutic Strategy: Oversees the Neuroscience and Ophthalmology portfolios, managing target discovery and validation. Professional History ● Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research: Led early target discovery in Neuroscience; credited with discovering multiple disease targets and improving predictive preclinical models. ● Allen Institute for Brain Science: Served as Director. ● Early Career: Scientist roles at Viral Logic System Technology and Immunex Corporation (early 1990s). Academic Background ● Postdoc: University of Washington/HHMI (Dr. Randy Moon). Conducted pioneering genome-wide RNAi screens on Wnt-signaling. ● Ph.D.: Molecular Biology/Oncology/Virology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. ● B.S.: Biochemistry, University of Washington. Selected Publications ● Nature Communications (2025): A pooled Cell Painting CRISPR screening platform enables de novo inference of gene function by self-supervised deep learning. ● Nature Communications (2018): DRUG-seq: A Miniaturized High-Throughput Transcriptome Profiling Platform for Drug Discovery. ● Nature Medicine (2018): p53 inhibits CRISPR-Cas9 engineering in human pluripotent stem cells

Machine Learning Enabled ALS Target & Therapeutic Discovery