Removing inherent bottlenecks in the genome engineering of iPSCs to build relevant disease models

Dr. Erik Willems was trained as a stem cell biologist in Brussels, Belgium where he obtained his PhD in 2007, after which he soon relocated to San Diego, California to develop his expertise in the use of pluripotent stem cells in high throughput screening assays for understanding the basic biology and disease of the developing heart at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Dr. Willems then pursued his passion for the development of biotechnology tools and applications and joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in Carlsbad, California where he - as a Manager in the Cell Biology Business - currently leads pluripotent stem cell-based customer driven projects and product applications, including characterization, reprogramming, genome editing, differentiation and disease modeling with a focus on drug discovery applications. Now in the stem cell field for over 15 years, Dr. Willems published numerous peer reviewed articles including in high impact journals such as Cell Stem Cell. His key expertise encompasses pluripotent stem cell biology, differentiation, genome editing, high throughput screening and drug discovery.