Kayla Ortiz

Background

About Kayla Ortiz

Protein Science | High-Throughput Workflows | Cell-Free SystemsI am deeply committed to my personal goal of helping people and my professional ambition to make a significant impact on human health. These objectives make me particularly adept at listening, learning, and contributing to projects and organizations dedicated to innovating treatments and enhancing patient care.In my current role as a Research Associate at Generate: Biomedicines, I focus on high-throughput small scale protein expression, purification, and assay development across mammalian and cell-free protein synthesis systems. My responsibilities include performing rigorous biophysical characterizations to ensure the purity, concentration, and stability of our target proteins. This challenging work not only taps into my extensive background in biochemistry and structural biology but also aligns with my passion for advancing science through cutting-edge innovations to accelerate therapeutic discovery. Previously, I worked at the Broad Institute, researching the molecular mechanisms of immune response. This role highlighted the critical importance of identifying biological mechanisms as foundational steps toward developing improved medical interventions to ensure longer, healthier lives.Over the course of my scientific training, I have honed my skills in observing experiments meticulously, creatively solving problems when experiments do not proceed as expected, making iterative improvements, and communicating findings effectively. My research experiences in Dr. Borden Lacy's lab at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Dr. Ramnik Xavier's lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have shown me numerous ways that understanding pathogens, antigen recognition, and the host immune response can be translated into therapeutic strategies. Scientific Interests: Biochemistry, Protein Sciences, Structural Biology, Immunology (Disease Agnostic)Featured Skills/Technologies: Integrated Laboratory Systems, Liquid Handlers (Hamilton, LynX,HighRes), Cell Free Protein Synthesis, AKTA, FPLC, Flow Cytometry, Cytoflex LX and S, BL2 mammalian cell culture, Multi-color flow cytometry, functional and cell based assays