Biography: Mikkel Algire received his BS degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Florida. As a graduate student he studied the kinetics and thermodynamics of eukaryotic translation initiation at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. Jon Lorsch. Mikkel performed his post-doctorate work at The J. Craig Venter Institute in the Synthetic Biology and Bioenergy group where he eventually became an Assistant Professor. There he worked on the team that created the first bacterial cell controlled by a synthesized genome and other synthetic biology projects. Currently, he is the Lab Head of the Specialized Exploratory Assay Lab within Oncology Discovery at Abbvie. In this role he interacts with small molecule and biologic programs to drive innovative cancer therapies to the clinic.