Dr Jiahao Huang
Jiahao is a molecular biologist and serial entrepreneur.
He earned his BSc in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where his undergraduate research was on the mechanism of cellular senescence, a process of cellular ageing. He then pursued a PhD in Molecular Biology and Epigenetics at the Babraham Institute and the University of Cambridge. His doctoral research focused on epigenetic reprogramming, utilising the oocyte as a model to investigate the pattern and mechanism of DNA methylation accumulation.
During his PhD, Jiahao co-founded Nuclera, a life science technology company specialising in DNA synthesis and protein prototyping to accelerate drug discovery. He led the company from inception to Series A funding, scaling the team to 50 staff. He worked on technology development and authored over seven patent families related to nucleic acid synthesis. From 2021, he transitioned to the strategic CFO role and helped secure an additional $133M in Series B and C funding. Nuclera now has over 100 staff and is a growth-stage company focusing on commercial execution.
More recently, in 2022, he became an active angel investor, supporting seed-stage startups in healthcare, climate tech, and consumer tech. Currently, Jiahao is working on a spinout company to bring the most comprehensive measure of surrogate risk factors for age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and dementia, to the market. The company is also developing a platform to offer precise risk stratification for cancer patients, inform cancer care options, monitor post-cancer treatment recovery, and prevent secondary cancer formation.
Jiahao lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children. He also enjoys golf, tennis, volleyball and badminton.
Select publications
- Hanna CW, Huang J, Belton C, Reinhardt S, Dahl A, Andrews S, Stewart AF, Kranz A, Kelsey G. “Loss of histone methyltransferase SETD1B in oogenesis results in the redistribution of genomic histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation.”
Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 - Hanna CW, Taudt A, Huang J, Gahurova L, Kranz A, Andrews S, Dean W, Stewart AF, Colomé-Tatché M, Kelsey G. “MLL2 conveys transcription-independent H3K4 trimethylation in oocytes.” Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2018
- Brici D, Zhang Q, Reinhardt S, Dahl A, Hartmann H, Schmidt K, Goveas N, Huang J, Gahurova L, Kelsey G, Anastassiadis K, Stewart AF, Kranz A. “Setd1b, encoding a histone 3 lysine 4 methyltransferase, is a maternal effect gene required for the oogenic gene expression program.” Development. 2017
- Stewart KR, Veselovska L, Kim J, Huang J, Saadeh H, Tomizawa S, Smallwood SA, Chen T, Kelsey G. “Dynamic changes in histone modifications precede de novo DNA methylation in oocytes.” Genes Dev. 2015
Invented Patents:
US-11993800-B2: Use of terminal transferase enzyme in nucleic acid synthesis
US-10745727-B2: Compositions and methods related to nucleic acid synthesis
US-2018201968-A1: Azidomethyl Ether Deprotection Method
US-11466301-B2: Nucleotide triphosphate immobilised on a support and their use in nucleic acid synthesis
Further links
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiahao-huang1/
