Pedro Belda Ferre

Summary of Qualifications
● Adaptable and dependable R&D leader with over 13 years of experience in the fields of Populations Genomics and
Human Microbiome Initiatives, NGS Assay Development and team leadership.
● Resilient leader bringing unconventional solutions to everyday challenges, leading high-performing teams of Scientists
driving lab innovations to meet company goals. Seasoned developing high-throughput laboratory pipelines using
liquid handling and automation robots, and integrating them with downstream data analysis pipelines.
● Highly committed to team and company success, through demonstrated collaborative and leadership skills including
team and project management, consistently meeting and exceeding goals and timelines.
● Scientific impact through 40 peer-reviewed publications with over 2900 citations (h-index 21) and a pharmacology
book chapter.
Experience
Helix Genomics Inc.
Senior Manager of Research and Development January 2022 – March 2023
• Led a team of 7 scientist to develop Helix assay portfolio, including Covid19 and Flu Diagnostics, Viral Sequencing
and Exome Sequencing. Under my leadership, the R&D team accomplished:
o Developed an EUA-approved Covid19+Flu assay through sample collection and delivery locker system, enabling
partners to expand the testing to high volume and remote locations, while reducing the lab costs by 40%.
o Developed a viral surveillance NGS assay capable of detecting over 30 viral pathogens at a lower cost that
previous assay, enabling the long-term viability of the viral business at Helix. Supported the Science team
generating data ad-hoc to confirm findings with orthogonal assays for publication.
o Improved the analytical range of the Exome assay while increasing the first-pass success rate from 85% to 90%,
and reducing the assay costs by 70%, enabling Helix to move towards profitability before the end of 2023.
o Established a technical path to confirm challenging variants using long-read technologies.
University of California, San Diego, Department of Pediatrics (San Diego, CA)
Project Scientist November 2020 – December 2021
Postdoctoral Scholar January 2018 – October 2020
Knight Lab
• Analysis of microbiome datasets leading to successful publications in journals like Nature, mSystems, Microbiome,
etc.
• Developed high-throughput anaerobic culturing, nucleic acid extraction and shotgun sequencing pipelines
optimization, enabling quicker turnaround of results and improved the quality of data generated.
• Mentored 5 graduate students through their PhDs and several undergraduates and research assistants.
Microbial contributions to plasma metabolites
● Led a collaborative project with Prof Mohit Jain aiming to characterize the gut microbial and dietary contributions to
plasma metabolites to be used as potential biomarkers. Developed high-throughput bacterial culturing pipelines under
anaerobic conditions using Biomek 4000 liquid handling robot.
UCSD Return to Learn Program
• Established a CLIA laboratory (EXCITE Lab) performing miniaturized COVID19 diagnostic tests with capacity for
over 12k samples/day at <3$/test, enabling testing access to underprivileged communities in San Diego.
• Developed high-throughput sewage and HVAC COVID19 testing methods enabling early detection of outbreaks.
• Developed methods and protocols to provide relevant microbial community context of COVID19 patients and
hospital built-environment, including 16S, shotgun metagenomics, RT-qPCR and SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing.
Center for Microbiome Innovation (CMI)
● Analysis of microbiome and metadata-rich datasets through the CMI in collaboration with industry partners (IBM,
Sanitarium, etc.), with a particular focus on nutrition, wellness and health.
Scripps Institute of Oceanography
● Led the UCSD-SIO funded project “Understanding and Protecting the Planet”, studying the impact of microbial and
chemical pollutants on coastal communities, sea spray aerosols and their influence on human and climate health.
● Enabled the largest crypto coin donation (15M$) to any US University to support this program.
● NSF RAPID grant awarded to study transmission of COVID19 on sewage-polluted coastal waters and aerosols.
University of Chicago, Department of Pathology (Chicago, IL) March 2016 – January 2018
Postdoctoral Scholar, Cathryn Nagler’s Lab
● Led project to establish a humanized gnotobiotic mouse model of food allergy, published in Nature Medicine.
● Developed and optimized microbiome 16S rRNA sequencing and mouse RNAseq analysis pipelines enabling quick
turnaround of results, confocal imaging of fixed tissues and SCFA analysis using gas chromatography.
● The tools developed were the foundations of ClostraBio, a targeted metabolite delivery platform to treat food
allergies.
Advanced Center for Public Health Research (Valencia Spain) July 2009 – January 2016
PhD candidate, Alex Mira’s Lab
● Coordinated the setting-up of a molecular biology, microbiology and sequencing laboratory serving over 50 researchers,
with application-oriented rooms and controlled HVAC systems, including BSL2 and BSL2+ containment facilities, colonypicking
robot and sequencing core service with segregated pre and post-PCR areas.
● Led project to study the role of the oral microbiome in caries disease, through the use of high-throughput “omics”
technologies, discovering a caries-protective bacterial isolate that has successfully finished Phase II clinical trials.
● Published 11 scientific papers and achieved 2 research awards.
Education
● Bachelor degree in Pharmacy, Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain. (2008)
● M.Sc. in Molecular and Cell Biology, Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain. (2010)
● Ph.D. in Biotechnology, University of Valencia, Spain. (2015)
● UCSD MicroMBA at Rady’s School of Management (2018)