Jonathan Larson

Biotechnologist and serial entrepreneur Jonathan Larson, PhD, joined TLA in 2024 after over twenty years of start-up experience. He has founded two companies: Lariat Biosciences and Pulsar Bio.  As the sole founder of Lariat Biosciences, he successfully bootstrapped the company from an initial vision into a viable, profitable small business with a revenue-generating IP portfolio.  As co-founder of Pulsar Bio, he raised $5 million in starting capital for the high-throughput functional screening of DNA-encoded libraries with human cells. 

His formal interdisciplinary scientific background brings together proficiency in biophysics and physics, polymer physics, and a working knowledge of bio-, electro-, and photochemistry. Through his work he has also developed expertise in microfluidic chips and systems, and has gained experience in software and firmware programming, electronics, and mechanical design.  

His industrial accomplishments include product launches of three different microfluidic chip consumables, integration of numerous DNA manipulations into labs-on-a-chip, and development of various specialized laboratory instruments. His most notable inventions include: an electrical method for detecting, manipulating, and generating microdroplets; an ultra-stable, flow-rate independent microdroplet generator; novel biochemical methods for genotyping both single nucleotide polymorphisms and insertion/deletion mutations; and breaking the one-color-per-target barrier of quantitative PCR.  His recent research highlights include genotyping clonal DNA embedded within hydrogel microparticles; the first ever demonstration of one-in-a-million specificity with microdroplet-based digital PCR for detection of rare genetic variants; and a proof-of-concept functional screen for novel drugs within a DNA-encoded library of small compounds via droplet microfluidics.