Katherine Pohl

Analyst, Healthcare and Life Sciences

2023

Founded in 2009, Sixth Street is a global investment firm with over $75 billion in assets under management and committed capital. The Sixth Street Healthcare and Life Sciences team provides strategic capital and forms long-term partnerships with companies creating new technologies to address pressing healthcare challenges and improve patient care. https://sixthstreet.com/healthcare/ Sixth Street’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which is led by Chief Science Advisor and Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., assists Sixth Street’s Healthcare and Life Sciences team in its long-term efforts to identify, evaluate, and advance commercial development opportunities within the CRISPR and gene-editing ecosystem. Select Sixth Street Investments: Mammoth Biosciences, Arsenal Bio, Chroma Medicine •My role focuses on investments within the field of genetic medicine and within the broader gene-editing ecosystem (across verticals)

Venture Fellow

2023 - 2023

Junior Venture Fellow

2022 - 2023

Brazen Capital supports scientist-CEOs in the biotech and healthtech spaces and has a commitment to fund underrepresented founders. Roles: •Assessed biotech, medtech, and healthtech investment opportunities by evaluating pitch decks, meeting with founders, and performing scientific due diligence and competitive landscape analyses •Synthesized findings in the form of deal memos •Sourced investment opportunities

Doctoral Student

2017 - 2023

Program: Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program (MBIDP) Home Area: Gene Regulation, Epigenomics and Transcriptomics Advisor: Dr. Xian-Jie Yang, Department of Ophthalmology, Stein Eye Institute • Studies involved stem cell biology, gene editing, molecular biology, mitochondrial biology/metabolism, ophthalmology, and neurobiology • Utilized CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and stem cell biology to establish human retinal organoid models of dominant optic atrophy (DOA) from ESCs and iPSCs • Performed and established molecular and mitochondrial assays to investigate pathological mechanisms underlying DOA • Initiated the first study involving human subjects in the Yang laboratory and gained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval by preparing scientific technical protocols, risk assessments, human subject and data protection plans, recruitment materials, and informed consent documents

New Ventures Fellow

2021 - 2023

• Worked closely with new UCLA academic teams (Therapeutics Track) to craft their scientific narrative and pitch deck to compete for funding from the UCLA Innovation Fund and external investors • Assisted established TDG portfolio teams by performing scientific and market due diligence, de-risking technologies, identifying markets, and facilitating completion of milestones

Research Associate

2015 - 2017

• Supported a variety of research projects in Dr. John Chute's lab that centered around discovering and characterizing novel signaling pathways in the bone marrow niche that regulate hematopoietic stem cells • Collaborated with a team comprised of MDs, PhDs, graduate students, and technicians to run experiments and to analyze results for projects that investigated genetic and pharmacological means to enhance hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal (both after irradiation and at steady state), differences in aging surrounding the hematopoietic system, ways to engineer CAR T-cells to combat cancer, and novel mechanisms in the bone marrow microenvironment that characterize multiple myeloma, AML, and CML • Assisted with overall lab management duties Technical Skills: Murine bone marrow transplantation, SQ and tail vein injections, genotyping, blood collection (cardiac and maxillary), and cell harvest and processing (BM, ECs, liver, peripheral blood, spleen, and thymus); cell based assays (cell cycle, cell death, proximity ligation (PLA), phosphorylation, senescence, and telomere length), flow cytometry, fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), cell and bacterial culture, RNA isolation, reverse transcription, RT-PCR, virus creation and transduction, complete blood counts (CBCs), colony forming cell assays (CFCs), competitive repopulation unit assays (CRUs), histology sample preparation, immunohistochemistry (IHC), microscopy imaging and analysis, western blots, and ELISA

Undergraduate Researcher

2013 - 2015

• Conducted independent research in the Chairman of the Biology Department, Dr. Steven L'Hernault's, lab, which uses C. elegans to study spermatogenesis and fertilization • Investigated the genetic basis of a newly observed C. elegans oocyte phenotype in a strain that harbored multiple mutations • Utilized PCR, bioinformatics, DNA sequencing, RNAi technology, and conventional genetics to show that the oocyte phenotype results from loss of function of one gene Technical Skills: DNA isolation, DNA sequencing preparation and analysis, use of various bioinformatics platforms; PCR, primer design, RNAi, C. elegans genetic crosses and screens; staining, dissecting, and analyzing C. elegans under a confocal microscope; creation, growth, maintenance, and cryogenic storage of C. elegans lines; preparation of sterile media and solutions

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Fellow

2013 - 2013

• Intensive pre-PhD program at Emory University that provides students with research experience, ethics training, and professional advice in their field of interest • Worked in the labs of Drs. Jeff Sands and Janet Klein on an independent research project that examined the relationship between urea transporters and aquaporins in transgenic mice

Research Assistant

2012 - 2013

• Dr. Jeff Sands and Dr. Janet Klein labs