Frank Hidalgo, Ph.D.

Frank Hidalgo is an accomplished scientist with extensive knowledge in molecular biology, machine learning and high-throughput sequencing. At Strand he identifies, refines, and implements machine learning-based solutions to mRNA drug design problems. Prior to joining Strand, Frank completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in John Kuriyan’s lab where he discovered that cancer hotspot Ras mutations are mechanism-based activators that interfere with GAP surveillance without compromising the thermodynamic stability of Ras, while other mutations are stability-based activators. After graduate school, he worked at a healthcare startup developing and applying machine learning models for natural language processing of patient notes for diagnosis prediction. He then participated in the Berkeley Skydeck Incubator program as part of a team creating a durable DNA delivery platform. Before attending graduate school, Frank earned his undergraduate degree from the IQS School of Engineering.