Ekker is a genome engineer, biohacker and entrepreneur. Ekker serves as the Associate Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Austin where he also runs the Ekker Precision Gene Editing Laboratory. Ekker was SAB leader for OpenTrons Labworks, fostering research using accessible lab automation, as it went from the YCombinator accelerator to unicorn. Ekker is co-founder of DGI (now Immusoft), a biotech company pioneering engineered B-cells as therapies with first-in-human clinical success. Ekker is a co-founder, Board Member and investor in LEAH Labs, the first gene editing company out of YCombinator. LEAH Labs is pioneering off-the-shelf CAR-T treatments for cancer, the first to put dogs with lymphoma into remission. Ekker recently founded UViiVE Inc that uses unique AI-based novel protein designs with cloud lab business models for rapid health technology startup iteration.
