Vietnamese product manager contributes to bioinformatics industry

Over the past two decades, bioinformatics has provided critical insights into life's molecular mechanisms. High-throughput sequencing technologies have transformed biology into a data-driven field, with applications in personalized medicine and pharmaceutical development. However, managing and interpreting the vast amounts of data generated remains a challenge for many scientists.

Biological data surpasses the volume of all texts, images, videos, and even astronomical data. Each experiment generates massive datasets, often requiring extensive computational power to process effectively.

Software like AlphaFold, which predicts protein structures within hours instead of years, demonstrates the potential of AI in bioinformatics. However, using such tools often requires specialized infrastructure, making them inaccessible to many researchers. This limitation highlights the need for platforms that simplify access to computational resources for biologists.

LatchBio, a California-based startup, aims to remove these technical barriers by offering a cloud-based bioinformatics platform. This solution allows scientists to store, process, and analyze large biological datasets without requiring expertise in DevOps or access to expensive hardware.

Hannah Le, who grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, demonstrated an early passion for the intersection of biology and technology. She excelled academically, ranking valedictorian in the High School for the Gifted entrance exam in 2015. Pursuing further studies in Toronto, Canada, she engaged in scientific research at the University of Toronto, contributing to various projects.

Hannah Le, Head of Product at LatchBio. Photo courtesy of Hannah

Her interest in computational biology deepened at the Hospital for Sick Children, where she helped develop a database for identifying rare genetic variants. This tool streamlined the diagnosis of genetic disorders, leading to a publication in the journal Human Mutation.

Transition from researcher to product leader

In 2022, Hannah joined LatchBio as its first product manager. Within two years, she advanced to Head of Product, leading a team of 9 engineers while collaborating with go-to-market and customer success teams. Her focus is on scaling LatchBio into a widely used bioinformatics platform.

Reflecting on her motivation to join LatchBio, Hannah noted the challenges biologists face when working with large-scale sequencing data. While advanced tools such as AlphaFold, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics exist, they often require expertise in cloud computing and GPU processing. Her goal is to bridge this gap by making these tools accessible to a broader range of scientists.

"At LatchBio, we build tools that help scientists go from raw data to biological insights as efficiently as possible," Hannah said. "The journey of scientific analysis can be broken down into five critical steps: data storage, metadata organization, processing, analysis, and visualization."

Each of these steps presents unique technical challenges, such as the complexity of cloud infrastructure and slow processing times. LatchBio streamlines the workflow by integrating multiple components into a single platform: Latch Data for scalable storage, Latch Registry for metadata organization, Latch Workflows for automating data processing, Latch Pods for computational tasks, and Latch Plots for data visualization

Several companies have already integrated LatchBio into their workflows. For instance, ElsieBio, a machine learning-driven drug discovery startup acquired by GSK, scaled its computational research using the platform. AtlasXOmics, a spatial epigenomics company, leverages LatchBio to process large ATAC-seq datasets efficiently.

Hannah envisions a shift in how biological research is conducted. Traditionally, scientists formed hypotheses and tested them through lengthy laboratory experiments. With modern computational tools, they can now analyze RNA and DNA data first, refining their hypotheses before conducting experiments. This approach accelerates drug discovery and enhances research efficiency.

While wet lab experimentation remains crucial, computational tools enable scientists to focus on the most promising research avenues, reducing the time required for breakthroughs.

As biological research becomes increasingly data-intensive, the demand for scalable and user-friendly bioinformatics platforms continues to grow. With professionals like Hannah contributing to the field, platforms such as LatchBio are helping researchers worldwide harness computational biology without requiring extensive technical expertise.

By making bioinformatics tools more accessible, LatchBio is playing a role in advancing genomic research, proteomics, and drug development.