Mohammed Dwidar

Dr. Dwidar is an Assistant Staff member at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University, and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He leads a research program focusing on applying bacterial synthetic biology to develop novel therapeutics.

After obtaining BSc in Pharmacy, he began his career as a microbiologist in Egypt’s pharmaceutical industry, sparking his interest in translational research. He later completed MSc and PhD training in Biological Sciences in South Korea, followed by postdoctoral work in Japan specializing in bacterial synthetic biology.
In 2019, he joined Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where he expanded his research into microbiome research and specifically how gut microbiome regulate biochemical pathways that influence disease progression.
In 2024, he launched his independent research program focusing on the development of engineered microbial therapeutics with a major emphasis on bacterial-based cancer therapy. Supported by the DoD Ovarian Cancer Research Program, NCI and NIGMS, his recent work has pioneered the design of programmable genetic circuits in anticancer bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica.
Dr. Dwidar’s multidisciplinary training has enabled him to integrate bacterial synthetic biology, metabolism, and microbiome research to develop innovative therapeutic strategies for cancer. Over the past 14 years, Dr. Dwidar has published more than 37 original research articles, of which he is the main author on the majority of these publications, in addition to several patents, review articles, and book chapters.

Sankar Raju Narayanasamy

Dr. Sankar Raju Narayanasamy is a Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He leads strategic innovation across AI, next-gen biotechnology, autonomous instrumentation, and high-performance computing to enable rapid, data-driven countermeasure development and strengthen global biosecurity and national security.

He completed his doctoral studies in Physical Chemistry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) with joint supervision from Stanford University. Prior to his doctorate, he performed research at prominent institutions including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, DESY (Germany), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. His expertise spans technology development, multi-functional team leadership, structural biology, genomics, robotics, nanomaterials, microfluidics, AI, nanofabrication, biomanufacturing, non-proliferation, counterterrorism, and other advanced biodefense solutions.

SI-Ready Data for Engineering Biology: Technical Standards and Quality for Accelerating Discovery and Innovation

EBRC aims to accelerate applications of super/artificial intelligence (SI/AI) and machine learning (ML) methods towards engineering biology challenges by convening stakeholder workshops focused on developing standards for SI-ready biodata. Initial workshops will focus specifically on standards for protein sequence-function data to advance fields like precision medicine, biomanufacturing, and drug development.

Technical Program Consultant — DARPA / ARPA-H

Technical Program Consultant — DARPA / ARPA-H

Former SETAs & federal R&D technical advisors are strongly encouraged to apply

Remote
Part-time, 10–15 hrs/week | Potential path to full-time

 

About us

Tetonic AI helps companies, universities, and consortia win funding from the moonshot agencies — primarily ARPA-H and DARPA. Our team leverages deep experience with these agencies to help our clients craft compelling applications likely to be successful at achieving funding. In the past year we have support almost a dozen applications across open solicitations and successfully shepherded a program to funding.

 

The role

  • Shape ideas that will receive moonshot funding: work with our clients to develop ambitious but achievable proposals
  • Serve as a jack of all trades for project development: help draft assorted documentation ranging from
  • Build consortia. Source and screen partners, leverage and develop networks across the bio and tech space, evaluate and screen promising technologies
  • Design finances and project milestones: ensure that we develop program structures that are well defined and executable
  • Serve as a government affairs expert: ensure that our clients feel comfortable with all government specific nuances of the funding opportunities that they are engaging with
  • Project management: ensure projects are well managed and executed in a timely and efficient fashion, handle diverse stakeholders with varying degrees of preparedness

 

Who we’re looking for:

Our ideal profile is a former DARPA or ARPA-H SETA — someone who supported program managers through program design, technical evaluation, and source selection and is deeply familiar with the programs these agencies develop and fund. Candidates with similar experiences will also be considered – these include candidates with deep scientific experience and familiarity with developing moonshot initiatives, candidates who have working designing and funding programs at similar peer agencies and others with exceptional scientific communication chops.

 

What you’ll need:

  • Strong technical writing and feedback capacity
  • Ability to provide insightful feedback on highly complex technical proposals in areas of science and engineering you have never worked with before
  • Responsiveness, professionalism and affability needed to work with a diverse set of highly demanding clients
  • Capacity to pivot to novel highly intense projects with short notice and minimize failure risks on tight deadlines
  • Capacity to work independently with minimal direction to provide advice, organization and project direction

Preferred: PhD with domain depth in biotech, health, AI, sensing, robotics, energy, or other hard tech fields

 

To apply:

Send your resume and a short note (<=1 paragraph) to ops@tetonic-ai.com explaining your interest in the position and why you are a strong fit.