Congratulations to alum Yue Clare Lou, BS ’18 Microbial Biology; PhD ’23’ Microbiology, on being included in Forbes’ prestigious “30 under 30” list for Healthcare.
Lou completed her doctoral research in the lab of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Professor Jill Banfield, where she focused on the relationship between the gut microbiome and infant health. During her PhD, she developed a microbiome diagnostic platform and conducted research demonstrating that functional predictions from metagenomic analyses of infant microbiomes could be tested and recreated experimentally using cultivated microbiomes.
Forbes recognized Lou for her groundbreaking work as the co-founder of Sift Bioscience, a startup that uses artificial intelligence and high-throughput screening to create next-gen immune boosters. The company was spun off of the HS Chau Women in Enterprising Science Program at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, which promotes gender equity in bioentrepreneurship and supports innovative thinkers to develop their ideas. Lou, who was selected as a fellow in 2023, received $150,000 in support to expand the platform she developed.
In an interview with the Innovative Genomics Institute, Lou credits her grandmother’s entrepreneurial spirit as the basis for her own curious nature. “Before I applied to grad school, I knew that I wanted to create a startup in the space of health and maybe food,” she said in 2023, prior to launching Sift. “When the WIES program came along, it just felt right up my alley.”
Visit the Forbes “30 under 30” website to learn more about Lou and others named to the list.