Discovering Clues for Success | Career Trajectories with Alison Hirukawa, Ph.D.

SLAS Scientific Manager Hannah Rosen, Ph.D., is joined by DropGenie CEO, Co-Founder, Alison Hirukawa, Ph.D., who shares her story of how she went from wanting to become a detective at a young age to leaving academia to become an entrepreneur. Hirukawa explains how she navigated through the academic terrain to pursue a Ph.D., and what helped her succeed along the way. Hirukawa shares her perspective on the growing opportunities in the automation and gene editing space, and advice and resources for early career scientists on launching a start-up company. To learn more about DropGenie, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/drop-genie/About Alison Hirukawa, Ph.D.:Hirukawa, Ph.D., co-founded DropGenie in 2018, a startup that automates gene editing pipelines. She has over 10 years of R&D experience related to the genetic manipulation of a wide breadth of different disease models and cell types including human embryonic stem (ES) cells, primary human and mouse immune populations, patient derived xenographs and transgenic mouse models of breast cancer. Hirukawa obtained her M.S. from the University of British Columbia, and later her P.h.D. in Biochemistry from McGill University.Stay connected with SLAS:Online at www.slas.orgFacebookTwitter @SLAS_OrgLinkedInInstagram @slas_orgYouTubeAbout SLAS:SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.  For more information about SLAS, visit www.slas.org.SLAS publishes two peer-reviewed and MEDLINE-indexed scientific journals, SLAS Discovery and SLAS Technology. For more information about SLAS and its journals, visit www.slas.org/publications.For Students:Visit the SLAS Student Resources to find information on student-focused SLAS awards, grants, scholarships, digital educational content, podcasts and more.Upcoming Events:SLAS Meet-UpsLeiden, Netherlands (10 September 2026)Tübingen, Germany (20 October 2026)SLAS 2026 Sample Management Symposium (October 21-22, 2026 | South San Francisco, California)SLAS2027 International Conference & Exhibition (January 30 - February 3, 2027 | San Diego, California)View the full events calendar