Nathan Yozwiak

Nathan Yozwiak joined Ring Therapeutics in 2018 as Director of Viral Genomics. His research has focused on advancing genomic methods to study viruses and inform health policy.

Before joining Ring, Nathan was Associate Director of Viral Genomics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an Associate of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he oversaw an extensive research portfolio studying virus evolution towards improving diagnostics and outbreak surveillance. He helped establish the World Bank-funded African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease (ACEGID) at Redeemer's University, Nigeria, where he was an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences. This center provided critical insights into the detection and spread of pathogens, including the first extensive genomic characterization of the 2014-16 West Africa Ebola outbreak. Nathan has provided consultations to the World Health Organization on public health emergencies.

Nathan received his Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and Immunity from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University. He completed his doctoral studies in the lab of Joe DeRisi at UCSF, where he studied detection and discovery of known and novel viruses in acute pediatric illness using viral microarrays and deep sequencing technology, including one of the first clinical metagenomic studies. As part of his graduate project, he worked closely with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health to implement and improve testing for childhood viruses. Following his graduate studies, he was appointed a Hellman Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Cambridge, Mass., where he developed an initiative investigating public trust in childhood vaccines.

Nathan’s research and policy work has been featured on NPR, Nature, The Boston Globe, Science, Cell, The Toronto Star, and Wired, among others.