Ben (Yuan) Zhao

Observer
DISC Type : ci

Director of Engineering, Bioinformatics at GeneDx

San Francisco Bay Area, United States

Overview

Ben is the Director of Bioinformatics Engineering at GeneDx, specializing in the application of machine learning and computational biology to pioneer gene therapies for rare diseases. His background includes a PhD from UC San Diego and extensive experience leading AI/ML and data science teams at Encoded Therapeutics.

Outside of his primary role, Ben is the founder of Iluvatar Labs, a name that suggests a personal interest in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien. He is also an active contributor to the open-source community, working on projects to make machine learning inference faster and more accessible.

He holds multiple patents for developing innovative constructs to improve the safety and specificity of gene therapies.

Personality Overview

Value Driven

Assertive

Curious

They are generally strong communicators and are not easy to convince.  They can sound friendly and charming but can quickly change gears to become inquisitive and probing. They often ask many questions and rely heavily on information and documentation.

Topics They Care About

Gene Therapy
His career is dedicated to advancing gene therapies for rare diseases by discovering novel regulatory elements and supporting FDA regulatory filings.
ML in Biology
He applies novel machine learning techniques to model regulatory biology and analyze functional multi-omics data to create new therapeutics.
Open-Source AI
He actively contributes to open-source projects, such as vLLM, to enhance the performance and availability of large-scale AI tools.

Media Appearances

Ben has no verified media appearances

Work History

9-2025
Director of Engineering, Bioinformatics at GeneDx
2-2025
Founder at Iluvatar Labs
6-2022 - 11-2022
Advisor at Hubseq
3-2022 - 2-2025
Head of AI & ML / Senior Bio Data Scientist at Encoded Therapeutics Inc.
7-2019 - 3-2022
Biological Data Scientist I / II at Encoded Therapeutics Inc.

Education

2013 - 2019
PhD from UC San Diego
2008 - 2012
SB from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 5 Location : San Francisco Bay Area, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Director of Engineering, Bioinformatics at GeneDx
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Insights For Selling To Ben (Yuan)

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Help them realize that there is no personal risk in making this decision
  • Build rapport, it will come handy to handle hard questions later
  • Share testimonials from known people and give multiple examples of product value

DONT's

  • Don’t try to rush them into a decision, provide all necessary information first
  • Don’t be too objective but make sure to pad your storytelling with data points
  • Avoid making offhand commitments

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Ben (Yuan) is

  • Clear proof of product value matters to them, followed by others' testimonials and rapport.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Ben (Yuan)

  • They are practical yet friendly, don’t expect a clear no very often.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Ben (Yuan) move?

  • They like to analyze well and then make their decisions.
  • Can Ben (Yuan) take some risk or not?

  • They systematically evaluate all decisions and are unlikely to take many risks.

You And Ben (Yuan)

Personality Compatibility


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