Diane Dickel

Diane is a genomicist and scientific leader who currently leads Regulatory Affairs for Octant's autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa program. She previously led Octant's first pharma partnership program, translational strategy for lysosomal storage disease programs, and a functional genomics team, developing cross-functional expertise spanning a variety of science and business functions. She is passionate about elucidating the genetic contributors to human disease and harnessing this information to improve treatments.

Prior to Octant, Diane was a Staff Scientist (Principal Investigator) at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she co-led a research group that used genomics technologies and in vivo genome engineering in mice to understand the functions of noncoding DNA sequences in development, disease, and evolution. She received her PhD in Genome Sciences from the University of Washington, where she was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship, and her BA in Biology from the University of Chicago. She has co-authored 65+ publications/preprints to date on mammalian gene expression regulation, human genetics, genomics technologies, and plant biology.

Diane is an avid reader who enjoys hiking and playing board games with her family.