Erin Thompson
Erin is a scientist and clinical project manager with a background in protein biophysics and high-throughput screening platforms.
She joined Octant at the start of the pandemic to develop assays for SwabSeq, a pooled and barcoded COVID-19 testing platform, and led its scale-up and CLIA implementation. She then built deep mutational scanning and cell-based screening platforms for early discovery before moving into program management and carrying the adRP program from preclinical research into the clinic. Alongside that, she works with patient advocacy organizations on RHO-adRP community engagement, bringing patient and family input into how Octant designs and runs its studies. She is now the sponsor-side project manager for Octant's first clinical trial, a two-part first-in-human Phase 1/2 study of an oral small molecule for autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP).
Before joining Octant, she completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry & Chemical Biology at UCSF in James Fraser's lab. Her thesis work focused on glutamine synthetase deficiency, a rare monogenic disease, where she used deep mutational scanning, in vitro kinetics, and structural methods to map how a protein's conformational landscape shapes function and which variants an intervention can rescue.
Outside of work, Erin loves to get outside to bike, run, hike, and backpack.