Drs. Hina Iftikhar (right) and Jesse Gray: 'She’s curious and has great scientific and interpersonal judgment!'
‘A gifted scientist with an understanding of how to operate both within academia and in industry’
As a teenager, Hina Iftikhar set her sights on practicing medicine in her home country of Pakistan. But her father, a physician, was convinced she could “do much more interesting things in life than become a doctor.”
He was right. And so started Iftikhar’s journey into leading edge biotechnology.
Twelve years ago, she graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Biology from the School of Science & Engineering at Pakistan’s Lahore University of Management Sciences. In 2018, she completed a Ph.D. – also in Biology – from Texas A&M University. After five years with biotechnology firms in the Bay Area and Seattle, Iftikhar last year assumed an extraordinary challenge: leading the “Sense Team” with the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology.
“It is a perfect match for my professional interests,” said Iftikhar, 34. “When positions for Seattle Hub opened up in December of 2023, I was actively looking for new opportunity, and the stars aligned. We at SeaHub have started something extraordinary from scratch. And we have a very close knit group of scientists and researchers.”
Those scientists and researchers include her supervisor, Jesse Gray, Ph.D., one of Seattle Hub’s senior directors, and who, like Iftikhar, is an employee of the Allen Institute. Her first interview with Gray, planned as a 45-minute Zoom call, turned into an almost two-hour wide-ranging discussion. That “wide ranging discussion” turned into a job offer. Iftikhar started with Seattle Hub in January of last year.
“Hina is a gifted scientist with an understanding of how to operate both within academia and in industry,” Gray said. “This is helpful for our platform team, which has elements of both worlds.”
The “Sense Team” Iftikhar heads up with other researchers is part of a larger effort with groups focused on engineering cells and genomes to autonomously “write,” “read,” and “act” at a molecular level. It builds and refines signal conversion technologies aimed at sensing changes in cells and transmitting that data to modules that “write” those changes to the cell's DNA.
Seattle Hub, which launched in January of 2024, is a collaboration among the Allen Institute, BBI, the UW, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. It is building new technologies to record the history of cells over time.
“This is the most fun I have had in my career so far,” Iftikhar said.
Her career in science started in high school as a member – and later leader – of the science club. She organized science fairs and other activities. At age 17, Iftikhar took her interest to the next level when she and friends participated in an international competition organized by NASA to design potential settlements in space. Two teams from Pakistan were selected to advance to the semi-final competition in India.
As one might expect, Iftikhar’s team qualified for the international finals at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. While the team did not win, the experience was pivotal for her; she met students from across the world and it led to a critical decision: Her future would include graduate school in the U.S.
Back in Pakistan after two weeks in Texas, Iftikhar, like many Pakistani youth interested in science, started focusing on medical school. But her father, a physician, was convinced she could “do much more interesting things in life than become a doctor.”
He learned of a new science institute whose founders were claiming it could compete with the best research labs in the U.S., and who were promoting it as the first private facility in Pakistan conducting research at the undergraduate level.
“My father convinced me to go to the school’s orientation,” she said. “He said, ‘You might find it interesting.’”
Her father’s comments proved prophetic. One of the orientation’s “inspirational” speakers was a faculty member at MIT.
“Listening to them, I thought, ‘This is the most interesting thing in the world,’” she said. “’Research is what I want to do, not seeing patients in a clinic.’”
Iftikhar started at Lahore University of Management Sciences in 2009 and before completing a Bachelor’s Degree four years later, she had already been accepted to Texas A&M for graduate school.
“It isn’t common for women in Pakistan to go for a Ph.D.,” she said. “And my parents were concerned I would be studying in the U.S. It was a big adjustment for all of us.” How big an adjustment?
“On the flight to Houston, I stared at the seat back in front of me, looking at the small screen with the map of the itinerary,” she said. “I covered my eyes and cried.”
Five years after touching down in Houston, Iftikhar completed her Ph.D., and in May of 2018, started an internship at Genentech, the biotechnology firm in South San Francisco. She later advanced to a Research Associate position, but then left to join Sana Biotechnology, also in South San Francisco, as a Senior Scientist in Analytical Genomics.
“Genomics was not my background, but I had the skills in biology that Sana needed,” she said. “It was a rich experience, a fast-paced start-up.”
That “rich experience” included the design and execution of molecular assays to profile the editing of donor-derived CAR T cells. She was rewarded for her performance throughout 2020 and 2021, receiving Sana’s “High Thrive Award” (April 2021), the “CEO Award” (November 2020), the “On the Spot Bonus Award” (March 2021). Iftikhar later moved to the firm’s Seattle office in 2023.
Now that she has been at the Allen Institute and Seattle Hub for 15 months, Iftikhar has demonstrated her expertise by improving the ENGRAM sensor prototype and inventing the next generation of sensors, as well as importing methodological improvements that have accelerated cycle time, according to Gray.
“She’s curious and has great scientific and interpersonal judgment!” he said. “She gets excited about new ideas and loves to solve problems.”
