Daniel Mueller

CIO at Paldara Pharmaceuticals

Can you please provide a little introduction about yourself

I’m from Morton, Illinois originally. I move around frequently for business. I’ve relocated to Savanna, IL, Peoria, IL, Washington, IL, and most recently, Stillwater, OK.

What has your journey to your position been like? What path have you taken?

I started my first company when I was in high school. It was a chemical and mechanical laboratory where I created instrumentation as well as biotech equipment. I worked with architects for many years and then moved to Savanna, IL, where I was an engineer working for a company that develops consumer product goods. In my career I have worked in numerous manufacturing environments for high profile startups, such as Rivian Automotive as a battery test technician consultant, and Corbion as an Analytical Researcher and Quality Technician. For many years I have worked with neural networks and artificial intelligence, and now I am shifting my focus into genomic sequence analysis.

Has it always been your vision to reach the position you’re at? Was your current role part of your vision to become a tech leader?

Absolutely. This technology has the potential to save many lives and showcases the pinnacle of biotechnological research as it stands today. I have always strived for a position where high value data can result in drastic benefits for humanity. I have a strong background in web scraping and automated research endeavors and have found this position most suitable to capitalize on these skills.

Have you had a role model or mentor that has helped you on your journey?

My high school chemistry teacher, Mrs. Katherine Fritts, was an incredible teacher and mentor for me. With her guidance, I was able to work 3 periods per semester for 3 years in the lab. This accelerated my learning and helped to shape who I am today. Her kind words and great advice stick with me to this day.

How do you see the role of the technology leader evolving over the next 5 years?

Data used to be granular and useful on a small scale, where a google search could uncover all the information you need to solve a given problem. With the rate and scale of the developments in the biotech field, massive amounts of information are necessary for actionable and reliable insight. I think technology leaders are going to have to pivot into the big data picture if they haven’t already and capitalize on the internet from a large-scale perspective.

What skills do you think leaders of the future will need in order to thrive?

Flexibility and the ability to learn. I also think that AI is going to become even more important as time goes on and think that the most successful individuals will utilize AI in their everyday life. Research shows and I believe that humans with the power of AI will always outcompete those without in terms of speed and accuracy.

How do you keep current with new skills, technologies and personal development?

I web scrape in-person presentations from various technological sectors, then take the names of the speakers, attendees, and companies, then follow them on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. By doing this over extended periods of time, I have achieved first level connections with many high-level individuals. This type of networking has proven to be the most impactful for my research and personal development.

What do you see as the next leap in technology that will impact your business or industry in particular?

Fast and cheap genomic sequencing is going to flip healthcare on its head. In conjunction with phage therapeutic technology, almost no infection stands a chance against proper treatment. When we can screen infections with sequencing faster than a lab culture, we will be able to use automated systems to prescribe the most fitting treatment in as little time as possible with minimal human oversight.

“Innovation does not require large amounts of capital.”

If you were mentoring a leader of the future, what advice or guidance would you give to help them on their way?

There is a story I heard which I think is very fitting for future leaders, especially when it comes to cost savings, continuous improvement, and problem solving. It goes something like this: A company is losing clients because empty boxes are making their way into the final palletized shipments. Humans proved to be too unreliable and costly for this application, so the company spent $50,000 on a highly advanced, fully automated robotic picker which would grab and set aside boxes which are empty, such that they do not make it to the end of the line. After numerous issues and errors with the new system, it suddenly seemed to start working. The boss comes to the line to ask the employee how things are going and to check on the new equipment. The employee informed the boss that the machine wasn’t working well so he put a fan in front of the conveyor belt to blow the boxes off of it, preventing empty boxes from reaching the end of the line. The fan cost $10. It just goes to show how innovation does not require large amounts of capital.

Is there anything in particular that you would still like to achieve in your career or what is the next step on your journey?

I want to focus my research in the future on genetic repair for the extension of life. This involves telomere lengthening with hTERT, advanced CRISPR systems for direct genetic repair, and research into other compounds such as mTOR. I do not see a reason why humans cannot live forever, scientifically speaking. Radiation and oxidants damage our DNA approximately 100 times per year. If we can repair these mutations, our wrinkles wouldn’t occur, our organs wouldn’t fail, and our hair wouldn’t turn white. If we can lengthen the telomeres, cell senescence wouldn’t occur. What is required to make this happen is a large enough CRISPR system that is selective enough. See, the issue is that CRISPR-Cas 9 looks for a sequence of about 20 base pairs, then makes a modification to the DNA. Offsite mutations occur due to this fact, and make it unviable for genetic repair, as our genome is quite large. With a CRISPR system with selectivity in the hundreds or thousands of base pairs, it may be possible to gain almost complete selectivity, meaning only one mutation occurs per treatment. This would pave the way for the treatment of genetic disorders as well as the extension of life.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

I would make it so there is a cohesive and circular process to turn agricultural and human waste into fertilizer using anaerobic digestion, such that nutrients are preserved. In such a society, the farmers soil would no longer become depleted over time as nutrients are pulled by the crops, as they could add fertilizer. As well as this, landfills wouldn’t generate waste methane which gets introduced into the atmosphere, and all the methane generated could be used to turn the energy from the sun (converted into chemical potential energy) into energy we can pump into the grid.

Other details that you’d like to add:

The most important thing in business is networking. I am happy to connect with anyone who has similar interests or ambitions. As someone once told me, you can do many things in business, but you cannot do it alone.

A big thank you to Daniel Mueller from Paldara Pharmaceuticals for sharing his journey to date.