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USD 85 /hr

★★★★★

☆☆☆☆☆

Hire Oscar W.

United States

USD 85 /hr

PhD-trained molecular biologist helping clients with genomics, gene regulation and microscopy

Profile Summary

I am a PhD-trained molecular and cell biologist with expertise in gene regulation, genomics, single-molecule microscopy, RNA biology, and scientific writing. My research has focused on transcription factor mechanisms controlling cell fate, including MyoD1 dosage, EWS-FLI1 function, AAV genome processing, RNA purification methods, and muscle regeneration. I can support projects involving experimental design, literature review, manuscript preparation, data interpretation, and clear communication of complex biological concepts.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Omics
• ☆ RNA Sequencing
• ☆ Environmental Biotechnology
• ☆ Infectious Disease
• ☆ Viral Diseases
• ☆ COVID-19

Services

• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Research Technology Scouting, Fact Checking, Gray Literature Search, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Image Processing, Image Analysis, Data Visualization

Product Development Concept Development, Reverse Engineering

Work Experience

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of California Berkeley

January 2026 - Present

Education

PhD (Molecular and Cellular Biology)

University of California Berkeley

August 2019 - December 2025

Bachelor of Arts (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology)

University of Colorado at Boulder

2015 - 2019

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

PREPRINT

Oscar N. Whitney, Gina M. Dailey, Joseph K. McKenna, Xavier Darzacq, Robert Tjian (2025). Modulating MyoD1 dosage activates alternate cell fate beyond myogenic differentiation .

Anna C. Maurer, Brian Benyamini, Vinson B. Fan, Oscar N. Whitney, Gina M. Dailey, Xavier Darzacq, Matthew D. Weitzman, Robert Tjian (2023). Double-Strand Break Repair Pathways Differentially Affect Processing and Transduction by Dual AAV Vectors .

Oscar Whitney, Brian Benyamini, Meagan N. Esbin, Nike Walther, Anna C. Maurer (2023). Transgene Expression in Cultured Cells Using Unpurified Recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors .

Joshua R. Wheeler, Oscar N. Whitney, Thomas O. Vogler, Eric D. Nguyen, Bradley Pawlikowski, Evan Lester, Alicia Cutler, Tiffany Elston, Nicole Dalla Betta, Kevin R. Parker, et al. (2021). RNA-Binding Proteins Direct Myogenic Cell Fate Decisions .

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). V.4 - Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method v4 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). V.3 - Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method v3 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). V.2 - Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method v2 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method v1 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). Direct wastewater RNA extraction via the "Milk of Silica (MoS)" method - A companion method to "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" v1 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

Oscar N Whitney, Basem Al-Shayeb, Alex Crits-Cristoph, Mira Chaplin, Vinson Fan, Hannah Greenwald, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Lauren Kennedy, Anna Maurer, et al.(2020). Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method v1 . {ZappyLab}, Inc.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Anna C. Maurer, Brian Benyamini, Oscar N. Whitney, Vinson B. Fan, Claudia Cattoglio, Djem U. Kissiov, Gina M. Dailey, Xavier Darzacq, Matthew D. Weitzman, Robert Tjian (2025). Double-strand break repair pathways differentially affect processing and transduction by dual AAV vectors . Nature Communications.

Joshua R Wheeler, Oscar N Whitney, Thomas O Vogler, Eric D Nguyen, Bradley Pawlikowski, Evan Lester, Alicia Cutler, Tiffany Elston, Nicole Dalla Betta, Kevin R Parker, et al.(2022). RNA-binding proteins direct myogenic cell fate decisions . eLife. 11. {eLife} Sciences Publications, Ltd

Hannah D. Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Adrian Hinkle, Oscar N. Whitney, Vinson B. Fan, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Avi I. Flamholz, Basem Al-Shayeb, Lauren D. Liao, et al. (2021). Tools for interpretation of wastewater SARS-CoV-2 temporal and spatial trends demonstrated with data collected in the San Francisco Bay Area . Water Research X.

Oscar N. Whitney, Lauren C. Kennedy, Vinson B. Fan, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Hannah Greenwald, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Basem Al-Shayeb, Mira Chaplin, Anna C. Maurer, et al.(2021). Sewage, Salt, Silica, and SARS-CoV-2 (4S): An Economical Kit-Free Method for Direct Capture of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Wastewater . Environmental Science & Technology. 55. (8). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 4880--4888. American Chemical Society ({ACS})

Oscar N. Whitney(2020). V.4 - Direct wastewater RNA capture and purification via the "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" method . protocols.io.

(2020). Genome sequencing of sewage detects regionally prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants . medRxiv.

Oscar N. Whitney(2020). Direct wastewater RNA extraction via the "Milk of Silica (MoS)" method - A companion method to "Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S)" . protocols.io.

(2020). Blueprint for a pop-up SARS-CoV-2 testing lab . Nature Biotechnology.

(2020). Overcoming the bottleneck to widespread testing: A rapid review of nucleic acid testing approaches for COVID-19 detection . RNA.

Esbin, M.N., Whitney, O.N., Chong, S., Maurer, A., Darzacq, X., Tjian, R.(2020). Overcoming the bottleneck to widespread testing: A rapid review of nucleic acid testing approaches for COVID-19 detection . RNA. 26. (7). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 771-783.

Amen, A.M., Barry, K.W., Boyle, J.M., Brook, C.E., Choo, S., Cornmesser, L.T., Dilworth, D.J., Doudna, J.A., Ehrenberg, A.J., Fedrigo, I., et al.(2020). Blueprint for a pop-up SARS-CoV-2 testing lab . Nature Biotechnology.

Vogler, T.O., Wheeler, J.R., Nguyen, E.D., Hughes, M.P., Britson, K.A., Lester, E., Rao, B., Betta, N.D., Whitney, O.N., Ewachiw, T.E., et al.(2018). TDP-43 and RNA form amyloid-like myo-granules in regenerating muscle . Nature. 563. (7732). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 508-513.

OTHER

Hannah D. Greenwald, Lauren C. Kennedy, Adrian Hinkle, Oscar N. Whitney, Vinson B. Fan, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Avi I. Flamholz, Basem Al-Shayeb, Lauren D. Liao, et al.(2021). Interpretation of temporal and spatial trends of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in San Francisco Bay Area wastewater . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Oscar N. Whitney, Lauren C. Kennedy, Vinson Fan, Adrian Hinkle, Rose Kantor, Hannah Greenwald, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Basem Al-Shayeb, Mira Chaplin, Anna C. Maurer, et al.(2020). Sewage, Salt, Silica and SARS-CoV-2 (4S): An economical kit-free method for direct capture of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from wastewater . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory