All about Eric Lake
At a glance
Education
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Ph.D, Pharmacology
The College of St. Scholastica
Bachelor of Science, Biochemistry
Research History
Senior Scientist, Illumina
Scientist & Lab Manager, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Graduate Researcher, University of Minnesota
Research Associate, BioTechne
Clinical Technologist, LabCorp
For an in-depth look at my credentials, download my CV.
Life in Wisconsin
I currently live in Wisconsin with my wife, Taylor. We sold our first home in St. Paul to move to Madison, Wisconsin. We're currently deep in remodeling updates to our new house. We have three (yes, I know, it's a lot, but my wife loves them) corgis: Courtney, Timmy, and Teddy. Although we eventually want to move back to Minnesota, life here is pretty cool, too!
Academic and Professional Journey
I earned a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota. Growing up on a dairy farm in rural Minnesota, I developed a strong work ethic and a passion for science early on. I graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN, in 2012. After working for several biotech companies (Medtox Laboratories: clinical drug screening; R&D Systems: protein purification) in the Twin Cities, I joined the University of Minnesota's Department of Pharmacology Doctoral Program, focusing on protein kinases and structural biology. Under the guidance of Dr. Nicholas Levinson, I completed my dissertation in 2021. My journey then took me to the University of Wisconsin, where I used Cryo Electron Microscopy to study bioengineered shark antibodies. Now, I develop enzyme processes for genomic sequencing platforms at Illumina.
Passion for Mentorship and Education
I am passionate about mentoring the next generation of scientists. My love for working with students, whether in the classroom or the laboratory, inspired me to pursue a doctorate. Their enthusiasm continually inspires me, and they challenge me to expand my knowledge. My ultimate goal is to teach biochemistry at a smaller liberal arts college. This passion for education extends to my personal interests as well, including coding, woodworking, and exploring new technologies, all of which I share on my site.
My Personal Statement
Originating from a rural farming background, I was admittedly naïve to the possibilities of research when I selected an undergraduate institute. At that time, I planned to study biochemistry with tentative plans for medical school. My goal was to improve people’s lives through more informed therapeutic options, based on my observations of what seemed to be trial-and-error medication selection by my father’s doctors for his bipolar disorder. However, as I learned more about the numerous proteins that coordinate cellular processes, I began to fully appreciate the complexity of regulating the body through chemical therapy, and I better understood the challenge of medication selection for doctors.
During my junior to senior year of college (2011), my father’s mental health deteriorated severely, leading to my parents' separation. This turn of events ultimately revealed that I was not built for a medical career, and I discovered research as an alternative pathway to my goal.
As a graduate student, I have contributed insight into how the structure of protein kinases—a key class of signaling enzymes implicated in many cancers—is influenced by drug binding, and how the kinase activation state alters drug binding. The results of my studies directly apply to the selectivity of inhibitors currently in clinical development and suggest potential uses for these inhibitors in the treatment of human cancers involving the Aurora kinases. Importantly, the methodology I helped develop can be applied to other clinically relevant kinases and has broad implications for the rational design of improved kinase inhibitors that exploit structural dynamics to gain selectivity. Better understanding the structural motion of protein kinases has the potential to vastly improve targeted therapies and expand our ability to provide personalized medicine to patients.