# Ali Madani

> Ali Madani is the founder and CEO of Profluent, the AI-first protein design company based in Emeryville, California. A machine learning researcher by training, he holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and pioneered the use of large language models to generate functional proteins from scratch - first at Salesforce AI Research as the architect of ProGen, then at Profluent where his team created OpenCRISPR-1, the world's first AI-designed and open-source gene editor, published in Nature in 2025. With $150M in total funding from Bezos Expeditions, Altimeter Capital, Spark Capital, and Insight Partners, Madani is on a mission to make biology programmable - designing proteins that don't exist in nature to solve the biggest challenges in human health, agriculture, and biomanufacturing.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Profluent
- **Organizations:** Profluent, UC Berkeley, Salesforce AI Research, UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, IBM Research
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** PhD, Applied Science and Technology (Machine Learning), University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** First researcher to apply large-scale generative models for controllable design of full-length functional proteins, Architect of ProGen at Salesforce AI Research - the foundational protein language model, Created OpenCRISPR-1: world's first AI-designed and open-source gene editor, published in Nature (2025)

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Machine Learning Intern at IBM Research - Almaden, developing cognitive assistants for radiology and cardiology
- **2017** — Researcher at UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, applying deep learning to echocardiography
- **2018** — Published 'Fast and accurate view classification of echocardiograms using deep learning' (707+ citations)
- **2018-2019** — Co-founded an EHR (Electronic Health Records) startup
- **2019** — Completed PhD at UC Berkeley, won UC Dissertation Award and AHA National Innovative Research Grant
- **2019-2021** — Led machine learning research at Salesforce AI Research; architected ProGen, the first LLM for functional protein generation
- **2020** — Published ProGen preprint - first large language model for protein sequence generation across diverse families
- **2021** — Connected with investor Nathan Benaich (Air Street Capital) via Twitter DM; began planning Profluent
- **2022** — Founded Profluent Bio (now Profluent) in Emeryville, CA, with co-founder Alexander Meeske
- **2023** — Published 'Large language models generate functional protein sequences across diverse families' in Nature Biotechnology (1,300+ citations)
- **2024** — Released OpenCRISPR-1 - world's first AI-designed, open-source gene editor; demonstrated human genome editing
- **2025** — OpenCRISPR work published in Nature; ProGen3 scaling laws paper received NeurIPS spotlight
- **2025** — Raised $106M Series B co-led by Bezos Expeditions and Altimeter Capital, bringing total funding to $150M

## Achievements

- First researcher to apply large-scale generative models for controllable design of full-length functional proteins
- Architect of ProGen at Salesforce AI Research - the foundational protein language model
- Created OpenCRISPR-1: world's first AI-designed and open-source gene editor, published in Nature (2025)
- Built the Profluent Protein Atlas, described as the world's largest private protein corpus
- OpenCRISPR-1 is 400 mutations away from any natural protein yet exhibits comparable or improved editing activity vs. SpCas9
- 8,151+ research citations, h-index of 28, i10-index of 31 as of 2025
- Secured $150M in total funding from world-class investors including Jeff Bezos, Altimeter, Spark Capital, and Insight Partners
- Established that AI scaling laws apply to protein design (NeurIPS 2025 spotlight)
- Established commercial partnerships with Corteva Agriscience, Revvity, and Integrated DNA Technologies
- Won UC Dissertation Award and AHA National Innovative Research Grant
- Research covered by New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, BBC, TechCrunch, Forbes, Axios, and Endpoints News

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Profluent raised $106M Series B co-led by Bezos Expeditions and Altimeter Capital, bringing total funding to $150M
- **2025-06** — AI CRISPR genome editor design paper published in Nature, detailing OpenCRISPR technology
- **2025-04** — ProGen3 scaling laws paper received NeurIPS 2025 spotlight recognition
- **2024-04** — Released OpenCRISPR-1 as an open-source AI-designed gene editor, successfully editing human genome
- **2023-01** — Published landmark paper in Nature Biotechnology on LLMs generating functional proteins

## Links

- Website: https://madani.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madani-ali/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thisismadani

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ali-madani
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13