# Stephen Larson

> Stephen Larson is a neuroscientist and entrepreneur who co-founded OpenWorm, the open-science effort to build the first complete digital organism by simulating the 302-neuron nervous system of the roundworm C. elegans. He is co-founder and CEO of MetaCell, a life-science software company that helps pharmaceutical firms and research institutions visualize, analyze, and collaborate on complex biological data. Trained at MIT in computer science and AI and at UC San Diego in neuroscience, he sits at the intersection of code and biology, betting that understanding a worm in silico is a first step toward understanding the human brain.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at MetaCell
- **Organizations:** MetaCell, OpenWorm Foundation, One Mind for Research
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S. in Computer Science (focus on artificial intelligence / self-organizing knowledge representations), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego
- **Known for:** Co-founded OpenWorm, a global open-science project with 100+ contributors aiming to build the first complete digital organism, Built MetaCell into a life-science software company serving Johnson & Johnson, the Allen Institute, Princeton, Mount Sinai, UPenn, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Co-created neuroscience resources NeuroLex.org and WholeBrainCatalog.org

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Software engineer and project manager at Morgan Stanley, Equity Research division, New York City
- **2010** — Pitched the idea of simulating C. elegans at Ignite San Diego on August 3
- **2011** — Co-founded OpenWorm with Giovanni Idili and Matteo Cantarelli; proposed the project's name
- **2011** — Served as CIO at One Mind for Research
- **2014** — Co-authored the OpenWorm paper in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience
- **2015** — OpenWorm team uploaded a worm connectome model into a LEGO robot that navigated obstacles without explicit programming
- **ongoing** — Co-founder and CEO of MetaCell, leading life-science software for pharma and research institutions
- **ongoing** — Project Director of the OpenWorm Foundation

## Achievements

- Co-founded OpenWorm, a global open-science project with 100+ contributors aiming to build the first complete digital organism
- Built MetaCell into a life-science software company serving Johnson & Johnson, the Allen Institute, Princeton, Mount Sinai, UPenn, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- Co-created neuroscience resources NeuroLex.org and WholeBrainCatalog.org
- Published in journals including Frontiers and Nature; work featured in the New York Times, Wired, Discover, and MSNBC.com
- Holds a patent and has presented at more than two dozen forums
- Delivered TEDxBangalore talks on the worm and consciousness

## Links

- Website: https://metacell.us
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephendavidlarson
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/MetaCell
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY2-0-QsuTE

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/stephen-larson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-21