David Van Valen

David Van Valen is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with an affiliate role as an Investigator at the Heritage Medical Research Institute. He holds a B.S. from MIT (2003), a Ph.D. from Caltech (2011), and an M.D. from UCLA (2013). His research integrates cell biology, physics, and computational methods to study how living systems process information through imaging, machine learning, and genomics. Key focuses include host-virus interactions, deep learning for single-cell biology, and spatial genomics.

He leads the Van Valen Lab, supported by grants from NIH, HHMI, and foundations like the Rita Allen Foundation. Notable achievements include developing the Mesmer segmentation pipeline, the DeepCell ecosystem for image analysis, and contributions to spatial transcriptomics. Awards include the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2023) and HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar designation (2023). His lab also pioneered the Microwell platform for organoid phenotyping and tools like Nimbus for multiplexed imaging analysis.