Jul 2026 - Present
Y Combinator
SS26
- $25,000 grant.
Stanford · Y Combinator · San Francisco Bay Area
Shawnak Shivakumar
Building at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biology, oncology, medicine, and longevity.
4
Scientific papers
$25K
Y Combinator grant
~1%
Fellowship acceptance
2026
National debate champion
About
Shawnak Shivakumar is an entrepreneur and researcher studying computer science, artificial intelligence, biology, and robotics at Stanford. He has received grants from Y Combinator, authored four scientific papers, and is the lead researcher on first-in-class therapeutics for fatal cancers at Stanford, where he discovered a novel mechanism of action now in live mouse studies. He is a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, a 2026 national debate champion, and the founder of a company working to extend human life.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computational Biology
- Drug Discovery
- Protein Modeling
- Machine Learning
Experience
Dec 2025 - Present
Stealth Startup
Founder
- Extending human life.
Aug 2025 - Present
Stanford University
Lead Researcher, The eIF4E Project
- First author and project lead across Stanford and Stony Brook, developing first-in-class eIF4E therapeutics for fatal cancers.
- Discovered a novel mechanism of action targeting a cryptic pocket, with in vivo mouse studies in progress.
May 2025 - Sep 2025
Harvard University
Deep Learning Researcher, Harvard OpenBio Institute
- Top Project Award at the Harvard OpenBio Symposium 2025, selected from 120+ fellowship projects and awarded publication.
May 2025 - Sep 2025
Stony Brook University
Simons Fellow, Computational Biology Researcher
- AI-enabled discovery of a cryptic pocket and ligands in oncogenic eIF4E.
- Funded research fellowship, ~1% acceptance rate.
Jun 2025 - Aug 2025
Merck
Drug Discovery Cohort (BDDC) 2025
2024 - 2025
The Dark Protein Project
Founder and CEO
- Open-access research project mapping millions of uncharacterized proteins using human-in-the-loop active learning, curating training data for SE(3)-GVP-GNNs and protein language models.
Jun 2024 - Sep 2024
The New York Academy of Sciences
Research Intern
May 2023 - Sep 2023
HELLA Ventures
DePIN Blockchain Analyst
- Research across DLT, L1/L2, and MEV, with applications in voting, real estate, and logistics.
EducationStanford University, B.A. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.
Publications
- 01 Forecasting binding affinity of paratope-epitope surfaces with a novel decision tree framework
- 02 Decoding the dark proteome: Deep learning-enabled discovery of druggable enzymes in Wuchereria bancrofti
- 03 ImmunoAI: Accelerated Antibody Discovery Using Gradient-Boosted Machine Learning with Thermodynamic-Hydrodynamic Descriptors and 3D Geometric Interface Topology
- 04 A novel homotopical-sensitive generative framework for selective prioritization of binding-capable molecular interfaces
Recognition
- Regeneron Science Talent Search, Top 300 Scholar
- 2026 Parliamentary Debate National Champion
- Cameron Impact Scholarship, Finalist (Full-Ride)
- Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Scholarship
- International Chess Distinctions