PRESS · KIT & COVERAGE
For journalists and writers covering biology, AI, environmental DNA, biodiversity informatics, and open science. Direct press inquiries to contact@biokea.ai .
ONE-SENTENCE
BioKEA is an AI company with a wet-lab moat — a 5,000+ sq ft Berkeley lab and an AI pipeline from sample to verifiable, FAIR-compliant scientific claim.
ONE-PARAGRAPH
BioKEA — Biology Knowledge Exploration Assistant — is an independent biology company in Berkeley, California, founded in March 2025. The company operates the Large Data Collider (LDC), a combined wet-lab and compute platform built around an Oxford Nanopore Promethion 2 long-read sequencer and ~80 instruments sourced through Bay Area biotech auctions. BioKEA runs molecular sequencing as a service (DNA barcoding, environmental DNA, and long-read genomics) for environmental-DNA and biodiversity-omics customers, and is building Agentis, a forthcoming AI-first open-access publishing platform on the AT Protocol.
KEY FACTS
FOUNDERS & CORE TEAM
Sean Jungbluth , PhD
CEO / CTO, Founder
Microbial genomicist building computational and AI tooling for environmental biology. Lectures sometimes at Stanford on microbial genomics; previously studied deep-sea and subsurface microbial diversity across three submersible expeditions to ~2,650 m. Author of open-source pipelines and a contributor to FAIR data standards (MIxS, MIEM).
Michelle Jungbluth , PhD
CSO, Co-Founder
Marine and estuarine ecologist focused on zooplankton communities and food-web dynamics. Combines field sampling with DNA barcoding, eDNA, qPCR, and metabarcoding to track threatened estuarine fishes — including longfin smelt — and identify indicator species in human-impacted wetlands. Lead investigator on BioKEA's San Francisco Bay metabarcoding baseline.
Austin Baker , PhD
Founding Research Scientist
Entomologist and biodiversity scientist managing the California Insect Barcoding Initiative — over 1 million specimens barcoded, with recent work estimating that at least one third of the state's insect biodiversity remains undiscovered. Previously a postdoctoral scholar at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. PhD on parasitoid-wasp systematics.
LOGOS
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RECENT COVERAGE
Sean Jungbluth's DaKineDiving named a challenge winner.
PRESS CONTACT
Press, media, and editorial inquiries: contact@biokea.ai . Or use the contact form with topic Press / media.
