About

Founder and Managing Partner

Kristen got her first taste of the biotech industry back in 2003 at Amgen and has never looked back. Her start in Chemical Engineering allowed her to experience pharmaceutical process development and realize the need for cell biology in bioprocessing.

Unsatisfied with her knowledge of biology, Kristen pursued and earned a PhD in Biological Sciences at the Salk Institute with an emphasis on cancer biology and virology. During grad school, she discovered a passion for communication, mostly in the form of presentations, to a wide range of audiences.

It wasn’t until holding positions in Public Relations (at Chempetitive Group, now cgLife) and Marketing (at Bio-Rad) that Kristen honed in on the art of communication through writing. She quickly learned that science writing was a crucial part of knowledge sharing within the scientific community. In Academia, peer-reviewed papers and reviews were the only revered pieces of written communication, but in the real world, brochures, application notes, news articles, and social media posts were crucial for spreading knowledge of what could be achieved with new technologies.

Kristen started freelance science writing in 2017, getting her start publishing in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN) magazine. She quickly gained many biotech clients and realized that she could help even more companies if she hired additional writers. Thus, Kristen started Biofluent Communications to serve the entire life science industry.

Since the inception of Biofluent, Kristen now focuses on finding and hiring exceptional science writers, and bringing them together with the life science companies that need them. Her passion for science, biology, and communication continues to grow and drives her desire to expand Biofluent.

Education:

• PhD - Biological Sciences - University of California, San Diego.
• BS - Chemical Engineering - University of California, Los Angeles.

Managing Partner and Head Writer

Embriette first recognized the need for a sea change in science communication while a PhD student at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. That belief only grew after she accepted a position as project manager of the citizen science microbiome project the American Gut Project while a postdoc in microbiome pioneer Rob Knight’s lab.

While traveling around the world to speak about the American Gut Project and the exciting microbiome research it facilitated with fellow scientists was fulfilling, Embriette believed that the general public—the people who ultimately benefit from the science we all do—needed to be taught (in a responsible way) about microbiome research, too.

Burned out in academia and with a passion for responsible science storytelling, Embriette left the research lab setting in 2017. She worked briefly at a new startup in the Bay Area, managing their editorial calendar and content strategy, until the company pivoted to focus on laboratory research. Already enamored with science writing, Embriette left that company and started her freelance writing career in 2018.

Working with her first client, SynBioBeta, Embriette talked to and wrote about dozens of companies developing solutions for a better future, becoming intimately familiar with the synthetic biology community. She eventually took on an advanced role at SynBioBeta, managing and mentoring other freelance writers working on articles for the company. She also acquired several other clients during this time, writing about a range of topics.

In 2020, Embriette began working for Biofluent as a freelance writer, later transitioning to Head Writer and Managing Partner. In this role, loves working with and learning from other talented science writers as well as mentoring growing writers—something she desired to continue throughout her career after getting her first taste while at SynBioBeta.

Education:

• PhD - Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine.
• BSc - Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University.
• BA - Spanish, Grand Valley State University.