Mark Hallen, PhD

Co-founder and CTO

Mark is a computational biochemist, specializing in algorithms to search chemical space.  His PhD thesis helped to establish molecular voxel theory (MVT), the algorithmic framework that Ten63 uses to search through unprecedentedly large sets of potential inhibitors.  Moving on to an independent position, he developed algorithms to scale MVT up to the 100 trillion-molecule scale.  Most recently, at Ten63, he has adapted these algorithms from protein to small molecule design, and continues to focus relentlessly on improving their usability, modeling accuracy, and computational efficiency. 

When Mark joined Dr. Bruce Donald’s lab at Duke for his graduate studies, the Donald lab was in the process of developing MVT for protein design. This endeavor presented an array of algorithmic challenges, such as the need to maintain efficiency and accuracy in the context of the huge chemical space and conformational flexibility available to the molecules. At Duke and then in an independent research position at TTI Chicago, Mark developed a suite of algorithms to address these challenges. Finally, with the goal of realizing MVT’s immense potential to benefit human health, Mark joined Ten63 full-time in 2019 and has served as its CTO since then. 

Mark’s achievements have been recognized with James B. Duke, NDSEG, PhRMA and Liebmann fellowships, as well as National Merit and Goldwater scholarships.  He is also an avid runner who has run six marathons.