Alan Saghatelian is a Professor at the Salk Institute, as well as the Dr. Frederik Paulsen Chair, Co-Director of Redesigning Biology Initiative and Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology. Alan seeks to understand the molecular basis of diseases by focusing on the discovery and characterization of a novel set of human genes that encode microproteins. Utilizing innovative methods in mass spectrometry and genomics, the Saghatelian lab has discovered thousands of new microproteins and shown that some of these novel human genes have important biological functions.