Rebecca Vaught is an Alabama native and Auburn microbiology alumni. While attending graduate school at Monash University, I was struck with an idea during a departmental seminar that forms the basis of my current company, Van Heron Labs, which shifts current paradigms regarding cellular metabolism and targets and corrects the root-causes of bio-inefficiency across industries and disciplines harnessing living matter within their processes. I now lead the vibrant Van Heron Labs team in our burgeoning commercial and R&D ventures across our Houston and Huntsville locations. In addition to these pursuits, I'm extremely passionate about growing culture and opportunities surrounding life-science commercialization and entrepreneurship in Alabama, and specifically want to use my previous experiences and current reality as a biotech founder to shape initiatives in the state and in the broader southern U.S.