Meet Your Neighbor: Eli Fine
We have some truly fascinating folks here in Williams Park and for this edition of “Meet Your Neighbor,” I had the privilege of getting to know Eli Fine and his wife, Laura. They warmly welcomed me into their home on Spring Villa Lane where they have lived for about two years. They will soon be a family of three, as they are expecting a little girl in January. Join me as a I discover more about how Eli is creating safer and more accessible pharmaceutical drug testing with robotics. I guarantee you’ll learn something.
Eli works for Coyne Scientific, a local start-up, and usually bikes the few miles from home to his lab, where his typical day includes programming “Needle” (the lab robot he designed and built from component parts), working with drug companies to analyze and understand the results of his latest study, and creating presentations for potential investors. And just what does his study entail? Well, normally testing on human cells from multiple people doesn’t occur until the clinical trial (with live humans!), but Eli’s team runs tests in their lab on heart cells from over a dozen different people to find drug side effects before getting to human trials – making the trials safer and less expensive for everyone.
Another benefit of running these tests in a lab, is that as the company grows they will be able to take on other projects like testing specific sub-populations that are often underrepresented in traditional human trials, leading to more informative and safer outcomes for patients of minority backgrounds. Where Coyne currently maintains 15 heart stem cell lines, they plan to grow that number to 30 next year. Ultimately they hope to maintain hundreds of heart cell lines, then expand into liver and brain cells.
While Eli really enjoys his job, science doesn’t follow a typical 9-5 schedule; a few days ago, he received a 1am call from Needle. Needle runs overnight on some routine tasks and alerted Eli that something was amiss. Turns out a door was stuck open on one of the machines that keep the cells warm, so Eli had to make the trek to the lab to shut the door. All ended well, and while Eli did not appreciate being woken up, it served as good practice for the upcoming new addition to their family.
Eli has always had an interest in science and began computer programming at the ripe old age of nine. Laura (who grew up in Atlanta) met Eli (from north of Seattle) in graduate school at Emory. They certainly have a love for science and education in common. Eli received his PhD from Georgia Tech in biomedical engineering and Laura has a Master’s in Neuroscience from Emory. The couple married in October of 2016 and love the walkability and neighborhood feel of Williams Park, plus its close proximity to a great library.
When Eli’s not busy working in the lab with heart stem cells, he and Laura can be found most Thursday nights at Mexico Lindo playing trivia with the Williams Park team. He specializes in science and geography, while she balances out with pop culture and keeping the team disciplined in their points wagers. But their favorite Smyrna restaurant is Porch Light Latin Kitchen, closely followed by Swapna Indian Cuisine. No surprise they favor global cuisine, as they love to travel. One of their favorite trips was a six week adventure to South America where they visited Peru, Argentina and Brazil. So next time you see Eli and Laura out and about, be sure to say hello!
