Imaging science, end to end. And the discovery biology around it.
I step in wherever the chain is weak, not only at the analysis: methodology, instrument selection, fluorophore choice, staining panels, live-imaging settings, cell biology, z-stacks and volumetric analysis, quantitative workflows.
I am Lucas Thal, PhD, an independent pharmacologist with imaging as my core expertise, working with biotech teams, CROs, tool companies and investors. I find where an assay or a data package breaks, in the design, the model, the acquisition, the analysis or the statistics, and fix it before it drives a decision.
Book an intro call Four quick questions and your contact details, then pick a time. A first conversation about where you are stuck, no pitch.
Prefer email? [email protected]
Where to start
Imaging and cell-based assays
For anyone generating image or cell data: drug developers, CROs, instrument and reagent companies, and academic cores.
- You are setting up an imaging assay and need the microscope, plate format, fluorophores and controls chosen before the first screen runs.
- Your image analysis produces numbers, but you are not sure they reflect the biology, or only one person can run the pipeline.
- You sell or run imaging and need validation data, application notes or training your customers will trust.
Most teams start with: Imaging and Functional Readout Audit, a scored report with a prioritized fix list · 1–2 weeks · from $12,000.
Therapeutic programs
For discovery teams working with antibodies, siRNA and ASOs or small molecules, and for the investors and BD teams assessing them.
- You have hits or a lead series and several assays, but no written cascade saying which result moves the program forward.
- You need a human cell model that answers your program’s question (iPSC-derived or primary cells, co-cultures, fresh whole blood) or a PD biomarker plan, and no one in-house has built one.
- You outsource most of your biology and need someone senior to pick the CRO, specify the studies and review the data, for one project or as a fractional lead biologist.
Most programs start with: Assay Cascade Design Sprint, a written cascade with go/no-go criteria per tier · 2–3 weeks · from $17,500.
Investors and BD: Scientific Diligence Memo, a red-flag memo in 3–5 business days from $8,500, or a full memo from $17,500.
Either way, the first step is the same 30-minute intro call.
What I do
Images that hold up.
Assay design, acquisition and analysis for high-content and advanced microscopy, from fluorophore choice to the statistics. You get a pipeline you can rerun and a phenotype you can defend.
Details on the expertise page →Human models you can trust.
Human cell models chosen for the question: iPSC-derived and primary cells, co-cultures, fibrosis models and fresh whole blood, with QC gates that separate disease biology from noise. An iPSC neuron, astrocyte and microglia tri-culture is one example.
Details on the expertise page →A cascade, not a pile of assays.
Biochemical to functional to translational, with go/no-go criteria at every tier, for small molecules, antibodies, siRNA and ASOs.
Details on the expertise page →Strategy that gets a program to the next gate.
Go/no-go criteria, build versus outsource, CRO selection and oversight, and scientific diligence, written for the people who have to make the call.
Details on the expertise page →Thalamus Biosciences, Founder 2026–present · Neurocrine Biosciences, Senior Scientist 2021–2026 · PhenoVista Biosciences · Vanderbilt PhD, Chemical Biology · Lawrence Berkeley National Lab · Ten publications, 300+ citations · San Diego
How I work
- No lab of my own, on purpose. I design, oversee, and interpret. Your CRO or your bench runs the experiment. That keeps me independent of the result and lets you spend your wet-lab budget where it belongs.
- Fixed scope, fixed fee. Projects are a written proposal with a named deliverable, a date, and a fixed price. Standing roles run on monthly retainers with a three-month minimum, because the useful work (CRO relationships, go/no-go history, the next gate) compounds over quarters, not weeks.
- Your data stays yours. NDA first. Deliverables are assigned to you on payment. Pipelines I build use open, reproducible tools (Python, CellProfiler, Jupyter), so you can rerun them without a license. Your data stays in your systems; I work in your tenant when you have one, on an encrypted machine when you don’t, and nothing you share is ever entered into a third-party AI service without your written consent.
- A wall on both sides. I hold my former employer’s confidential information with the same discipline I hold yours. Nothing from a former employer appears in my work for you; nothing from your program appears anywhere else. I decline engagements whose purpose is diligence on, or competitive intelligence about, my former employer or its partnered assets. For work near my prior areas, my agreement states in writing that I rely only on the public literature and what you provide.
- What I do not do. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), live-animal imaging, and electron microscopy. I keep a short list of people who do, and I refer without a fee — I take no commission, equity, or consideration of any kind from a CRO or vendor I might recommend to you.
- Independent business. A California LLC serving multiple clients, working from my own equipment on my own schedule. W-9 and standard terms available on request; I will sign your paper when you have counsel and offer mine when you do not.
The first step is a conversation about your gap, and how to get you unblocked.
Four quick questions, then pick a time. I will have read your answers before we start, and you will leave the call with at least one thing you can check tomorrow.