About

I make invisible things visible — cell biology, political accountability, community resources — by building tools that let people interact with data in a meaningful way.

I’m a visualization scientist and full-stack engineer with a Ph.D. in chemistry from UCSF, a fine art background, and ten years at the Allen Institute for Cell Science. My work spans research-grade scientific tools and civic technology, united by a conviction that good visualization empowers people to understand complex systems.

I trained as a chemist and a painter. That double background shapes how I approach every project: with the precision of the lab and the eye of the studio.

Megan Riel-Mehan
Experience
Senior Scientist
Allen Institute for Cell Science · Director: Graham Johnson
2016 — present
Lead Developer
Town Hall Project
2017 — present
Postdoctoral Scholar
UCSF · Johnson Lab, Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
2013 — 2016
Research Technician
Burnham Institute · Pellecchia Lab, Infectious & Inflammatory Disease
2007 — 2008
Education
PhD, Chemistry & Chemical Biology
University of California, San Francisco · Shokat Lab
2013
BS Chemical Biology · BA Fine Art
University of California, Berkeley
2006
Awards & fellowships
Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation
UCSF
2014
QB3 Research Fellowship
UCSF
2012 — 2013
Regents and Chancellors Scholarship
UC Berkeley
2002 — 2006
Selected publications
Integrated intracellular organization and its variations in human iPS cells
Nature, 2023
The Simularium Viewer: an interactive online tool for sharing spatiotemporal biological models
Nature Methods, 2022
A Crosslinker Based on a Tethered Electrophile for Mapping Kinase-Substrate Networks
Chemistry & Biology, 2014 (cover article)
Toolkit
TypeScriptReactthree.jsWebGLD3PythonMapboxRCinema 4DUCSF ChimeraOil paintIllustration
Focus areas
Scientific VisualizationResearchCivic TechFine Art