Professor Franklin is a Translational Professor at KAUST and prior to joining he was co-founder, board member and CSO of Alameda, CA based Checkerspot, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on development of microalgal strains elaborating tailored triglyceride oils for use in biomaterials, human and animal nutrition and personal care applications. Prior to Checkerspot, he was VP of Discovery and Molecular Biology at South San Francisco based Solazyme, Inc. where he and his team successfully developed a heterotrophic, microalgal based fermentation platform capable of delivering tailored triglyceride oils at commercial scale, leading to a successful IPO in 2011. In 2005 he co-founded Rincon Pharmaceuticals utilizing microalgal technology he co-developed while at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, CA. Prior to Scripps he was Director of Molecular Biology at Cyanotech, Inc. in Kona, HI, developing cyanobacterial mosquito-larvicidal toxins and leading strain development.