From the first spark of an idea to publication.
Many research programs pair students with graduate students, postdocs or busy professionals for whom mentoring is one responsibility among many. At Bio:Logic, mentoring students is the work.
Every student works directly with Dr. Tobi Schmidt, a Stanford PhD scientist with more than 30 years of experience in research, teaching, and mentoring young scientists.
In an age when answers are everywhere, what students need is judgment. That’s the difference between hearing that an idea is interesting and knowing whether it can be answered, or between discovering a flaw after the data is collected and designing it out from the start.
Advising meets students wherever they are, from brainstorming a question to preparing for competition or publication. Sessions are scheduled as needed, and every one is with Dr. Schmidt.
Bio:Logic is intentionally small, so every student is known, not managed.
Meet Your Research Advisor
Tobi Schmidt, PhD
Scientist. Educator. Mentor. Founder of Bio:Logic.
I’m a cell and molecular immunologist with a PhD from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Stanford School of Medicine.
Before my doctorate, I worked in biotech drug discovery: first in the molecular pharmacology group at Affymax, studying cytokine receptors and G protein–coupled receptors, and then at ChemoCentryx, where I reported directly to the CEO and helped move stalled projects forward.
At Stanford, I worked in Dr. Christopher Contag’s lab as part of Bio-X and the Molecular Imaging Programs, using in vivo imaging to develop immune cell therapies for cancer and contributing to work on oncolytic virus delivery.
Mentoring has been part of my work throughout my career. In the lab, I mentored high school and undergraduate students, and I’ve guided several from high school through medical school or graduate school.
For five years, I taught human immunity in Stanford Pre-Collegiate Program and served on its admissions committee. For fifteen years, I taught courses on immunity, the gut microbiome, and autoimmune disease through the Stanford Continuing Studies Program.
Today, I also interview applicants for Stanford’s Office of Undergraduate Admission as an alumni volunteer, where I have been recognized for the quality of my interview reports, a distinction given to only 5% of interviewers.
My research students have placed at state science competitions and published their work in the Journal of Emerging Investigators, among others. I’m acknowledged in their papers but never listed as an author, because the research is theirs. My students have gone on to Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Berkeley, and other leading universities.
Whatever stage a project is in, I bring the perspective of someone who has done the science, and the care of someone who has spent a career helping students do it themselves.
Independent Research That's Genuinely Their Own
Bio:Logic does not sell lab placements, prepackaged projects, or authorship. Students carry out their own independent research, and Dr. Schmidt provides the guidance, insight, and feedback that help them do it well.
Some students arrive with a project already underway. Others work with Dr. Schmidt to develop one from the beginning. Either way, the questions, the work, and the results belong to the student. That is what makes the experience meaningful, and what makes the work credible to competition judges and college admissions readers.
