Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based VP’ operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a VP’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Caroline Savello
VP of Commercial of Color
Caroline Savello is the VP of commercial at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Wendy Mckennon
VP of Design of Color
Wendy Mckennon is the VP of Design at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Emily Reuter
Vice President of Strategy and Operations of Color
Emily Reuter is the Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Alicia Zhou
VP of Research and Scientific Affairs of Color
Alicia Zhou is the VP of Research and Scientific Affairs at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Fatima Sabar
VP of People of Color
Fatima Sabar is the VP of people at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Ashley Chandler
VP of Marketing of Color
Ashley Chandler is the VP of Marketing at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
Steve Lemon
VP, Engineering of 23andMe
Steve joined 23andMe in 2010 and is responsible for product and engineering. Prior to 23andMe, Steve was VP of engineering at Loopt and co-founder and VP of technology at Glimpse.com (acquired by TheFind.com). Earlier Steve served as the VP of engineering for Consumer Products and Solutions at Symantec and headed the engineering team at Cendura (acquired by CA), growing development and QA teams in both the U.S. and India. He also served as the SVP and GM of the Internet Portal Division for Healtheon/WebMD (IPO: HLTH), where he operated worldwide engineering and business teams and drove M&A technology integration.
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About 23andMe, 23andMe: 23andMe is a DNA testing technology company that enables its users to access their ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.
Joyce Tung
Vice President, Research of 23andMe
Joyce Tung joined 23andMe in 2007. She has contributed to several of 23andMe’s research publications, and currently develops and manages research projects. she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the lab of Dr. Renee Reijo Pera. At the University of California, San Francisco she focused on the genetics of egg and sperm development and human fertility. Joyce Tung returned to Stanford University for postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Gregory Barsh, where she studied the genetics of human and mouse pigmentation.
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About 23andMe: 23andMe is a DNA testing technology company that enables its users to access their ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.
Imran Haque
VP Data Science of Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Imran focuses his research on developing computational methods to go beyond brute empiricism in biology and medicine.He earned a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley and a PhD in computer science from Stanford University, where his research on large-scale machine learning systems for drug discovery was co-advised by Vijay Pande and Daphne Koller.Following his PhD, Imran served for over five years in roles of increasing responsibility at Counsyl (now Myriad Women’s Health). As VP, Scientific Affairs, he led a research program in both clinical development, analyzing cohorts of hundreds of thousands of individuals to make discoveries in medical and population genetics; and in technology development, designing assays leveraging the ability to customize both chemistry and computation. Subsequently, he was the first chief scientific officer at Freenome, where he built and led an R&D team spanning molecular biology, computational biology, and machine learning to develop non-invasive blood-based screening protocols for early cancer detection.
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About Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a digital biology company, developing a drug discovery platform and pipeline with machine learning.
Raymond H. Diradoorian
Executive Vice President of Allergan
Mr. Diradoorian has been Executive Vice President, Global Technical Operations since February 2006. From April 2005 to February 2006, Mr. Diradoorian served as Senior Vice President, Global Technical Operations. Since February 2001, Mr. Diradoorian served as Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology. Mr. Diradoorian joined Allergan in July 1981. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Diradoorian held positions at American Hospital Supply and with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Mr. Diradoorian received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science degree in Technology Management from Pepperdine University.
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About Allergan: Allergan is a global pharmaceutical company.
Christine A. Tsingos
EVP & CFO of Bio-Rad Laboratories
Ms. Christine A. Tsingos is Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President of Bio Rad Laboratories Inc. Previously, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Attest Systems, Inc., a provider of information technology asset discovery and management tools, from August 2002 to November 2002. Prior to that, Ms. Tsingos was a consultant to Attest Systems, Inc. from October 2000 to July 2002. She was the Chief Financial Officer at Tavolo, Inc., an online retailer of gourmet cookware and food, from November 1999 to September 2000, and she was Treasurer, and later Vice President and Treasurer, of Autodesk, Inc., a developer of design software, from May 1990 to November 1999.
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Ronald Hutton
Vice President, Treasurer of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
James Stark
Vice President, Corporate Controller of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Mike Crowley
Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Operations of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Timothy Ernst
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Jillian B. Thomsen
SVP Finance and Chief Accounting Officer of Nektar Therapeutics
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About Nektar Therapeutics: Nektar Therapeutics develops therapeutics based on its advanced polymer conjugate chemistry technology platform.
Jay Lezcano
SVP & Business Development of Precision for Medicine
Jay Lezcano is the SVP & Business Development at Precision For Medicine.
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About Precision for Medicine: Precision for Medicine is a specialized scientific services company helping life science innovators develop medical products.
Chris Fuller
Vice President of Informatics of Caribou Biosciences
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Alex Aravanis
Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Craig Ciesla
Vice President Advanced Engineering of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Richard Klausner
Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of Illumina
Richard Klausner joined Illumina in September 2013 as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Richard is responsible for Illumina’s strategies for advancing genomics into clinical medicine and public health. He is also part of Illumina’s executive management team, which is responsible for directing all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations. Richard is a Scientific Advisor at Cyterix Pharmaceuticals Inc. He co-founded Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. (Alternative name is Predicant Biosciences Inc.) in 2002. He serves as the Managing Partner at The Column Group LLC. He served as the Chairman of the Strategic Development and Scientific Advisory Council at Sanofi from March 1, 2011 to January 2013. Richard serves as the Chairman of the National Science Education Standards Projects of the National Academy of Science, overseeing the first comprehensive process to provide a vision of scientific literacy in the American educational system and the criteria required to achieve it. He served as Co-Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and Scientific Advisor at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He served as an Executive Director for Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Richard served as the President at the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He served as an Advisor to the President of the Academies for counter-terrorism, and a Liaison to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. From 1979 to 1981, he worked at NIH in National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Laboratory of Mathematical Biology. He served as a Director of Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. and Immune Design Corp. He served as Director of 3-V Biosciences, Inc. He served as a Director of NCI from August 1, 1995 to 2001. He serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Immune Design Corp., Constellation Pharmaceuticals and Audax Health Solutions. Richard served as a Distinguished Scientific and Strategic Advisor of Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Richard currently sits on the board of Juno Therapeutics. He is also the Chief Strategy Advisor for USAID. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Igenica, Inc. and T2 Biosystems, Inc. Rick holds an M.D. from Duke Medical School.
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About Audax Health Solutions, Illumina, Pathwork Diagnostics: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Sara Agee Le
VP of Technical Marketing of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Experienced marketing and communications leader with a proven track record of catapulting life science startup companies. Currently at Oxford Nanopore Technologies disrupting the genomics market with sequencing technology that enables the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere — Learn more at www.nanoporetech.com — Previously took @10xGenomics from Chromium #singlecell launch through IPO, launched RNAscope which was acquired by Bio-Techne, secured the acquisition of Bina by Roche, and helped Atomwise pivot from a biopharma services company to an early stage pharmaceutical company disrupting small molecule #drugdiscovery with #AI.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Rufus Burlingame
VP Clinical Assay Development of Genalyte
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About Genalyte: Genalyte is a life sciences company developing and commercializing innovative next-generation multiplexing technology.
Allan Ng
VP Marketing of Freenome
Allan Ng is the VP of Marketing at Freenome. In that role, he is responsible for all of the company’s marketing activities. A leader in consumer and technology marketing, Allan brings broad experience marketing leading companies. Previously, he was SVP of Marketing for Livongo, a leading digital health company where he helped scale the company to tens of millions in revenue. While at Google, he led the development of the Google Fiber brand from its infancy, and helped grow Fiber to be a disruptive leader in the telecommunications industry. Prior to Google, Allan was Director of Global Consumer Marketing for Yahoo, where he managed the company’s brand marketing activities. Allan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Columbia University and an Master of Business Administration from The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Freenome: Freenome is a biotechnology company with a comprehensive multiomics platform for cancer detection using a routine blood draw.
Hamid Rategh
Vice President Engineering of Genapsys
Hamid is VP Engineering at GenapSys, joining back in 2012. Hamid has had a successful career developing a wide range of products, from RFICs to adaptive equalizers for optical communication and Mixed-Signal Memory interface products. Prior to joining GenapSys, Hamid was Senior Director of Engineering at Inphi, who acquired his team and product from Scintera Networks. Hamid also cofounded and served as VP of Engineering of Tavanza which was later acquired by Celeritek in 2002 and subsequently by Anadigics in 2003. Hamid holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
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About Genapsys: Transform the human condition by building a scalable, affordable genomic sequencing ecosystem that will support research and diagnostics
Kristen Hege
Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology/Oncology of Celgene
Kristen Hege has served as a member of our board of directors since October 2018. Kristen Hege is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology and an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She has held a clinical faculty appointment at UCSF since 1997 in the adult hematology and bone marrow transplant program. Kristen Hege has been board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology. Kristen Hege received her B.A. summa cum laude from Dartmouth, M.D. from UCSF and completed a medical residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and Mersana Therapeutics and the Strategic Advisory Group for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. In 2015, FierceBiotech recognized her as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma. Kristen Hege currently serves as Corporate Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology and Oncology and San Francisco site head at Celgene where she is responsible for translational and early clinical development for all hematology and oncology products including small molecules, biologics and cell therapies. Prior to joining Celgene, she served as acting Chief Medical Officer at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Theraclone Sciences and Cellerant Therapeutics. Kristen Hege began her career at Cell Genesys Inc. where she spent 14 years in various roles of increasing responsibility, ultimately leading the Clinical Research and Development organization.
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About Celgene: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Steven Barnes
SVP of Investor Relations of Endonovo Therapeutics
Steven Barnes Senior Vice President of Investor Relations has over 18 years of extensive banking and corporate finance experience representing both the buy and sell side. His corporate, strategic and operational expertise includes public markets, private debt and equity, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and strategic planning. He spent 8 years in the securities industry as a licensed (series 7, 63 & 55) representative of a NASD (now FINRA) Beverly Hills/New York based trading firm where he worked as an institutional trader, financial analyst and money manager. In 2003 Steven founded and was the principal of Empire Financial, Inc., a full service investment banking and corporate advisory firm in Los Angeles, California. He structured numerous private and public debt and equity offerings in many diverse sectors including biotechnology, healthcare, entertainment, and hardware/software technology companies.
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About Endonovo Therapeutics, WHINS Insurance Agency: Endonovo Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf regenerative products.
Agatha Martindale
Vice President and Global Finance of Rakuten Medical
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About BUILTBYGIRLS, Rakuten Medical, Rakuten Medical: Rakuten Medical is a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer.
Darren Farrugia
Vice President, User Experience & Product Design of Veeva
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About Veeva: Veeva Systems is a provider of cloud-based business solutions for the global life sciences industry.
Thomas Witzel
VP of Radiomics of Q Bio
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About Q Bio: On a mission to build the first Clinical Digital Twin Platform and make it accessible to everyone
Asish Xavier
Vice President, Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Asish Xavier is the Vice President of Venture Investments at joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC) in 2004. Asish is based in Silicon Valley, California. Asish previously worked in business development at BioRexis Pharmaceutical, Inc., which was acquired by Pfizer in 2007. While at BioRexis, Asish assisted the company in raising a $30 million second round of financing. Asish has worked in business development at Structural GenomiX, Inc., acquired by Eli Lilly in 2008, and was a project leader at Message Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Asish received a Ph.D. from the University of Houston and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors. Asish received a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. Asish was also a postdoctoral research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University.
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About Cue, ESCAPE Bio, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Legend Biotech, Paige, ViaCyte, XWPharma: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Stacy Feld
Vice President, Consumer Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Stacy received a B.A. in sociology, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Hakan Sakul
Vice President and Head of Diagnostics of Pfizer
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About Pfizer: Pfizer provides access to safe and effective and affordable medicines and health care services.
Keith Patton
VP Software Development of Zerigo Health
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About Zerigo Health: Clarify Medical is a developer of a handheld medical device used to treat psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo .
Gene Hung
Co-founder and Senior Vice President of XinThera
Gene Hung is a Co-founder and Senior Vice President at Xinthera Inc.
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About XinThera: XinThera is a drug discovery company focused on building small molecule oncology and immunology pipeline.
Arthur Levin
Executive Vice President, Research & Development of Avidity Biosciences
Arthur A. Levin, Ph.D., is miRagen’s Executive Vice President of Research and Development. Dr. Levin is a drug development veteran having spent more than 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, of which more than 15 years were in the area of research and development of RNA-targeting therapeutics. He is a recognized world expert on the preclinical and clinical development of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics. Prior to joining miRagen Therapeutics, Dr. Levin was Chief Development Officer of Santaris Pharma A/S, where he led the efforts on the first microRNA-targeting therapeutic in Phase 2 clinical trials, miravirsen. Before joining Santaris Pharma, Dr. Levin consulted for leading biotechnology companies, conducting research and development in RNA-based therapies such as mRNA, microRNA, and siRNA.Prior to consulting, Dr. Levin was Senior Vice President of Development at Isis Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the drug development of Isis’ products across a range of therapeutic areas. His expertise was instrumental in advancing more than a dozen oligonucleotide drugs from basic research to clinical development in areas such as neuromuscular diseases, infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. He joined Isis from Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., where he was Research Leader. Dr. Levin holds a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York, and a B.S. in Biology from Muhlenberg College.He completed his post-doctoral work at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology in Research Triangle, North Carolina. He was the recipient of the Scala Award for Industrial Toxicology and is the author of more than 50 papers and book chapters.
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About Avidity Biosciences, Avidity Biosciences: Avidity Biosciences is a biotech company that delivers nucleic acid therapeutics against genetic drivers of disease.
Andy Geall
Vice President of Formulations and Chemistry of Avidity Biosciences
Andy Geall is the VP of formulations and chemistry at Avidity Biosciences.
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About Avidity Biosciences: Avidity Biosciences is a biotech company that delivers nucleic acid therapeutics against genetic drivers of disease.
Kathryn E. Falberg
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Kathryn Falberg was appointed our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in March 2012. She served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2009 to 2012. Her responsibilities include finance, strategy, corporate development and IT. From 1995 through 2001, Kathryn Falberg was with Amgen, Inc., where she served as Senior Vice President Finance, Strategy and Chief Financial Officer, and before that as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, and Vice President, Treasurer. From 2001 through 2008, Kathryn Falberg was President of Canyon Capital & Consulting, a private investment and consulting firm, where she worked with a number of smaller companies while also serving as a corporate director and audit committee chair for several companies. From February to November 2009, she was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at ARCA biopharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. Kathryn Falberg received an M.B.A. and B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive). Kathryn Falberg currently serves on the boards, and is chair of the audit committees, of biopharmaceutical companies Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. and Medivation, Inc.
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About Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Jazz Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company that identifies, develops and commercializes innovative treatments.
Tony Polverino
EVP Early Development & CSO of Zymeworks
Anthony (Tony) Polverino, Ph.D., joined Zymeworks in September 2018 and currently serves as our Executive Vice President of Early Development and Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Zymeworks, from 2015 until 2018, Dr. Polverino was at Kite Pharma, Inc., which was acquired by Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 2017. While at Kite he served as the interim Chief Scientific Officer and before that as Vice President of Research. During his tenure, Yescarta®, Kite’s lead chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, was approved for relapsed or refractory B cell lymphoma, and multiple programs were advanced to the clinic. Dr. Polverino also assembled an innovative chimeric antigen receptor discovery and development team. Prior to Kite, he was at Amgen Inc. from 1994 to 2014, serving in a number of research leadership roles of increasing responsibility. While at Amgen he managed and advanced numerous research programs utilizing multiple therapeutic modalities, including immunotherapy, oncolytic viruses, bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and small molecules. He also played a key role in the development of over 12 novel antigens for antibody therapeutics. Dr. Polverino earned his undergraduate degree in pharmacology from Adelaide University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Flinders University, both in Adelaide, Australia.
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About Zymeworks: Zymeworks is a computational biotechnology company focused on optimizing therapeutic antibodies and other protein-based therapeutics.
Thomas Alessi
Vice President, Development and Manufacturing of Intarcia Therapeutics
Dr. Alessi joined Intarcia in December 1997 as Executive Director, Regulatory Affairs and Drug Development and was promoted to Vice President, Development in February 2002 with responsibility for the areas of product development, project management, chemistry and manufacturing. Prior to joining Intarcia, Dr. Alessi served as the Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Project Management at Ansan Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for successful IND filings and for managing five drug development programs with oversight of vendors for preclinical and clinical studies and manufacturing clinical supplies. Before joining Ansan, Dr. Alessi was Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Glycomed, Inc. where his duties included oversight and compliance of clinical manufacturing. His previous experience includes regulatory affairs and drug discovery experience in large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Alessi was Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs for Schering-Plough working in the Anti-infectives, Allergy Products and Chemisty, Manufacturing, & Controls groups. While at Schering-Plough, Dr. Alessi had regulatory responsibilities for approval and launch of interferon alfa-2b for hepatitis C as well as for hepatitis B. In his CMC role, he served on separate committees for process development and production of solid oral dosage forms, inhaled products, creams and semisolid products and sterile dosage forms, in addition to regulatory review of the CMC sections of Schering-Plough INDs and NDAs. Prior to joining Schering-Plough, Dr. Alessi invented and patented several new families of antidiabetic drugs while working as a Senior Scientist in the drug discovery group at Wyeth-Ayerst. Dr. Alessi earned a B.S. degree at Allegheny College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in organic synthetic chemistry from the University of Rochester.
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About Intarcia Therapeutics: Intarcia Therapeutics develops therapies for diseases that require long-term chronic treatment.
Paul Negulescu
Vice President of Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Paul Negulescu is the Senior Vice President and Site Head of San Diego Research. He’s been leading Vertex’s San Diego research location since 2003, the site that discovered Vertex’s medicines that treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. Prior to joining Vertex, Dr. Negulescu was Senior Vice President of Discovery Biology and a member of the executive team at Aurora Biosciences. When Vertex acquired Aurora, he was responsible for integrating Aurora’s research into Vertex. Dr. Negulescu received both his B.S. and Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Physiology and carried out post-doctoral work at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Irvine in the areas of ion channel biophysics and immunology.
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About Vertex Pharmaceuticals: Vertex Pharmaceuticals is focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of serious diseases.
Glenn S. Boehnlein
Chief Financial Officer & Vice President of Stryker
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About Stryker: Stryker is a medical technology company that offers products and services in orthopaedics.
Shian-Jiun Shih
Vice President of Product Development of Tessa Therapeutics
Dr. Shih has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with strong expertise in biological drug development, including cell and gene therapy products and therapeutic proteins, with a focus on immunotherapy. Prior to joining Tessa, she was Director of Molecular Biomarkers and Site Lead of the Translational Medicine and Research Centre, Merck Sharp & Dohme. In that role, her group established non-human primate disease models and developed clinical biomarker assays to support early phase clinical trials, including those for Keytruda. Before that she was Director, Assay Development, Cell Genesys, Inc. She has also held various roles in Bayer, Aventis, and Applied Immune Sciences. Dr. Shih is Founding President of the Chinese Bioscience Association. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin at Madison and completed her post-doctoral training at the School of Medicine, Stanford University.
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About Tessa Therapeutics: Tessa Therapeutics is a provider of therapy designed to focus on T cell therapy for solid tumors.
Heather A. Brown
Senior Vice President, Market Access & Reimbursement of HeartFlow
Dr. Brown brings 10 years of experience in advanced medical imaging product development and service. She has held leadership roles in multiple startups and drove the development of AAA stent graft and TAVR planning applications as well as novel methods of assessing cardiac wall mechanics. Dr. Brown developed the first Volumetric Medical Imaging college accredited program at Jefferson Community and Technical College in 2005. She holds six patents. She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
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About HeartFlow: HeartFlow is a medical technology company that provides new methods of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Tim Fonte
VP Customer Success of HeartFlow
Tim is start-up executive and engineer with experience from early-stage R&D through commercial operations. He has worked in the fields of healthcare, software, hardware, product design, and manufacturing. Tim is currently VP Customer Success at HeartFlow. He has co-founded a custom products company. He was a key individual in bringing two high-impact, award-winning, FDA-approved healthcare technologies from R&D to production and initial commercial use: first at Cameron Health and most recently as an early employee and leader at HeartFlow.
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About HeartFlow: HeartFlow is a medical technology company that provides new methods of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Lara Abbaschian
Vice President of Lightstone Ventures
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About Lightstone Ventures: Lightstone Ventures is a leading global venture capital firm.
Dave Schulte
SVP, Managing Director of McKesson Ventures
Dave has more than 15 years of experience, as an investor and investment banker, partnering with entrepreneurs to build innovative health care and technology businesses. He joined Kasier Permanente Ventures in 2003 and helped build KP’s investment program. He is now responsible for managing the Fund’s investment strategy and day to day activities. Prior to KP Ventures, Dave was a health care and software investment banker at J.P. Morgan, UBS, and Piper Jaffray. He serves or served as a Board Director or Observer for several companies: Atheromed, Baxano (sold to Trans1), Hemosphere (sold to Cryolife) , MetricStream, Nursefinders (sold to Goldman Sachs), Proteus Biomedical, Pulmonx, ValenTx, Valeritas and Xanitos. Dave is a graduate of St. John’s University and earned a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University.
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About McKesson Ventures: McKesson Ventures is a California-based venture capital that focuses on the healthcare industry.
Jennifer Carter
Vice President, Portfolio Development of McKesson Ventures
Jennifer Carter is the Vice President of Portfolio Development for McKesson Ventures. Jennifer works closely with portfolio companies to help identify and evaluate synergies across the McKesson ecosystem, which includes McKesson’s business units, customers and employee base. In addition, when these synergies create mutual value she helps facilitate efficient execution by acting as a liaison or project manager in order to ensure McKesson Ventures lives up to its value proposition. Jennifer brings over 15 years of experience from various roles across the McKesson enterprise. Jennifer holds a B.S. in Economics from Boston College. Although born and raised in San Francisco, Jennifer spends harvest season on the family farm cultivating pluots and disrupting the plum and apricot industries.
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About McKesson Ventures, McKesson Ventures: McKesson Ventures is a California-based venture capital that focuses on the healthcare industry.
Curtis Scribner
Vice President, Regulatory of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Dr. Scribner has more than 25 years of drug development and regulatory affairs experience. He spent 11 years at the FDA in the Center for Biologics as a medical officer with wide experience reviewing non-clinical, CMC, clinical, and IND/BLA regulatory systems, including 2.5 years as the Deputy Director of the Office of Blood. He also was the Senior Regulatory Consultant for Quintiles Consulting, Chief Regulatory Office for Intarcia Therapeutics and he is now the Senior Vice President for Medical and Regulatory Affairs for RRD International. Dr. Scribner is a board certified Internist with post-doctorial training in Immunology and Rheumatology at the NIH.
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About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, QED Therapeutics: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Kevin Kaster
Vice President, Patents and Licensing of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Kevin Kaster has 20 years of experience in biotechnology and large pharma with an established track record of developing effective patent and licensing strategies for important technologies and drug products.Kevin Kaster most recently served as Vice President Corporate Development for Threshold Pharmaceuticals, a public company focused on developing anti-cancer agents. Previously, Kaster was Vice President Intellectual Property for Kosan Biosciences, a public company acquired by BMS in 2008 with geldanamycin and epothilone anti-cancer agents. Kaster also previously managed the patent portfolios of Geron Corporation (telomerase and human embryonic stem cell technologies) and Affymax/Affymetrix (combinatorial chemistry and DNA chip technologies) as well as the PCR technology patent portfolio of Cetus Corporation. Kaster began his career at Eli Lilly and Company, first as a research scientist and then as a patent technician.Kevin Kaster is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Law and a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BS in Chemistry and Molecular Biology.
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About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Lygos: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Shelly Xiong
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Shelly Xiong has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in virology, clinical development, and regulatory affairs spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. Dr. Xiong most recently served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at InterMune where she was responsible for establishing and managing the product labeling function for European and Canadian commercialization and US labeling preparation for Esbriet NDA for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Previously, she served as Director of China Operations at Covance in Shanghai, responsible for business strategy, client and goverment interactions. Dr. Xiong was at Gilead for 15 years, where she held positions in Clinical Virology and Regulatory Affairs, leading the clinical virology development program for Hepsera for HBV from Phase 2 through product approval. She was involved in multiple IND and NDA filings as well as commercial product labeling for antiviral programs in the US with FDA and in China with CFDA while at Gilead. Dr. Xiong has extensive experience in drug discovery and development in viral diseases including HBV, HCV, HIV, and CMV. She is an author on over 30 publications in scientific journals and publications. Dr. Xiong received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.S. in Chemistry from Beijing University.
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About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Alex DePaoli
Chief Medical Officer and Vice President Translational Research of NGM Biopharmaceuticals
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About NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute: NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company developing biotherapeutics for the gastrointestinal endocrine system.
Rebecca Newman
Vice President of External Relations of Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Rebecca Newman joined the Salk Institute as the Vice President, External Relations in February 2008. Since her arrival, the Institute has enjoyed an annual net increase in event profits, a historic fundraising cycle and exciting new experiences with unique events such as Chihuly at the Salk, Step into Discovery, the Salk Science and Music Series and Symphony at Salk. In her oversight of fundraising programs, donor relations, and communications, the Institute’s visibility, awareness and community involvement have developed dramatically. In addition, Ms. Newman has led her team to increase private giving by approximately 40 percent over the last four years. She has overseen Salk’s first major fundraising campaign, with a goal of raising $300 million to support scientific research. Newman brings more than 25 years of financial endowment development and capital campaign experience from the business and nonprofit industries. She joined Salk after serving for seven years at the University of California, San Diego, as Associate Vice Chancellor, Development. In this role, she executed a historic conclusion of UCSD’s capital campaign by exceeding its $1 billion goal. She has a long history of volunteerism in the philanthropic community, serving as national president of the United Jewish Communities and National Chair for the United Jewish Appeal Women’s Campaign. Locally, she was campaign chair and president of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego, and a former board member of the Jewish Community Foundation and the San Diego National Bank Business Advisory Council. As a volunteer, she helped design, fund and implement welfare and relief programs in countries as diverse as Argentina, Cuba, Israel, and the republics of the former Soviet Union. A native of Chicago, Rebecca Newman has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Michigan.
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About Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Salk Institute for Biological Studies conducts research on molecular biology and genetics, neurosciences, and plant biology.
Kim Witmer
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer of Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Kim Witmer is Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Salk Institute. She oversees all financial activities of the Salk, including financial reporting and treasury functions, research accounting, annual budgets, procurement, grants administration and endowment/investment management. Prior to joining the Salk, Witmer worked for the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche. Witmer also acts as past President of AIRI, the Association of Independent Research Institutes, as well as serving on AIRI’s Board of Directors and Government Affairs Committee. AIRI brings together nearly 100 independent, not-for-profit biomedical and behavioral research institutes whose mission is to enhance the ability of its members to improve human health and advance knowledge. Additionally, Witmer served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM), and currently holds a position on SCRM’s Administrative Council as the Salk representative. She is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in business administration from San Diego State University.
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About Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Salk Institute for Biological Studies conducts research on molecular biology and genetics, neurosciences, and plant biology.
Jennefer Collins
Vice President of Academic & Administrative Services of Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Jennefer Collins is Vice President of Academic and Administrative Services at the Salk Institute. She is responsible for the education outreach programs, human resources, academic program management including immigration and postdoctoral services, and graduate education affiliate programs, business information systems, and the Salk library. Prior to joining the Salk Institute in 2008, she served in higher education and health care administration, most recently as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Additional positions held include Executive Officer, Biological Sciences at UCSD, and Director of Financial Affairs at the University of Southern California (USC), School of Dentistry. Ms. Collins has received many awards and honors, including awards honoring excellence in Academic Program Management at UCSD, and the Associated Student Body Award for Outstanding Service at USC. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California.
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About Salk Institute for Biological Studies, University of California, San Diego: Salk Institute for Biological Studies conducts research on molecular biology and genetics, neurosciences, and plant biology.
Duane Valz
VP & General Counsel of Insitro
Duane has counseled a wide variety of privately held and public companies on law, technology and business matters. Duane is presently VP & General Counsel of insitro, a company applying machine learning and high throughput biology toward disease target identification and drug discovery. Immediately prior to insitro, Duane was VP & General Counsel at Zymergen, a company applying machine learning and high throughput biology to improving microbial production of in market and novel industrial chemicals. Duane was previously a member of the Patent Team at Google, where he led strategic IP initiatives bearing on mobile, cloud, web and open source technologies. He was also previously Associate General Counsel in charge of patent development at Yahoo! Duane began his career at Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin (now combined with Arnold & Porter LLP). He holds BA and JD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Insitro: Insitro is a drug discovery and development startup that utilizes machine learning and biology to transform drug discovery.
Susan M. Kanaya
Senior Vice President, Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of ChemoCentryx
Ms. Susan M. Kanaya has served as our Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer since January 2006, and Secretary since February 2006. Prior to joining us, Ms. Kanaya served as Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer at Kosan Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company, from 1999 to 2005. Prior to this, she served in financial management positions at SUGEN, Inc., a biotechnology company, from 1994 to 1999, most recently as Vice President, Finance, and Treasurer. Ms. Kanaya also served as Controller with high technology companies and as a public accountant with KPMG. Ms. Kanaya received her B.S. in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About ChemoCentryx: ChemoCentryx develops orally administered small molecule therapeutics that target chemokine receptors and related chemo-attractants.
Renu Chabra
VP Manufacturing and Engineering of Sepragen
Renu Chabra, Vice President of Manufacturing and Engineering at Sepragen, Ms. Chabra has over 25 years of professional experience at start-up companies such as Kinetech and Transtech, and global companies such as Varian and Intergraph. Her experience includes technical management in product development, engineering, software development, manufacturing and operations including off shoring. Over the last ten years, Ms. Chabra has been responsible for the development of Sepragen’s QuantaSep chromatography workstations while directing Sepragen’s manufacturing activities. Ms. Chabra holds a B.S. from California State University, San Francisco.
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About Sepragen: Sepragen provides break-through products and processes to the biotechnology and nutraceutical industries.
Brian Sohmers
Vice President of Products of Apeel Sciences
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About Apeel Sciences: Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste.
Michael Groeninger
Vice President, Corporate Finance of Apeel Sciences
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About Apeel Sciences: Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste.
Jordan Hudson
VP of Strategy of Apeel Sciences
VP of Strategy at Apeel Sciences
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About Apeel Sciences: Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste.
Erich Klawuhn
Senior Vice President of Product of Apeel Sciences
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About Apeel Sciences, View: Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce that improves quality and reduces food waste.
Yael Weiss
VP Business Development of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical
Yael Weiss is Vice President of Business Development at Ultragenyx, a company specializing in the development of therapies for the treatment of rare genetic diseases.
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About Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical focuses on the development of various products for the treatment of rare and ultra-rare diseases.
Lara Hashimoto
SVP – Chief Business Officer of SOPHiA GENETICS
Growing up in Canada, Lara developed an early interest in understanding the role of genetics in common diseases. This took her from studying the genetics of Multiple Sclerosis at the University of Western Ontario to joining the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, UK. Lara joined SOPHiA GENETICS in 2020, but first joined the industry 20 years ago as a Scientist at Roche Pharma based in Basel, Switzerland. She has held several positions spanning Pharma clinical drug development, business analytics, and strategic marketing in the global organization as well as sales and operational marketing positions in the Canadian affiliate. In 2009, Lara moved to Roche Molecular Diagnostics in California as the Lifecycle Leader responsible for the Genomics and Oncology IVD product portfolio and pipeline, launching several companion diagnostics globally. Lara then became the General Manager of Roche Diagnostics New Zealand Ltd where she grew sales above the market for 4 consecutive years. Returning to the Bay Area, Lara then joined the newly formed Roche Sequencing Solutions team where she was the VP responsible for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing and the Nanopore Sequencer before being appointed Chief Commercial Officer.
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About SOPHiA GENETICS: SOPHiA GENETICS is a biotechnology firm that aims to support healthcare professionals by maximizing the power of data-driven medicine.
Charles Eyler
Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer of Puma Biotechnology
Mr. Eyler has served as our Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer since the closing of the Merger on October 4, 2011 and, prior to the Merger, served in such capacity at Puma since September 2011. Prior to joining Puma, Mr. Eyler served as Vice President of Finance at Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. from August 2004 until July 2009 when Cougar was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He also served as the Treasurer of Cougar from April 2006 to July 2009. From July 2009 until March 2010, Mr. Eyler served on the Cougar Integration Committee and oversaw the integration of Cougar’s finance and IT functions with those of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to joining Cougar, Mr. Eyler served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Hayes Medical Inc. from March 1999 to January 2004. Mr. Eyler received his B.S. from Drexel University and his M.B.A. from Saint Francis College.
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About Puma Biotechnology: Puma Biotechnology acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
Farzad Azimpour
Vice President, Strategic Innovation, Advanced Technology of Edwards Lifesciences
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About Edwards Lifesciences, Stanford University, Stanford University School of Medicine: Edwards Lifesciences is the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring.
Satnam Alag
Senior Vice President Software Engineering and Chief Security Officer of Grail
Dr. Alag is a software professional with over fifteen years of commercial software development and management experience, with over twenty years of experience in machine learning and search areas. His expertise is in Big Data technologies, building large-scale multi-tenant SaaS applications, applying intelligence and personalization to Web 2.0 applications, SOA and J2EE architectures, delivering high-quality software, and building high performing engineering teams. He is currently the CTO and VP of Engineering at NextBio. NextBio is a data-driven engine, which is at the intersection of Big Data and genomics. At NextBio, he leads a team that mines billions and billions of data points using the Hadoop stack and commodity hardware. Prior to joining NextBio, he worked as a consultant with Johnson and Johnson’s BabyCenter where he helped develop their personalization engine. Prior to that, he was the Chief Software Architect and Dir. of Application Engineering at Rearden Commerce. He began his career at GE R&D and has held senior technical and management positions at Computing Technologies International and Black Pearl. Satnam is a Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA) for the Java platform. His doctoral dissertation from the University of California, Berkeley was in the area of probabilistic reasoning and machine learning. He has a number of peer-reviewed publications, holds five patents. He is the author of the book “Collective Intelligence in Action”.
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About Grail, Zenufa Laboratories: Grail develops a pan-cancer screening test designed to detect cancers at an early stage.
Poonam Taneja
Vice President, Japan, Korea, India, Global Distribution of Molecular Devices
Poonam started in her current role in July 2010. From 2006 to 2010, Poonam held the position of Director, Global Distribution and was responsible for the company’s business in India, South East Asia, Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Poonam’s previous positions include Director of International Sales at Arcturus Bioscience and Alpha Innotech Corporation. Previously, Poonam held research positions in Italy, Germany and the US in molecular and cellular biology. Poonam holds a Doctorate in Chemistry from Delhi University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
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About Molecular Devices: Bioanalytical Systems and Solutions
Susan Murphy
Vice President, Western Markets of Molecular Devices
As Vice President of Sales, Western Markets, Susan is responsible for Molecular Devices business in North America, Europe and Brazil. She joined Molecular Devices in 2002 and held positions in both the Life Science and Drug Discovery Sales Organizations. She moved into Sales Management in 2007, progressing through a series of sales management roles with increasing commercial responsibility. Prior to Molecular Devices, Susan worked at PerkinElmer and Packard BioSciences. She also held multiple research positions at: Penn State Medical School, University of Chicago, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratories, and Lake Forest College. Susan graduated with a BA in Biology from Lake Forest College, IL and completed graduate coursework at University of Illinois at Chicago in the Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology Program.
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About Molecular Devices: Bioanalytical Systems and Solutions
Shawn Laymon
Vice President and General Manager, Global Services of Molecular Devices
Shawn started in his current role in January 2013. Shawn joined Molecular Devices in June 2011 as the Senior Director and General Manager, Americas Service. Prior to joining Molecular Devices, Shawn held a number of leadership roles at PerkinElmer, most recently as Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Senior Director of Marketing, Strategy, and Mergers & Acquisitions for their OneSource Laboratory Services Business. Shawn holds a BS in Political Science from Framingham State University.
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About Molecular Devices: Bioanalytical Systems and Solutions
Bart Sanford
Vice President, Global Operations of Molecular Devices
Bart joined Molecular Devices as Vice President of Global Operations in October 2010. Bart began his career at Danaher in 2000 as a Materials Manager at Fluke Corporation in Everett, WA. He held several manufacturing jobs and was named Plant Manager of the Fluke site Everett in 2006. In 2009, Bart joined the corporate Danaher Business System Office as a DBS Director. Prior to joining Danaher, Bart worked in Operations at The Dow Chemical Company. He holds a BA in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University, and an MBA from Central Michigan University.
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About Molecular Devices: Bioanalytical Systems and Solutions
Martyn Ansell
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance of Molecular Devices
Martyn joined Molecular Devices in June 2012 as Vice President, Finance. Prior to joining Molecular Devices he was Chief Financial Officer of Vistec Semiconductor Systems, a global leader in the development and manufacture of electron-beam lithography equipment for the semiconductor industry. Prior to joining Vistec, Martyn spent over 12 years at Applied Materials, a manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, where he held a number of senior financial management positions in business development and within several product divisions. In addition, he has held positions at Coopers & Lybrand, in San Jose, California and Ernst & Young in the U.K. Martyn received a BA in Accounting and Finance with Honors from the Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
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About Molecular Devices: Bioanalytical Systems and Solutions
Laura Hix Glickman
Vice President, Research & Cofounder of Actym Therapeutics, Inc.
Glickman, an inventor of Actym’s core technology, has over 20 years of experience working in the immuno-oncology and infectious disease fields. Dr. Glickman is a trained cancer immunologist, and was previously the lead scientist at Aduro Biotech (NASDAQ:ADRO), where she initiated studies on the STING program. Her seminal studies with STING agonists let to the development of ADU-S100, of which Dr. Glickman is a co-inventor. ADU-S100 is now in clinical development, and is being tested alone and in combination with an anti PD-1 antibody for the treatment of advanced malignancies. ADU-S100 was the subject of a $750 MM ($250 MM upfront) strategic co-development alliance between Aduro and Novartis, where Dr. Glickman served as the lead Aduro scientist on the joint development team. Dr. Glickman was co-first author on the seminal journal article describing the unprecedented potency of STING agonists in pre-clinical tumor models, as well as co-authoring several additional STING papers. Before Aduro, Dr. Glickman held scientific roles at Catalyst Biosciences (NASDAQ:CBIO), where she constructed Catalyst’s lead hemostasis compound Factor VIIa marzeptacog alfa, currently in Phase II clinical development, and developed core technology in multiple bacterial, yeast and mammalian platforms. At Hawaii Biotech, she constructed the recombinant subunit West Nile vaccine and early development of the Dengue Vaccine, now licensed to Merck. She was also co-inventor of CDX-085, a novel carotenoid derivative for treatment of cardiac disease and cancer, now in clinical development, which led to the spinning out of Cardax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CDXI) from Hawaii Biotech. Dr. Glickman has multiple years of academic research experience at UCSF and LBNL in infectious disease, molecular biology and genetics, including early work on utilizing transgenic mice to elucidate immune pathways, and researching poliovirus vaccine vectors for HIV and cancer. Prior to that, she performed gene mapping studies for the Human Genome Project at LLNL. Dr. Glickman has 13 patents and 20 publications, as well as having filed two successful INDs. She studied Molecular and Cell Biology (double major with Psychology) at UC Berkeley, and has a Ph.D. in Cancer Immunology from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
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About Actym Therapeutics, Inc.: Actym Therapeutics is a privately-held biotech focused on the discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapies to treat cancer.
Patrick Loerch
SVP Data Sciences & Biometrics of Gilead Sciences
SVP Data Sciences & Biometrics @ Gilead Sciences
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About Gilead Sciences: Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes therapies for critical diseases.
Scott Patterson
Vice President, Biomarker Sciences of Gilead Sciences
Scott Patterson, PhD, is Vice President, Biomarker Sciences in the R&D organization at Gilead Sciences, Inc, where he is responsible for development and implementation of biomarker and diagnostic strategies across all the company’s therapeutic areas.
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About Gilead Sciences: Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes therapies for critical diseases.
Kevin Young
Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations of Gilead Sciences
Kevin Young joined Gilead Sciences in 2004 as Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. Mr. Young is a 29-year veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry, with a career that spans a variety of therapeutic categories including cardiology, oncology, rheumatology, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS. He previously held positions at Amgen, Inc. and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals (formerly ICI Pharmaceuticals). During his 12 years at Amgen, Mr. Young held a number of positions in Europe and the United States, most recently as Head of the U.S. Inflammation Business Unit leading the re-launch of Enbrel® following the acquisition of Immunex Corporation. In 2011, Mr. Young was appointed Commander of The British Empire, one of Great Britain’s highest civilian honors, in recognition of his service to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Young has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Sports Science and Exercise from Liverpool John Moores University and Nottingham University in England and has completed the Executive Program at the University of Michigan.
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About Gilead Sciences: Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes therapies for critical diseases.
Ahmed Afifi
Vice President – Region Head Latin America of Gilead Sciences
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About Gilead Sciences: Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes therapies for critical diseases.
Michael Laird
Vice President of Genentech
Vice President, Cell Culture & BioProcess Operations Genentech, Inc.
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About Genentech: Genentech is a biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines to treat patients.
Ira Mellman
Vice President, Cancer Immunology of Genentech
Vice President of Cancer Immunology at Genentech.
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About Genentech, University of California, San Francisco: Genentech is a biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines to treat patients.
Yun-Fei Zhu
Co-Founder & Vice President, Chemistry of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Yun-Fei (Frank) Zhu (Vice President, Chemistry) is a Founder of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, and pursued his postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Professor Murray Goodman in Department of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego. He joined Neurocrine Biosciences in 1997 where he led chemistry efforts on discovery of nonpeptide GnRH antagonists. He was most recently a Director of Chemistry in the Endocrinology and Metabolism group. His research has involved discovery of small molecule inhibitors of several neuropeptide receptors including CRFR2, MCH receptor, and GnRH-R for the treatment of a range of endocrine diseases.
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About Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Radionetics Oncology: Crinetics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
Stephen F. Betz
Vice President, Biology of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Stephen F. Betz (Vice President, Biology) is a Founder of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied protein structure and stability. He pursued postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of William DeGrado at the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company where he focused on protein engineering and de novo design. He moved to pharmaceutical discovery in the Research NMR Group at Abbott Laboratories, working on protein structure, structure-guided drug design, assay development, and compound screening in several different therapeutic areas. Subsequently, he led laboratory efforts at GeneFormatics, a biotechnology company founded on protein function annotation and characterization. Most recently, he was Director of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Neurocrine Biosciences working on the discovery and development of GnRH receptor antagonists and nonpeptide modulators of other endocrine targets.
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About Crinetics Pharmaceuticals: Crinetics is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
Debora Thompson
Vice President, Strategy and Business Operations of LunaDNA
Debora joined LunaDNA in March 2018, as the VP of Strategy & Business Operations, to spearhead strategic planning and execution of the LunaDNA infrastructure development for the largest human health and genomics data platform owned by its engaged community.
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About Illumina, LunaDNA: The first and largest health and DNA research platform owned by its community.
Michael Henry
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Genomics of Centrillion Technologies
Michael Henry is a Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Genomics at Centrillion Biosciences, Inc. He is also an Advisor of Berkeley SkyDeck.
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About Centrillion Technologies: Centrillion Biosciences develops genomics and DNA analyses technology for personalized medicine, life sciences research, and bioinformatics.
Glenn McGall
SVP Technology of Centrillion Technologies
Glenn McGall is the SVP Technology at Centrillion Biosciences.
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About Centrillion Technologies: Centrillion Biosciences develops genomics and DNA analyses technology for personalized medicine, life sciences research, and bioinformatics.
Allison Wey
Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications of Xeris Pharmaceuticals
Ms. Wey serves as Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. She brings over 30 years of experience in investor relations, corporate communications, media relations and investment banking to Xeris. Prior to joining Xeris, Ms. Wey served as Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Regulus Therapeutics, Durata Therapeutics and Par Pharmaceuticals. Prior to these positions, Ms. Wey was VP, Investor Relations at Boron, LePore & Associates, Senior Vice President at Edelman Financial Worldwide, Managing Director, Financial Communications at Hill & Knowlton, and Associate Director, Equity Capital Markets at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Ms. Wey is a graduate of Drake University.
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About Durata Therapeutics, Xeris Pharmaceuticals: Xeris Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that develops therapies for patients in endocrinology, neurology, and gastroenterology.
Scott Patterson
VP Engineering of Notable Labs
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About Notable Labs: Notable Labs provides personalized drug combination testing service for cancer patients.
Ulrich Ernst
SVP, Technical Operations of Amunix
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About Amunix: Amunix is a biopharmaceutical company intended to discover, design, and develop novel biologics, protein, and peptide therapeutics.
Richard Hector
SVP, Senior Legal Counsel of Amunix
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About Amunix: Amunix is a biopharmaceutical company intended to discover, design, and develop novel biologics, protein, and peptide therapeutics.
Steve Moffatt
VP Hardware of Athelas
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About Athelas, Athelas: Athelas develops technology to monitor chronically ill patients in their homes.
Ryan T Sullivan
Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Anacor Pharmaceutical
Ryan T. Sullivan has served as our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since February 2016, after serving as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from April 2014 to February 2016. From July 2007 until December 2013, Mr. Sullivan worked as an attorney in the legal group of Warner Chilcott plc, a leading specialty pharmaceutical company that was acquired by Actavis plc for approximately $9 billion. During his tenure, Mr. Sullivan served in a number of positions of increasing responsibility, including most recently as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Warner Chilcott plc. Before joining Warner Chilcott plc, Mr. Sullivan practiced in the New York corporate law group of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Mr. Sullivan holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.
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About Anacor Pharmaceutical: Anacor Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform.
Jacob J. Plattner
Senior Vice President of Research of Anacor Pharmaceutical
Jacob J. Plattner, Ph.D., has served as Anacor’s Senior Vice President, Research since February 2004. From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Plattner was Vice President of Small Molecule Discovery Research at Chiron, a biopharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Chiron, Dr. Plattner held managerial and research positions in chemistry and pharmaceutical research with Abbott Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, from 1977 to 1998. Dr. Plattner received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Anacor Pharmaceutical: Anacor Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform.
James R. Marconi
Vice President of Finance & Controller of Anacor Pharmaceutical
James R. Marconi has served as Anacor’s Vice President of Finance and Controller since November 2007. From August 2004 to December 2006, Mr. Marconi served as the Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer for Oncology Therapeutics Network, a leading provider of products and services for community-based oncology practices. From July 1982 to August 2002, Mr. Marconi held various positions of increasing responsibility with DHL Worldwide Express Network, including Financial Reporting Manager, Corporate Controller and, most recently, Vice President and Controller for the U.S. parent company, DHL Holdings (USA), Inc. Before joining DHL, Mr. Marconi was a Senior Auditor for the international public accounting firm, Grant Thornton, CPA’s, LLP. Mr. Marconi received a B.S. in Business Administration/Accounting from the University of California, Berkeley
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About Anacor Pharmaceutical: Anacor Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform.
Carmen R Rodriguez
Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs & Quality of Anacor Pharmaceutical
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About Anacor Pharmaceutical: Anacor Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform.
Michael Pettigrew
VP, Asset Acquisition of BridgeBio Pharma
Michael Pettigrew is Director of Asset Acquisition at BridgeBio.
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About BridgeBio Pharma: BridgeBio Pharma focuses on genetic disease therapies and develops those assets with the right approach in supporting R&D.
Justin To
VP of Business Development and Operations, Gene Therapy of BridgeBio Pharma
Justin To is Associate Director of Portfolio Management at BridgeBio.
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About BridgeBio Pharma: BridgeBio Pharma focuses on genetic disease therapies and develops those assets with the right approach in supporting R&D.
Yongwei Zhang
Group VP, CEO of Americas Region of BGI Group
Yongwei Zhang, Ph.D., serves as Executive Director of BGI Research, the R&D arm of BGI-Shenzhen, world’s largest genomics service company. He is also Chief Operating Officer of Complete Genomics (San Jose, CA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of BGI. Yongwei Zhang has over 20 years of experience in optics-based instruments and systems. He began his career in Quinta Technologies developing optically-assisted computer hard drives. Quinta was later acquired by Seagate. He was a Co-Founder of telecom component startup company iolon, Inc, which has raised ~$100million VC funding. He joined biotech startup Guava Technologies in 2005, where he held positions with increasing responsibilities. Guava was later acquired by Millipore, subsequently by Merck KGaA. As Head of New Product Introduction at Merck Life Science division, he helped to develop and manufacture several generations of Guava flowcytometry instruments and reagent kits, including the award-winning Muse Cell Analyzer. In 2013, he joined Complete Genomics as Sr. Director of Engineering, responsible for the development of NGS sequencing platform BGISEQ series. Yongwei Zhang is also a strong advocate for STEM education. He served as a Board Member of US nationally top-ranked Saratoga School Union District. Yongwei Zhang received his B. Eng in Precision Instruments and B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, M.S. in Computer Sciences, M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
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About BGI Group: BGI Group is one of the world’s largest DNA sequencing service providers.
Crystal Black
VP of Marketing of Aizon
Crystal Black is a next-level, creative data analytics marketing professional with years of experience in providing executive-level strategic and developmental support to achieve brand-marketing and company objectives. As VP of Marketing for Bigfinite, Crystal owns and directs the marketing strategy for Bigfinite’s award-winning AI-informed data analytics solutions for the life sciences industry. She is responsible for building the marketing analytics infrastructure, processes, and dashboards that inform B2B marketing decisions across the organization, and is deeply involved in brand strategy, promotions, content calendar, and strategic partnerships to support Bigfinite’s AI platform offerings. Crystal’s accumulated experience spans partner/channel marketing, martech/marketing, automation/ABM, web and search marketing, event planning, yearly planning, branding and identity, global marketing, and contract negotiations. Prior to joining Bigfinite in 2019, Crystal was the Director of Marketing Programs for Saama Technologies where she drove brand the transition from a services business to a higher value solutions business by building company’s first account-based marketing program, first partner marketing program, expanding corporate communications, and led global sales enablement and operations. Previously, she was Director of Marketing for Grid Dynamics International, Inc., where she built the company’s first marketing plan, launched their first lead campaigns, and supported solution definitions and GTM strategies. During Crystal’s tenure as Senior Marketing Manager for APTARE, she rebranded and updated company messaging, improved lead processes, and expanded the global channel plan, which ultimately resulted in a successful acquisition of APTARE by Veritas. Crystal earned both a B.A and M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is a talented nature photographer and Jeep enthusiast.
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About Aizon: Aizon is a cloud-based SaaS platform that helps optimize industrial processes in biotech and pharma.
Daniel Simon
Senior Vice President, BioPharma Business Development of Guardant Health
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About Guardant Health: Guardant Health is committed to positively and significantly impacting patient health through technology breakthroughs in oncology.
Marcelo Trevino
Global VP, Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance of Agendia
Marcelo Trevino serves as the Global Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Agendia.
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About Agendia: Agendia provides molecular diagnostics and personalized treatment plans for cancer patients.
Zhongjin Lu
Vice President of Product Development of Arcadia Biosciences
Dr. Lu has 30 years of experience in agronomy, crop genetics and breeding, plant stress physiology, and agricultural biotechnology.Prior to joining Arcadia Biosciences, Dr. Lu was Director of Plant Breeding and Senior Scientist at Seaphire International Inc., a seawater-based agricultural company in Arizona, where he led R & D programs for genetic improvement of Salicornia bigelovii as a halophytic oilcrop grown on coastal deserts irrigated with full-strength seawater. During this time, two salicornia cultivars (cv. SIS 1 and cv. SIS 2) for seawater agriculture were released by the USDA PVP Office, and five elite lines were developed for saline land irrigated with brackish water. Prior to Seaphire International, Dr. Lu was with the Monsanto Company where he was responsible for the project of salicornia genetic improvement for saline agriculture. Through the program, more than two thousand genetic accessions in Salicornia bigelovii collected from the wild in North America were systematically characterized, which served as foundation of the salicornia gene bank. Dr. Lu also spent nearly ten years with the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS), China and worked in all aspects of Brassica, including genetics, breeding, physiology, agronomy, and product quality. While with JAAS, Dr. Lu developed multiple apetalous OP and hybrid canola lines characteristic of high-yielding, high-oil content and resistance to Sclerotinia diseases. He attained several scientific achievements authenticated and awarded at both provincial and national levels. Dr. Lu is the named inventor on four patents (two in China and two in the U.S.), and is the author of more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters. Dr. Lu holds an M.S. in Plant Genetics and Breeding from the Nanjing Agricultural University, China and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
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About Arcadia Biosciences: Arcadia Biosciences is an agricultural technology company developing products that benefit the environment and human health.
Don Emlay
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs of Arcadia Biosciences
Mr. Emlay has a total of 39 years of regulatory experience with consumer, industrial and transgenic plant products. While with Zoecon during the period from 1973 to 1987, he worked exclusively with the EPA in obtaining approvals for the first insect growth regulators to be registered for homeowner and pest control applications. For the past 17 years, he has worked exclusively in the plant biotechnology area. As vice president of regulatory affairs with Calgene Inc. from 1987 through 2000, he was active in the initial development of guidance for industry and regulatory agencies for transgenic plants. He led the team of scientists, lawyers and regulatory specialists that brought the first genetically engineered whole food through the USDA and FDA regulatory approval processes. Subsequent to completing the FDA consultation and USDA de-regulation processes for the FLAVR SAVR tomato, he led the completion of the processes for BXN Cotton (tolerant to the herbicide bromoxynil) and Laurate Canola (canola containing a high level of lauric acid). He has extensive experience working with research, product development, marketing, and production groups to ensure planning considers and addresses regulatory requirements. While at Calgene, Mr. Emlay was directly involved with the design and implementation of media and public relations plans associated with transgenic plant products in general and Calgene’s products. He worked with BIO and the International Food Biotechnology Council to guide and shape political and public opinion about transgenic plant products and provides scientific guidance to regulatory agencies. He was active in government relations for Calgene and through BIO. As a consultant beginning in 2000, Mr. Emlay provided guidance to companies developing input trait products and high-value output products. In this role, he provided counsel in the areas of research, product development, production and regulatory procedures to ensure product registerability and acceptance by customers and the public. He worked with all parties involved in the development of a new product to provide the procedures and data required by the FDA to obtain approval of the finished product and by the USDA for commercial growing.
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About Arcadia Biosciences: Arcadia Biosciences is an agricultural technology company developing products that benefit the environment and human health.
