PALO ALTO, Calif., June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Cell Biosciences, Inc., a provider of ultrasensitive protein detection and characterization systems to life science researchers, today announced three important additions to its management team.
Tim Harkness was named President and Chief Executive Officer. From 1998 through 2007, Mr. Harkness was the Chief Financial Officer for Molecular Devices Corporation where he helped build the company into a global leader in life science research tools with over $185 million in revenue before successfully selling the company in 2007. Mr. Harkness brings deep knowledge of worldwide life sciences markets, and is expected to lead the transformation of Cell Biosciences into a mature commercial operation.
Richard Lussier was named Vice President, Sales and International Operations. Mr. Lussier has more than 20 years experience in life science sales and commercial operations, including 13 years in the Applera businesses Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics. During his tenure at Applera, he served as President and General Manager of their Japanese subsidiary for five years. More recently, Mr. Lussier established the worldwide sales, service, and support organization for Solexa Inc., now part of Illumina Inc.
Also announced was the appointment of Walter Ausserer, Ph.D. as Vice President, Marketing. Dr. Ausserer has more than 15 years experience in the development, sales, and marketing of bioanalytical instrumentation. Most recently, he directed product development at Axela Biosensors, a developer of label-free protein characterization systems. Dr. Ausserer previously held senior product development and marketing positions at Caliper Life Sciences and Dionex Corporation.
“The Cell Biosciences team has developed a truly revolutionary technology for protein characterization that I believe has the potential to significantly impact many areas of biological research,” said Mr. Harkness. “I am impressed by the tremendous potential of the Cell Biosciences team and technology, and am very excited about the opportunity to lead the company.”
The management team appointments come on the heels of multiple recent placements of the Firefly(TM) 3000 system, Cell Bioscience’s flagship product for ultrasensitive detection and characterization of proteins in extremely small biological samples. Cell Biosciences began accepting orders for the Firefly 3000 system in late 2007 as part of an early technology access program for leading cell signaling and translational medicine researchers. Participants in the program receive early access to the Firefly 3000 system, which provides unprecedented levels of sensitivity for the analysis of precious samples, such as tissue biopsies, fine-needle tumor aspirates, and stem cells.
To fuel its commercial expansion, the company closed a Series B financing round of $27 million in late 2006, with participation from the Wellcome Trust, Domain Associates, Latterell Venture Partners, Novo Ventures, Posco BioVentures, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, RBC Capital Partners and The Vertical Group.
About Cell Biosciences
Cell Biosciences is a private life sciences company focused on nano-proteomics. We are developing instrumentation systems to enable the detection of specific proteins in extremely small biological samples. The company’s lead product, the Firefly 3000, is a capillary-based nanofluidic immunoassay platform designed for ultrasensitive detection and characterization of proteins. Cell Biosciences is located in Palo Alto, CA. http://www.cellbiosciences.com
For additional information, please contact Walter Ausserer, Vice President, Marketing, Cell Biosciences, Inc. 650 859-1485.
CONTACT: Walter Ausserer, Vice President, Marketing of Cell Biosciences,
Inc., +1-650-859-1485
Web site: http://www.cellbiosciences.com/
