SAN DIEGO, Oct. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cypher Genomics, Inc., the genome informatics company, announced today the formation of a scientific advisory board (SAB) to guide the development and implementation of Cypher’s products, which include MantisTM, the genome interpretation software as a service offering, and CoralTM, a biomarker discovery service. Drs. Kelly Bethel,Michael Hultner, Myla Lai-Goldman, Arnold (Arnie) LevineandDiego Miralles have joined as members of the SAB, alongside Dr. Nicholas Schork, who co-founded Cypher Genomics and is the SAB’s chair. Designed for pharmaceutical companies, clinical laboratories and to support population genomics efforts, Cypher’s fast, accurate and robust genome interpretation and analysis technologies facilitate differentiated molecular tests, efficient clinical trials and enable precision therapeutic decisions.
“Cypher has gathered an exceptional team of scientific advisors who each bring distinctive skill sets to the board. Drs. Bethel and Lai-Goldman are physicians that have routinely utilized genomic information in their medical practices and at leading diagnostic companies, respectively. Dr. Hultner innovates at the interface of technology and healthcare with a focus on population genomics and Dr. Miralles focuses on emerging technologies with applicability to pharmaceutical companies,” said Ali Torkamani, PhD., the company’s co-founder and chief scientific officer. “With his co-discovery of the p53 tumor suppressor gene, Dr. Levine is renowned as a pioneer in cancer research and genomics. We look forward to working with these thought leaders to advance Cypher’s genome interpretation technology to find clinically meaningful information in human sequencing data to improve healthcare.”
“The identification and confirmation of a gene that is associated or linked to a disease requires a diverse and experienced team and previously necessitated years and even decades of research,” said Levine. “I look forward to working with Drs. Bethel, Hultner, Lai-Goldman, Miralles and Schork to advance Cypher’s technology for the discovery of the genetic basis of complex diseases and traits, to better diagnose patients, understand drug response and, ultimately, deliver on personalized medicine.”
Kelly Bethel, M.D., is a practicing hematopathologist in the Scripps Clinic Medical Group and holds an adjunct appointment at The Scripps Research Institute. In addition to her clinical practice, she is the medical director of the Blood Bank at Scripps Clinic and Green Hospital, the past program director of the Scripps Hematopathology Fellowship, and participates in various translational research activities investigating circulating tumor cells, anemia, low-grade B-cell malignancies and myelodysplasia. She completed an internship in pediatrics, a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology, and subspecialty training in hematopathology at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. She received her B.A. in English literature from Yale University and her M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Bethel is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and hematopathology.
Michael Hultner, Ph.D. is chief scientist for Lockheed Martin’s Health and Life Sciences (HLS) division where he promotes technical and business innovations to position HLS for future new business in healthcare IT. He currently manages a diverse portfolio of healthcare innovations including big data analytics, population-scale genomics, and synthetic biology. As a Lockheed Martin Fellow, Dr. Hultner supports corporate engineering and technology with subject matter expertise, strategy, and business development in advanced information fusion, machine learning, software development, and program management. Dr. Hultner received his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Francisco and an undergraduate degree in molecular biology from University of California, San Diego.
Myla Lai-Goldman, M.D. is the chief executive officer and a founder of GeneCentric Diagnostics. Dr. Lai-Goldman spent more than 18 years at Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp), with the last 10 years as executive vice president, chief medical officer and chief scientific officer. During her tenure at LabCorp, she led all clinical, scientific and medical activities, including the introduction of more than 400 clinical assays. After leaving LabCorp, she became a venture partner at Hatteras Venture Partners. Dr. Lai-Goldman received her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology.
Arnold Levine, Ph.D. is a pioneering cancer research scientist, having discovered the p53 tumor suppressor protein in 1979. He established the Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study, which concentrates on research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences in cancer biology. Dr. Levine was previously president of The Rockefeller University, and prior to that he was the Harry C. Wiess Professor in Life Sciences and former chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on a number of cancer center scientific advisory boards. Dr. Levine holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Harpur College, State University of New York at Binghamton.
Diego Miralles, M.D. is Global Head of Innovation, Janssen and leads a multi-disciplinary group focused on enhancing the value of the pharmaceutical business by identifying and integrating emerging technologies and novel partnerships in areas including genomics and clinical trials. In addition, Dr. Miralles is the management sponsor of Janssen Labs and site head of the Janssen West Coast Research Center, part of Janssen Research & Development LLC where he oversees the business and operational management of Janssen Labs including the initial concept development, site construction, business model architecting and company selection criteria. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at Cornell University and New York Hospital.
Nicholas Schork, Ph.D. is a co-founder of Cypher Genomics and chair of Cypher’s SAB. Dr. Schork is a world-expert in quantitative and integrated human genetics and genomics, particularly the design and implementation of methodologies to dissect the genetic basis of complex traits and diseases and is the lead inventor of Cypher Genomics’ biomarker discovery technology. He is professor and director of Human Biology at the J. Craig Venter Institute and the head of Integrated Genomics at Human Longevity, Inc. Dr. Schork has published more than 425 scientific articles and book chapters on the analysis of complex, multifactorial traits and diseases.
About Cypher Genomics
Cypher Genomics is a leading genome informatics company offering a highly accurate, rapid and robust interpretation software solution for users of human genome sequencing. The proprietary, automated genomic interpretation platform allows clinical laboratories to tune Cypher Genomics’ market leading sensitivity and specificity profiles to develop molecular tests for diagnostic and prognostic use and pharmaceutical companies to discover biomarkers from whole genome sequence data in sample sizes typical of early stage drug development studies. Through MantisTM, the genome interpretation software as a service offering, and CoralTM, a biomarker discovery service, Cypher Genomics can improve health care and reduce costs by facilitating improved diagnostic accuracy and earlier interventions, optimizing therapeutic approaches and reducing adverse drug reactions. Cypher Genomics is located in San Diego, California.
For more information about Cypher Genomics, visit www.cyphergenomics.com and follow us on Twitter @cyphergenomics.
SOURCE Cypher Genomics, Inc.
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