New York and Cambridge, Mass. – March 19, 2015 – Lifeprint Group, the parent company for GenePeeks, Inc., a genetic information company focused on next-generation disease risk analysis, announced today that Mara Aspinall has joined the company’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman. Aspinall brings deep experience building and leading successful life science companies to support the company’s continued growth.
“We are privileged to welcome Mara as the new Chairman of our Board of Directors,” said Anne Morriss, CEO of GenePeeks. “Her leadership at the intersection of genomics, diagnostics and personalized medicine is incredibly valuable to us as we continue to develop our patented platform and work towards helping any family who wants to protect their future children from serious genetic diseases.”
GenePeeks digitally combines the DNA information of prospective parents to create “Virtual Progeny” and evaluate their risk for more than 500 recessive genetic diseases. The company’s innovative approach uses a next-generation sequencing platform to look deep inside a future child’s potential genome to uncover disease risk that cannot be seen with existing pre-pregnancy screening tools.
“GenePeeks is bringing computational genomics to the challenge of reducing risk for life-threatening and life-altering diseases,” said Aspinall. “I look forward to sharing my insight and experience with the GenePeeks leadership team to help make the company’s breakthrough analysis available to as many parents as possible. In a world where all of us carry hidden risk inside our genes, there is enormous power in seeing this risk in advance of a pregnancy and capturing the true complexity of reproductive genetics.“
Aspinall is the former President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems. Ventana, a member of the Roche Group, is a worldwide leader in the development, manufacture and commercialization of tissue-based cancer diagnostics that enable the delivery of personalized healthcare to patients. During her tenure, Ventana substantially grew its financial and market position, establishing the company as a leading oncology companion diagnostics firm. She currently serves as the CEO of Health Catalysts, a consulting firm dedicated to increasing the growth and impact of early stage life sciences companies. Previously, Aspinall spent 12 years with Genzyme Corporation where she held leadership roles that included President of Genzyme Genetics and President of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. She was the Founder, CEO and Director of On-Q-ity, a diagnostic research company focused on transforming cancer patient treatment and treatment outcomes through the capture of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a patient’s blood.
Aspinall is a Director of Safeguard Scientific (NYSE:SFE), a company providing growth capital for entrepreneurial and innovative healthcare and technology companies, as well as Castle Biosciences. She served for more than a decade on the Board of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, chairing the Science Committee and as a Board member of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts. In addition, Aspinall was an active member of the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Council on Genetics in both the Obama and Bush administrations.
About GenePeeks
GenePeeks is a genetic information company focused on identifying inherited disease risk in future generations. GenePeeks’ proprietary technology digitally combines the genetic information of two potential parents, simulating the complex genetic interactions that occur naturally in human reproduction. The company’s patented platform creates and analyzes thousands of Virtual Progeny to uncover disease risk that cannot be seen with existing pre-pregnancy screening tools.
GenePeeks was founded by CEO Anne Morriss and Lee Silver, Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, to help families protect their future children from serious diseases. GenePeeks is privately held by Lifeprint Group, with offices in New York, NY and Cambridge, MA. For more information, visit www.genepeeks.com.
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