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Management and Board of Directors
Meri Gruber
Meri is a
high-tech professional with over 23 years of experience in general
management, operations, investments and business development in biotech,
semiconductor, display, energy and consulting industries with Intel Capital,
Ernst & Young Management Consulting, Elf Aquitaine and Schlumberger
International. Meri is currently a Principal with Clay Street Associates,
LLC, focusing on new ventures in emerging technologies. Meri has extensive
international experience in Europe and Asia and is trilingual. Meri holds a
B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and an MBA
from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Rich Ellson
Rich is a
founder of Picoliter Inc (now Labcyte Inc) where he currently serves as
director and Chief Technology Officer. Previously, he was an Area Manager in
novel printing technologies at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Prior to
PARC, he was at the Eastman Kodak Company in a variety of management and
technical roles in the fields of polymer processing, life science materials
handling, color printing and electronic imaging. His contributions to
internal manufacturing processes were acknowledged by a Kodak Doctoral Award
in 1988. Rich was nominated for the 1994 Lemelson-MIT Prize and is the
inventor on 38 issued U.S. patents. Rich holds a B.S. in Fluid and Thermal
Science and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve
University. Through the Kodak Doctoral Awards Program, he took a two-year
paid leave to study mathematics at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Nathan Hamilton
Nathan is a
professional investor in life science businesses, who brings with him over a
decade of biotechnology management experience to his portfolio. He currently
manages Archangel BioVentures, LLC (ABV), a biomedical investment company,
which he co-founded with Bruce Ames PhD. In addition, Nathan is CEO of
DynaTherm, and Director of Biolog, Inc. He is also an entrepreneur, investor
and consultant to several technology and medical device companies. Prior to
founding ABV, Mr. Hamilton served as President of QIAGEN Operon where he
built the business into the number one synthetic DNA provider in the world.
During his time with Operon, Mr. Hamilton and Robert Saul pioneered a new
technology for manufacturing high-quality DNA products. Mr. Hamilton
received his B.A. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and
his MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
Bruce N. Ames, Ph.D.
Dr. Ames is
a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center, University of
California, Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and
he was on
their Commission on Life Sciences. He was a member of the board of directors
of the National Cancer Institute, the National Cancer Advisory Board, from
1976 to 1982. He was the recipient of a leading award for cancer research,
the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Prize (1983), a leading award
in environmental achievement, the Tyler Prize (1985), the Gold Medal Award
of the American Institute of Chemists (1991), the Glenn Foundation Award of
the Gerontological Society of America (1992), and the Lovelace Institutes
Award for Excellence in Environmental Health Research (1995), the
Achievement in Excellence Award of the Center for Excellence in Education
(1996), the Honda Prize of the Honda Foundation, Japan (1996), the Japan
Prize, (1997), and the Kehoe Award, American College of Occupational and
Environmental Med. (1997), the Medal of the City of Paris
(1998), the Joseph Priestley Award (1998), and the U.S. National Medal of
Science (1998). His over 400+ publications have resulted in his being among
the few hundred most-cited scientists in all fields: 23rd most cited
(1973-1984).
Robert Saul, Ph.D.
Dr. Saul received a
Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in
1978. While an undergraduate, he did research in therapeutic radiology
and in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). He received a Ph.D. in Medical
Biophysics from the University of Toronto in 1983. His doctoral research was
on
human metabolism of nitrates and nitrites, and his published work played a
key role in the debate regarding the use of nitrites as a food additive.
From 1983 to 1986, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of
California at Berkeley in the Biochemistry Department, under the supervision
of Professor Bruce Ames. Here, Dr. Saul studied DNA chemistry and he
published methods on the detection of metabolic products produced by
oxidative damage to DNA. In 1986, Dr. Saul founded Operon Technologies,
Inc., which is today the leading manufacturer of synthetic DNA (oligonucleotides).
He invented that company’s initial DNA synthesis equipment and he made
dozens of innovations to increase the efficiency of DNA synthesis chemistry.
He acted as President of Operon from 1986 to 1999, as CFO from 1995 to 1999,
and as Chairman from 1986 to 2000. In 2000, he played an active role
in the merger between Operon and Qiagen, Inc. (NASDAQ: QGENF).
In 2001, Dr. Saul founded Polymorphic DNA Technologies, Inc., a DNA
sequencing company, focusing on the discovery of SNPs (single nucleotide
polymorphisms).
Polymorphic is now selling SNP discovery services to academic, medical, and
biotechnology researchers. He has made important contributions to
Polymorphic’s novel PCR and sequencing methods. He currently acts as
the company’s President and Chairman.
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