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Board of Directors

Evan Jones, Executive Chairman

Evan Jones Mr. Jones is the Managing Member of jVen Capital, LLC, a life sciences investment company. Prior to forming jVen Capital, he was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Digene Corporation, a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on women’s health and molecular diagnostic testing. He is a Board Member of Fluidigm, Inc., Veracyte, Inc., Foundation Medicine, Inc., and CAS Medical Systems, Inc. Mr. Jones is Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Children’s National Medical Center and a Board Member of the Children’s Research Institute. Mr. Jones is Chairman of the Board for the Campaign for Public Health, an organization dedicated to making public health and prevention a higher national priority. He serves on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of Research!America. He has a BA degree from the University of Colorado and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Brian G. Atwood, Director

Brian G. Atwood Mr. Atwood specializes in biotechnology investing at Versant. He is a co-founder of Versant Ventures and before this spent four years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics. He also has more than fifthteen years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry, with emphasis on therapeutic products, devices, diagnostics, and research instrumentation.

Prior to launching his career in venture capital, Mr. Atwood was founder, President, and CEO of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company. At Glycomed, Mr. Atwood concentrated on business development and strategic alliances, closing deals with Eli Lilly & Company, Millipore, Genentech and Sankyo, before leading the sale of Glycomed to Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as director of Perkin Elmer/Cetus Instruments, a joint venture for robotics automation and genomics research instruments and products later acquired by Perkin Elmer. Under Brian’s management, the venture developed and launched the GeneAmp® Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) system, the fundamental DNA amplification innovation responsible for fueling the explosive growth of genomics research. He currently serves as a Board member at the private companies FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc., Veracyte, Inc., OpGen, Inc., PhaseRx, Inc., Immune Design Corp., Groove BioPharma, Inc., and Spark Diagnostics, as well as the public companies, Cadence Pharmaceuticals (CADX), Clovis Oncology, Inc. (CLVS), and Trius Therapeutics, Inc. (TSRX). Brian served on the Board of Directors at Pharmion Corporation (sold to Celgene in 2008).

Mr. Atwood received a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine; a Master’s degree from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bijan Salehizadeh, MD, Director

Bijan Salehizadeh Dr. Salehizadeh has been a member of our board of directors since August 2007. Dr. Salehizadeh currently serves as co-founder and managing director at NaviMed Capital Advisors, LLC, a private investment firm focused on growth venture capital healthcare investments. Dr. Salehizadeh spent seven years as an investment professional and then general partner at Highland Capital Partners; he currently serves as an advisor.

While at Highland Capital, Dr Salehizadeh focused on healthcare investments, primarily in medical products, healthcare services, and biopharmaceutical companies. Dr Salehizadeh has previously held various positions at Medtronic and HealthCentral, and he currently serves on the board of directors of several private and public healthcare companies.

Dr Salehizadeh received an MD and an MS in health policy from Columbia University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an AB in molecular biology from Princeton University.

Corey Mulloy, Director

Corey Muloy Mr. Mulloy is a General Partner at Highland Capital Partners. He joined Highland in 1997. Mr. Mulloy has also worked at ONI Systems, Robertson Stephens & Company and The Whitman Group.

He currently serves on the boards of CrowdSource, Entourage, Fidelis SecureCare, Gigamon, MokaFive, OpGen, Pharmaca, vArmour Networks and YogaWorks, and also works with BAROnova, Hyperion (IPO) and Nebula. He’s a former director of AccentCare (acquired by Oak Hill Capital Partners), BAROnova and Hyperion (IPO), and has been involved with BÂRRX (acquired by Covidien), Conor (IPO; acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Helicos (IPO), NextCard (IPO), NuGenesis Technologies (acquired by Waters Corporation), Pervasis (acquired by Shire), Telcobuy.com (merged with World Wide Technology), Turbine (acquired by Warner Bros.) and US Labs (acquired by LabCorp).

Mr. Mulloy received a Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ronald W. Lennox, PhD., Director

Ronald W. Lennox Dr. Lennox is a founding partner at CHL Medical Partners. Prior to joining CHL Medical Partners in 1997, Dr. Lennox was a general partner at Hancock Venture Partners (now HarbourVest Partners) where he invested in sixteen healthcare companies, eleven of which went public.

Dr. Lennox currently serves on the boards of BioRelix, Inc. PrimeraDx, Inc. and BIKAM, Inc. He has served on the boards of sixteen companies including General Surgical Innovations, Inc., (acquired by Tyco International Corp.), GeneOhm Sciences, Inc. (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Protometrix, Inc., (acquired by Invitrogen Corp.) and CGI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Gilead Scienecs, Inc.). He was founding CEO of Protometrix, Inc. as well as CGI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and was formerly Chairman of the Board of Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.

Misti Ushio, PhD., Director

Dr. Ushio is a Managing Director at Harris & Harris Group. Prior to joining Harris & Harris Group in 2007, Dr. Ushio worked at Merck & Co. for over 10 years in BioProcess Research & Development focused on vaccines and biologics, and was a Technology Licensing Officer at Columbia University.

Dr. Ushio currently serves on the board of Ancora Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is involved with Ensemble Therapeutics Corporation, Mersana Therapeutics, Inc., Senova Systems, Inc. and Champions Oncology, Inc. She was also involved with BioVex, Inc. (acquired by Amgen).

She was graduated from Johns Hopkins University (B.S., Chemical Engineering), Lehigh University (M.S., Chemical Engineering) and University College London (Ph.D., Biochemical Engineering).

“Physical map and genetic map still should be emphasized as an important parts of a reference genome. Recent progress in technologies, such as the whole genome mapping high-throughput platform offered by OpGen, now provide the tools for efficient physical map construction. This independent technology provides not only the validation of the genome sequencing, but also provides the large-scale chromosome structure information that cannot be detected by sequencing. We applied this technology as an assistant tool of the NGS to assemble bacterial, plant and large mammalian genome with reliable accuracy and generate the sub-chromosome graded assembly. The experience in these genome assembly projects shows that the physical map should be the standard for any reference genome to be assembled in further.”

Xun Xu, Ph.D.

Deputy Director at BGI

This independent technology provides not only the validation of the genome sequencing, but also provides the large-scale chromosome structure information that cannot be detected by sequencing.

Xun Xu, Ph.D.
Deputy Director at BGI

“Our research focuses on a wide variety of projects from viruses and microbes to crop plants and mammals. Many of our projects are de novo assembly projects, where, without a closely related genome sequence, it can be difficult to critically assess the results. We often combine different sequencing technologies, and we are finding that regardless of the sequencing platform, error correction, or assembler used, OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping identifies misassemblies and provides the highest quality de novo assembly for further research.”

Matthew Clark, Ph.D.

Team Leader, Sequencing Technology Development

The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), Norwich, UK

OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping identifies misassemblies and provides the highest quality de novo assembly for further research.

Matthew Clark, Ph.D.
Team Leader, Sequencing Technology Development

“We adopted OpGen’s Argus System as the most advanced way of adding Whole Genome Mapping to improve whole genome sequences. We combined Whole Genome Maps with sequence assemblies to correct errors and misassemblies in bacterial genome sequences as part of our program in the Human Microbiome Project. We are now moving the technology into larger genome projects.” 

George Weinstock, Ph.D.

Associate Director  The Genome Institute at Washington University

We combined Whole Genome Maps with sequence assemblies to correct errors and misassemblies in bacterial genome sequences. This is part of our program from the Human Microbiome Project.

George Weinstock Ph.D.
 Associate Director 
The Genome Institute at Washington University

“Certain things you just have a tough time answering with de novo sequencing. And assembly doesn’t always work out as sweetly as you would like. So definitely for any whole genome de novo project that people are insistent on closing we would do a Whole Genome Map optically as well as de novo assembly. And the amount of money you would save is in the thousands of dollars in finishing.”

Stefan Green

Director of DNA Services

University of Illinois Chicago Research Resources Center (UIC RRC)

Definitely for any whole genome de novo project that people are insistent on closing we would do a Whole Genome Map.

Stefan Green
Director of DNA Services