David M. Lawrence, M.D.
Former Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente
In addition to advising the board of SomaLogic, Dr. Lawrence currently serves on the boards of directors of Agilent Technologies, Proventys, McKesson Corporation, and WellPartner, and on the RAND Health Advisory Board, among others. He is a Venture Partner with Physic Ventures and serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Health Evolution Partners and Burrill Life Sciences Fund; and he advises Proteus Biotech, among other start-up companies in the health sector. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honorary Society and the Institute of Medicine within the National Academy of Sciences. Additionally, Dr. Lawrence is board certified in General Preventive Medicine. From 1992 to 2002, Dr. Lawrence served as chief executive officer and chairman of the boards of the Oakland, California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (KFHP/KFH). Prior to these positions, Dr. Lawrence was Health Officer and Director of Human Services in Multnomah County, Oregon, and served as the Director of MEDEX at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington. He also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Health of Chile and as a Peace Corps physician in the Dominican Republic and in Washington, D.C. Dr. Lawrence holds a bachelor of arts degree from Amherst College, a medical degree from the University of Kentucky, and a master of public health degree from the University of Washington. During his distinguished career, Dr. Lawrence has been recognized as the Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington as well as the Outstanding Alumnus at the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. He is a member of the Hall of Distinguished Alumni at the University of Kentucky and holds honorary doctorate degrees from Amherst College, Colgate University, and the University of Kentucky.
Russel T. Ray
Managing Partner of HLM Venture Partners
Mr. Russell T. Ray is a managing partner of HLM Venture Partners. Prior to joining HLM in 2003, Mr. Ray was a managing director and global co-head of Health Care Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he focused on providing strategic and financial advice to life sciences, health care services and medical device companies. Prior to joining Credit Suisse First Boston in 1999, Mr. Ray spent twelve years at Deutsche Bank and its predecessor entities, BT Alex. Brown, and Alex. Brown & Sons, as a managing director and global head of Health Care Investment Banking. He began his career in investment banking in 1982 as a member of the High Technology and Emerging Growth Group at Merrill Lynch. During his investment banking career, Mr. Ray successfully completed over 175 merger and financing transactions for leading health care companies in the United States, Europe and Israel. Mr. Ray is a director of Allergan (NYSE:AGN) and the Friends School of Baltimore. He received a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy, a B.S. degree in Zoology and Ecology from the University of Washington, an M.S. degree in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. degree in Finance from the Wharton School.
John Stuelpnagel, D.V.M.
Former CEO, Illumina
James Linder, M.D.
Dr. Linder is active in both the academic and commercial sectors. At the University of Nebraska Medical Center he serves as CEO of UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer arm of University, he is also Professor of Pathology and Microbiology. In the private sector he is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Constitution Medical, a Warburg Pincus portfolio company focused on developing new diagnostic technologies. At the University of Nebraska he previously served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, interim dean of Medicine and Director of Surgical Pathology and Cytopathology. Nationally he has led numerous pathology organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the American Society of Cytopathology and the United States/Canadian Academy of Pathology. From 1995 thru 2007 he served as Chief Medical Officer of Cytyc Corporation. Among his awards are the Distinguished Teaching Award of the University of Nebraska, the Award for Excellence in Medical Publications from the American Medical Writers Association, and the Israel Davidsohn award for distinguished service to pathology. He consults with, or serves on the Boards of several private companies. Dr. Linder’s interests have centered on the application of new technology in medical diagnostics, including, molecular and immunodiagnostics, telemedicine and cellular imaging. He earned his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Iowa State University, and his Medical Doctor degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and trained in pathology at Duke University.
Richard Byyny, M.D.
Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Colorado
Richard Byyny, M.D. graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in History 1961 and M.D. in 1964. He received honors at graduation and is a member of the honor medical society, Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his internal medicine residency and chief residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in NYC in 1969. He completed an endocrinology fellowship at Vanderbilt University in 1971. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago from 1971-1977. He started the first academic section of general internal medicine and was Head of the Section of General Internal Medicine and Director of Medical Student and Medical Residency Programs at the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1977 as Professor of Medicine, Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Head of the Division of Internal Medicine. He was President of the national Society of General Internal Medicine in 1980. His scholarly work has been eclectic and includes: implementing innovative academic programs; creating educational programs and curriculum; basic science research; phase 2, 3, and 4 clinical trials; and other work. He has published books, book chapters, and many articles in medical journals. He served as an American Council on Education Fellow in 1992. He then served as Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; then Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School for the CU System; and then as Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder for eight years. He currently is Professor of Medicine, Director of a four year required medical student curriculum, and is involved in international health and education. He is Co-Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee at Somalogic.
Lex H.T. Van der Ploeg, Ph.D.
Lex H.T. Van der Ploeg is Manager for VDP, LLC, an independent consulting agency focused on guiding Research and Development for the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries and private investors. At VDP, LLC, Lex focuses on supporting R&D initiatives from a strategic and tactical perspective, as an integrated part time member of Management and R&D teams. Lex functions as Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning at Somalogic, Inc.
Lex’s expertise includes development of Diagnostics and Therapeutics including Cancer, Neurodegenerative disorders, Metabolic disorders and Infectious diseases. Prior to starting VDP, LLC Lex was the Sr. Vice President of Integrative Medicine and Translational Science for Advanced Diagnostics and Discovery (ADD), LLC. ADD divested out of Celgene in 2Q 2011. Since 2009 Lex carried the role of Sr VP Integrative Medicine and Translational Science at Abraxis Bioscience and Head R&D and drug development at Abraxis Health. Abraxis Bioscience and Abraxis Health were acquired in April 2010 by Celgene Corporation. Previously, Dr. Van der Ploeg held the position of, Vice president, Basic Research, and site head at Merck Research Laboratories Boston focused on oncology and neurodegenerative disease. Prior to starting Merck Research Laboratories Boston in December 2003, Dr. Van der Ploeg held diverse functions at Merck Research Laboratories including site head MRL San Diego and Head Obesity research for Merck Rahway and Banyu, Japan. Lex held leadership roles in obesity and metabolism, oncology, neurodegenerative disease research and diagnostics.
Dr. Van der Ploeg received his M.S. degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Biochemistry in 1980 from the University of Amsterdam and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry/Enzymology/Genetics in 1984 from the University of Amsterdam/Netherlands Cancer Research Center. Following receipt of his Ph.D. Dr Van der Ploeg joined the faculty of the Dept of Genetics and Development of Columbia University, as an assistant Professor and received tenure at Columbia University in 1987. Dr Van der Ploeg held an adjunct faculty position at the Dept of Genetics and Development of Columbia University from 1992 through 2009. Dr. Van der Ploeg received numerous awards and grants for his research and has published over 200 research articles. He is an inventor on over 50 patents and patent applications.
Daniel Rifkin, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell Biology & Medicine, New York University
Daniel Rifkin is currently Alan Poindexter Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1968) and did postdoctoral training in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Rockefeller University, where he was Assistant and Associate Professor before moving to NYUMC. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cell Biology and Matrix Biology. He has worked in the areas of proteases and cancer invasion, growth factor control of angiogenesis, and the biology of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß). Recently his lab has characterized the role to TGF-ß in fibrotic and connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma and Marfan syndrome.
Preston Hensley, Ph.D.
Preston Hensley, PhD, is a consultant in Translational and Systems Medicine. He is a former Senior Director in the Pfizer BioInnovation and Biotechnology Center. He joined the group in December of 2007 and focused on collaborative alliances between the Pfizer scientific organization and the greater Boston research community. A major effort in that group was to set up the Insulin Resistance Pathways Project. This was a 14 MM$ three year effort between Pfizer, MIT, UMass, UCSB, Cal Tech and Entelos aimed at using systems biology to identify a new class of diabetes drug discovery targets.
His current effort extends this approach, now focusing on drug resistance in breast cancer, to start, and drug resistance generally. He is the leader of a multinational translational medicine collaboration of basic researchers and clinicians. This will be one of the first projects out of the pharmaceutical sector of Skolkovo, a national effort of Russian Federation to develop technology in five areas (space and telecom, pharmaceuticals, energy efficiency, information and nuclear technology). This project will be a roughly 50 MM$ effort over five years, with research hubs in Cambridge, MA, Edinburgh and Moscow.
Dr. Hensley joined Pfizer in 1998, as the Manager of Protein Chemistry in the Global Research and Development organization in Groton, CT. The group was expanded to Protein and Peptide Chemistry in 1999. In 2002, he was appointed Director of Protein and Cell Science and was responsible for production and functional characterization of proteins, peptides, eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells in support of exploratory drug discovery, high throughput screening, structure-based drug design, ADMET screen design and execution, and biomarker development. In 2003 he was appointed a Pfizer Science Ambassador. In this role, he has interacted with Members of Congress, leaders from the NIH and a number of internal and external groups to explain the process of drug discovery and the value of new medicines to healthcare delivery in the nation.
Preston received BA and MS degrees in analytical biology from the University of California Santa Barbara and a doctorate in biochemistry from Cornell University. He did postdoctoral work with Howard Schachman at UC Berkeley, where he was a Fellow of the Miller Institute of Basic Research in Science and a Lecturer in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.