Individual Biographies
Dr. Douglas P. Clark is our Chief Medical Officer and Acting CEO. He is also a Professor of Pathology and Oncology at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where he served as the director of the Division of Cytopathology from 2002-2010. He is a board-certified anatomic pathologist and cytopathologist with experience in oncology, microbiology and molecular diagnostics. He serves on the editorial boards of Cancer Cytopathology and Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics.
Dr. Clark has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate molecular biomarkers into the field of pathology. At Johns Hopkins, he has successfully developed a comprehensive molecular cytopathology program that serves as a vital resource to clinical trial development, particularly in the area of oncology. This work has led to numerous publications and a pending patent for a targeted therapy-related diagnostic test that has been licensed by BioMarker Strategies. Dr. Clark received his M.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and his B.A. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University.
Greg Bertenshaw, Ph.D. is the Director of R&D at BioMarker Strategies, and focusing his effforts on the development of the SnapPath™ biomarker testing system. Before joining BioMarker Strategies, Dr. Bertenshaw was Director at Correlogic Systems, Inc., a biomarker discovery company developing in vitro diagnostic tests for ovarian, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. In particular, Dr. Bertenshaw worked with a multidisciplinary team to develop an immunoassay Luminex-based ovarian cancer diagnostic test (OvaCheck™). Dr. Bertenshaw was involved in all phases of the development from the biomarker discovery phase through submission to the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Bertenshaw holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Mr. Jack Davis brings more than forty years of experience forming and leading companies in the molecular diagnostics, pathology, and clinical laboratory industries. Mr. Davis has a track record of success bringing breakthrough technologies and tests to the market for the benefit of cancer patients.
Mr. Davis’ professional career includes serving as a co-founder, President/COO and later CEO, and Chairman of Dianon Systems, Inc., which he helped build from a venture capital backed start-up to a leading provider of Clinical and Anatomic Pathology based solutions for clinicians. Dianon was purchased by LabCorp in 2003 for $600 m. In addition, he served as President and CEO of Calypte Biomedical, a biodiagnostics company that developed the first urine-based HIV test, where he shepherded the company through its IPO. Previously, he was the Division Vice President and General Manager of the $100 m worldwide Diagnostic Products business unit of Abbott Diagnostics.
Mr. Davis has also served on the Board of Directors of over twelve companies, including HistoRx, RedPath Integrated Pathology and Asterand. Over the course of his career, he has taken two companies public as CEO and sold three other companies as either Chairman or Director.
Dr. Glenn Miller joined AstraZeneca as Vice President / Head of Personalized Medicine in April of 2011. Prior, he was the Vice President and General Manager of Genzyme Analytical Services, a division of Genzyme Genetics that was acquired for $925M by Labcorp in 2010. Dr. Miller was a key member of the team charged with the divestiture of the Genzyme Genetics business, as well as its subsequent integration into LabCorp.
Genzyme Genetics was one of the five largest clinical laboratories in the US. By serving 23 of the world’s 25 largest pharmaceutical companies and over 50 biotechnology companies, the company’s Analytical Services division provided pathology-based technologies and services to the biopharmaceutical community worldwide.
After being named Scientific Director in 2001, Dr. Miller’s responsibilities at Genzyme Genetics included positions leading R&D efforts; technology evaluation to identify next generation testing platforms; and the oversight of all academic and scientific collaborations. Prior to moving to the Genzyme Genetics, Dr. Miller was responsible for developing the pharmacogenetics and biomarker efforts in a wide variety of drug development programs within Genzyme Corporation.
Dr. Miller has published and spoken extensively in the areas of genetics, pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. Dr. Miller is a member of the Clinical Sciences Committee of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, has served as a member of the EFPIA Pharmacogenetics ad hoc group and as a member of the HUGO strategy session on Future Directions of Human Genome Research in Europe.
Dr. Miller received his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Roswell Park Memorial Institute, a graduate division of the State University of New York at Buffalo. He completed his postdoctoral work in molecular hematology and viral leukemogenesis at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and molecular genetics at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Scott Allocco is a co-founder and Director of BioMarker Strategies, where he coordinates all fundraising, external relations, communications and regulatory affairs for the company. As a member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), BIO molecular diagnostics and ADVAMED diagnostics committees, he is actively engaged in efforts to reform FDA and CMS regulatory and reimbursement policies for next generation biomarker tests. He is the co-chair of the BIO Personalized Medicine committee and the former co-chair of the Personalized Medicine Coalition's Task Force on CMS Coverage, Coverage and Reimbursement Reform. Prior to founding BioMarker Strategies, he had 15 years of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry experience, including drug coverage and reimbursement issues for commercial and public sector health insurance programs. Most recently, Mr. Allocco was vice president of state government relations for Coventry Health Care, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. He was also vice president for business development at First Health Services, a Coventry subsidiary which he helped build into the nation's largest pharmacy benefits administrator of Medicaid drug-benefit programs.
Prior to joining First Health Services, Allocco was a managing director in the health-care practice group at Hill and Knowlton's Washington, D.C. office. He also served for four years as the director of the Office of Government Affairs for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services under Governor Christine Todd Whitman. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in public policy from Hamilton College.
Christy W. Wyskiel was a former Managing Director at Maverick Capital. As an equity analyst covering the medical device, diagnostic, life sciences, therapeutics and hospital supply industries, she was a member of Maverick’s healthcare team where she managed health care industry investments. And, as a former member of the Board of Directors of Cardiovascular Systems, she also has previous Board experience. Prior to joining Maverick, Christy served as a life sciences equity analyst at T. Rowe Price, SG Cowen Securities, and JP Morgan. At Cowen, she participated in all aspects of transaction execution, including financial analysis, performance of financial and company due diligence, creation of offering prospectuses, and accompanying clients to investor road shows. She also performed numerous public and private company valuations. Christy is also a graduate of Williams College and the Stern School of Business at NYU, where she obtained an MBA in finance and accounting.
Dr. Paul Beresford is currently the Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing at Biodesix. His expertise includes leading groups that provide products and services to oncology-focused pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for identifying and commercializing companion diagnostics. Prior to joining Biodesix, Dr. Beresford held a number of senior management positions at Ventana Medical Systems and Roche Diagnostics (after the acquisition of Ventana by Roche in early 2008) including Vice President, General Manager of Translational Diagnostics.
He received a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University School of Medicine and was an Instructor and Junior Investigator at the Center for Blood Research at Harvard Medical School.
Skip Klein is Managing Member of Gauss Capital Advisors, LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on the life sciences that he founded in 1998 upon his departure after a decade at T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. With more than 20 years of experience assisting buy-side investors like the Federated Kaufmann Fund, MPM Capital, Pequot Capital, and T. Rowe Price Associates; Klein is a seasoned biopharmaceutical and medical device investor and advisor.
Over the past 12 years, he has also served on 10 public biotechnology company boards, including OSI Pharmaceuticals, Clinical Data, Inc., PDL Biopharma, Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, ISIS Pharmaceuticals and Guilford Pharmaceuticals. He was also a founding partner of Red Abbey Venture Partners. At T. Rowe Price, he was Portfolio Manager and Chairman of Investment Advisory Committee of the T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund, Inc. that he created, launched, and managed from its inception with $2 million in assets to $290 million in assets within two years.
Mr. Klein earned a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, in 1983 from Yale University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He continued his education at Stanford University where he earned an MBA in 1986 from its Graduate School of Business.
Dr. Leif Ellisen is a practicing oncologist and researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also co-Executive Director of the Translational Research Laboratory (TRL) for tumor molecular profiling at the MGH Cancer Center. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University, and completed residency training, oncology fellowship training, and postdoctoral research training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and MGH, respectively.
Dr. Ellisen is widely published in the field of cancer biology and cancer genetics. His basic research efforts focus on DNA damage response pathways and their link to chemosensitivity in breast and other cancers. His work in the TRL focuses on the clinical application of tumor genetic testing to advance the goal of personalized medicine. He serves on numerous grant review committees and editorial boards, and his work on personalized cancer medicine has been featured in the news media including the Wall Street Journal and the ABC Evening News.
Dr. Scott Diamond is the director of the Penn Center for Molecular Discovery at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Diamond researches biotechnologies in several key areas: endothelial mechanobiology, blood clot-dissolving therapies, blood coagulation, non-viral gene therapy, proteomics, and high-throughput drug discovery. He has produced more than 80 publications and patents and served on advisory committees for NSF, NIH, AHA, and NASA and has consulted extensively for industry and government. Dr. Diamond also serves as associate director of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering and holds the Arthur E. Humphrey Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from Rice University.
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