Director, Diagnostics / July — November, 2023

Responsible for driving product development, filling R&D pipeline, and prioritizing resources to maximize ROI. Directly managed a team of 5 and led multi-disciplinary teams to demonstrate technical and market feasibility for ultimate commercial partner handoff. • Presented product viability, risk, mitigation and overall progress to executive stakeholders, including Bill Gates, to secure approval and funding. • Led CRISPR-based diagnostic program comprised of in-house research and high-profile collaborations. Successfully developed a system that identifies HPV in cervical swab samples with 98% sensitivity/ 100% specificity using rapid, simple and inexpensive formats that operate at room temperature. • Developed sample preparation methodology compatible with leading PCR platforms used to diagnose tuberculosis to reduce assay costs, improve usability and increase testing throughput.

Principal Invstigator, Biotechnology / January, 2014 — June, 2020

Responsible for technical output of up to 18 scientists and engineers that performed 9 concurrent discovery and translational R&D projects with cumulative annual budget exceeding $6M. Identified, forged, and managed global strategic partnerships. • Achieved 2 commercialized products, 10 published manuscripts, 3 granted and 1 pending patents, and 12 academic and 7 commercial collaborations. • Oversaw in-house assay development and closely collaborated with commercial partner on hardware development to develop point-of-care HPV diagnostic. Responsible for project from conception and partner selection until just prior to verification and validation. • Identified gaps in cold chain management of biological materials and codeveloped 2 solutions; key contributor to licensing negotiations, commercial technology transfer and obtaining regulatory approval.

Senior Scientist / December, 2012 — January, 2014

Project leader for multiple healthcare and agriculture technologies. • Led a team of in-house researchers and external collaborators to develop a stable diet that supports mass rearing of modified mosquitoes to enable mosquito-borne disease control in more remote areas. • Oversaw a team of in-house researchers and external collaborators to develop chemical and enzymatic mitigations of aflatoxin contamination of grain.

Research Scientist / May, 2008 — December, 2012

Product Manager for protein-related projects which resulted in 15 commercialized, 1 granted patent and 5 published manuscripts. Drove products from ideation through development, scale-up and hand-off to manufacturing and quality. • Developed ATX-Red, an in vivo imaging agent and potential companion diagnostic that detects and monitors tumors and winner of 2007 2nd Place Utah Biotechnology Innovation Award. • Wrote and was awarded Phase I & II SBIR grants from both NIH and NSF totaling $827,696.