Dr. Stevan Jovanovich is President and CEO of Microchip Biotechnologies, a company he co-founded in 2003 to better optimize sample preparation for the life sciences. At MBI he has been the Principal Investigator on over $10 M of grants and contracts focused on DNA sequencing, biodefense, and forensics. He currently leads a growing team of talented professionals dedicated to commercializing the technology.

Dr. Jovanovich is an internationally recognized expert in microfluidics and an experienced global commercial leader. Before co-founding Microchip Biotechnologies, Dr. Jovanovich was Vice President of Global Research at Amersham Biosciences where he led a team of 120 scientists and engineers and drove multiple business projects across six international sites.

Prior positions include Science Director at Amersham Biosciences, Manager of Advanced Research at Molecular Dynamics, Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Director of Microbiology at AbTox Inc, and founder of Molecular Solutions.

Dr. Jovanovich has proven expertise in microbiology, molecular genetics, microbial physiology, object-oriented programming, robotics, genomics, systems biology, and instrument and systems development. He is author of over 20 papers and an inventor on over 20 US patents. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Life Sciences from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of California at Davis.

A veteran entrepreneur, Dr. Mostafa Ronaghi has been at the forefront of technological research for over 10 years. He co-founded Pyrosequencing AB, and launched a successful IPO on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2000. The genomics company has since acquired three companies and been renamed Biotage. Dr. Ronaghi then co-founded ParAllele BioScience, a company that developed and marketed highly multiplexed technology for genetic testing. ParAllele was acquired by Affymetrix in May of 2005. That same year, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded yet another venture, NextBio. This search engine for life science data is now a viable commercial product.

Dr. Ronaghi is currently a principal investigator at Stanford University, focusing on developing novel tools for molecular diagnostics. He earned his Ph.D. from The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Dr. Ronaghi holds more than 20 pending and issued patents and has written more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books.

Dr. David L. Barker currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Cell Biosciences, Microchip Biotechnologies, and NextBio, and is a member of Illumina’s Scientific Advisory Board. Most recently, Dr. Barker held the position of Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Illumina, and prior to that, Vice President and Chief Science Advisor at Amersham Biosciences. Dr. Barker also held senior positions, including Vice President of Research and Business Development, at Molecular Dynamics.

During his academic career, Dr. Barker conducted interdisciplinary research in neurobiology as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon and Associate Professor at Oregon State University. Dr. Barker holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University.

Dr. Dennis Harris is a founder and secretary of Microchip Biotechnologies, and he is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Millipore. Dennis is an experienced senior manager who has spent the majority of his career developing and implementing business strategies for life science companies to maximize their research and development efforts and ability to bring innovation to customers. In his various roles, Dennis has initiated and led portfolio acquisitions and negotiated technology collaborations.

Prior positions include Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Serologicals Corporation, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Vitra Bioscience, Senior Vice President at Aclara Biosciences, and Vice President of Research and Development at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, now part of GE Healthcare. Dennis started his career as a development scientist of molecular biology kits and reagents. He also has extensive background in DNA sequencing and laboratory automation systems.

Dr. Harris earned his B.SC. Hons. in Biochemistry and Ph.D. from the University of Sussex, England. He has authored 17 papers.

Dr. Richard Mathies' work in the area of biotechnology and the Human Genome Project led to the development of new high-speed, high-throughput DNA analysis technologies such as capillary array electrophoresis and energy transfer (ET) fluorescent dye labels for DNA sequencing and analysis. In particular, his development of ET fluorescent labels was critical to the early completion of the Human Genome sequence. He also pioneered the development of microfabricated capillary electrophoresis devices and microfabricated integrated sample preparation and detection methods for lab-on-a-chip analysis systems that are being applied to DNA sequencing, diagnostics, forensics, pathogen detection, and space exploration.

Dr. Mathies has been Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Analytical Biotechnology at the University of California at Berkeley since 1976. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Washington. He earned his Master’s degree and Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry at Cornell University from Andreas Albrecht. He completed two years of postdoctoral study as a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale with Lubert Stryer.

Dr. Mathies is author of over 350 publications and patents on photochemistry, photobiology, bioanalytical chemistry and genome analysis technology.