Dec 2 2008
BioNanomatrix, Inc., a developer of breakthrough nanoscale platforms for molecular diagnostics, personalized medicine and biomedical research, today announced the appointment of Gary Zweiger, Ph.D., as vice president of business development. Dr. Zweiger has over a decade of strategic business development experience with leading biotechnology and genomics companies. He will focus on expanding BioNanomatrix's commercial and research partnerships for its breakthrough nanoscale whole genome technology platform in multiple markets, including research, diagnostics and personalized medicine.
"Gary's background and experience are close to ideal for our newly created senior business development position, and we are very pleased to have him on board," said Dr. Michael Boyce-Jacino, chief executive officer of BioNanomatrix. "Gary's scientific expertise is directly relevant to our end-user markets and his extensive business development and alliance management experience should be invaluable as we expand our network of collaborations and commercial partnerships."
BioNanomatrix is applying its expertise in nanochips, nanodevices and nanosystems to develop its platform technology providing fast, comprehensive and low-cost analysis of genomic, epigenomic and proteomic information with sensitivity at the single-molecule level. Among its current development efforts is a federally funded project in partnership with Complete Genomics Inc. for very low-cost sequencing of the human genome.
"This is an exciting time to join BioNanomatrix as the company is advancing a potentially transformative single-molecule, whole genome sorting and imaging technology that will enable scientists to analyze clinically relevant DNA sequence variation, copy number and positional information, and to do so much faster, more cost-effectively and with far better resolution than existing methods," said Dr. Zweiger. "There are many possible applications for our technology, and I look forward to working with the BioNanomatrix team to expand the company's growing list of partnerships and help establish new opportunities for growth."
Prior to joining BioNanomatrix, Dr. Zweiger was senior director of business development at Affymetrix, where he managed collaborations, developed new business opportunities and secured revenue-generating research partnerships. Previously, he was director of business development for Applied Biosystems' Cell and Molecular Biology division, where he managed collaborations and business development activities for the company's PCR, DNA sequencing, RNA interference and cell biology businesses. Prior to Applied Biosystems, Dr. Zweiger was at Agilent Technologies, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, directing efforts to identify, assess and secure new business opportunities. Earlier in his career, Dr. Zweiger served as a strategic advisor and consultant to biotechnology and genomics companies and to the financial community. He has published a general audience book on sequencing the human genome, authored numerous scientific publications and holds seven patents. Dr. Zweiger received a Ph.D. in genetics and a B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular oncology at Genentech Inc.