RainDance Technologies Inc., the leader in sequence enrichment and single-cell analysis, today announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Sirshendu Roopom Banerjee as President and Chief Executive Officer. RainDance Technologies provides innovative microdroplet-based solutions that accelerate research and development for human healthcare and industrial markets. The company provides resolution of molecular, biological, and physiological events from large population samples to unprecedented single-cell analysis, all inside a contained microenvironment that enables quantification, single-molecule sensitivity, and preserves sample integrity with no bias or contamination.
About the appointment, RainDance Director and Managing Partner of Mohr Davidow Ventures Bill Ericson said, “Roopom brings a depth of knowledge and is highly respected in the life science tools and diagnostics industry. Roopom’s leadership will enable us to further accelerate the momentum built over the last few years in the adoption of our highly innovative RainStorm™ technology, as well as sharpen our focus on new product and technology opportunities in the fields of sequence enrichment and single-cell analysis.”
Most recently, Mr. Banerjee was a Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Leerink Swann, where he led the Life Science Tools and Diagnostics sector. Previously, Mr. Banerjee was with McKinsey and Goldman Sachs advising Fortune 500 healthcare companies globally on corporate and growth strategy, product development and launch strategy, international expansion, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Banerjee has successfully completed over 50 transactions, including private placements, IPOs, Followons, PIPE/RDs, and fixed income as well as mergers and acquisitions.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Banerjee worked at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Whitehead Institute/M.I.T. Human Genome Project, and at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Mr. Banerjee holds an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and dual B.S. degrees in Biology and Economics from M.I.T., where he was elected a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar.
"This is a significant time to join RainDance, with the company experiencing breakthrough sales growth. We are seeing strong customer demand for our novel products in sequence enrichment, such as rare variant analysis, as well as future applications in methylation and ultra-deep sequencing. RainDance is truly platform-agnostic and capitalizing on the explosive growth across next-generation sequencing," said Banerjee. "Beyond sequence enrichment, we have demonstrated unique capabilities in digital PCR as well as protein, antibody, and single-cell applications. I am excited to be joining a high-caliber team with a proven track record of execution in these areas.”
Christopher McNary, who has served RainDance as CEO since November 2007, will join Mr. Banerjee on the senior executive team as Chief Commercial Officer and will focus on moving the company into high-growth commercialization. Mike Hunkapiller, General Partner at Alloy Ventures and Director at RainDance said, “Chris has brought strong leadership and operating experience to guide RainDance from technology-stage through commercial launch of our flagship RDT 1000 product. We are excited that Chris is turning his focus to leading the commercial charge for RainDance. RainDance is uniquely poised to unlock large latent markets and address unmet customer needs for single-cell analysis.”