LEADERSHIP

Todd Dickinson, a seasoned leader in life sciences technology, holds dual degrees in chemistry and theology from St. Olaf College, and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Tufts University under Professor David Walt's mentorship. An early employee of Illumina, the global leader in DNA sequencing today, Dr. Dickinson served in a number of technical and commercial roles over a 13-year period. His contributions included overseeing 60 product launches as Director of Product Marketing, resulting in triple-digit growth across multiple product lines. He subsequently joined BioNano Genomics, where he led the development and commercialization of the groundbreaking Irys™ nanochannel array product. Most recently he served as CEO of Dovetail Genomics and Arc Bio, which he merged in 2022 to create Cantata Bio, delivering innovative solutions in chromatin biology, genome assembly, and infectious disease. Dr. Dickinson currently serves as CEO for Stellaromics and sits on several professional and charitable boards.

Gerrit Smith is an accomplished leader with 25 years of experience in the life science industry with a track record of operational excellence and business growth.  He has held leadership positions in R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain for leading companies including Illumina, Abbott Laboratories, and Thermo Fisher. Gerrit was an early employee of Illumina and led the development and launch of Illumina’s first BeadChip microarray platform.  While at Abbott Diagnostics, he launched and manufactured the ARCHITECT immunoassay line of high-volume diagnostic instruments.  He later led multi-site Global Operations for Thermo Fisher’s $1 billion Protein and Cell Analysis business unit.  Most recently, Gerrit was SVP Global Operations for BioIVT. Gerrit holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Product Development and Operations.

Dr. Raghav Padmanabhan is an experienced leader in the field of computational biology and machine learning. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Houston and has over a decade of experience in developing computer vision algorithms for complex biological data analysis. At Ionpath, as the Senior Director of Data Science, he spearheaded machine learning initiatives for the analysis of Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging (MIBI) data by integrating state-of-the-art deep learning pipelines on scalable cloud infrastructure. Prior to Ionpath, Dr. Padmanabhan held pivotal roles at GE Healthcare and NeoGenomics Laboratories where he led diverse teams and applied cutting-edge research toward the development of highly specialized computational pipelines for the Multiomyx platform. Dr. Padmanabhan has multiple publications and patents related to biological image analysis. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Computational Biology and Data Science at Stellaromics.

Dr. Xiao Wang, the Edward Scolnick Professor and Core Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, also serves as an Assistant Professor at MIT's Department of Chemistry. Holding a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, she established her research laboratory in 2019, specializing in innovative tools to decipher tissue function at a molecular level. Before joining the Broad, Dr. Wang conducted pioneering postdoctoral research at Stanford University's Bioengineering Department under Professor Karl Deisseroth. As the Scientific Co-founder and Scientific Advisor for Stellaromics, Dr. Wang is a recipient of the 2022 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the 2022 Merkin Institute Fellowship, and the 2021 NIH Director's New Innovator Award. Her notable accolades include the Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Initiative Award and the Edward Scolnick Professorship at the Broad Institute in 2021.

Dr. Ye Fu is a seasoned biotech innovator with a research portfolio encompassing biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, and genomics. With a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, mentored by Professor Chuan He, Dr. Fu’s PhD thesis opened the field of reversible RNA modifications, which is the foundational work for the prestigious 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry. With numerous patents and publications including first-author articles in Cell and Nature Chemical Biology, Dr. Fu's work has garnered over 18,000 citations. As Principal at Plaisance Capital Management, Dr. Fu spearheaded the incubation and management of groundbreaking biotech firms, including Aferna Bio, Sedec Therapeutics, ProteoValent Therapeutics and Stellaromics, where he serves as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. He also actively participates in advising early-to-mid stage biotech enterprises.

Mark Pratt brings to Stellaromics over 25 years of entrepreneurship and technology leadership experience. Most recently Dr. Pratt was CTO and cofounder of Ultima Genomics where he continues to serve as a Senior Advisor.  Previously Mark was the principal engineer for the Solexa Genome Analyzer launch that established the NGS era, and later for the HiSeq 2000 program at Illumina after acquisition. While at Illumina, Mark led engineering research that resulted in the MiSeq, HiSeqX, and other platforms. Later, as an early employee at Personalis, Mark created their data-driven and accuracy-focused genomic application development process. Previously, Mark co-founded nLight Photonics, a high-power laser company. Mark received a PhD from University of California at Santa Barbara for work in astrophysics and has fifty granted patents in addition to numerous scientific publications. Dr. Pratt currently serves as Engineering Fellow at Stellaromics.

Dr. Karl Deisseroth, MD, Ph.D., is a renowned American scientist and physician, board-certified psychiatrist, and the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He's celebrated for pioneering the groundbreaking technologies of CLARITY, STARmap, and optogenetics, which blend optics and genetics to explore adaptive neural circuits and neuropsychiatric disorders. In 2019, he was inducted into the US National Academy of Engineering for his role in developing molecular and optical tools that shed light on neuronal signals and animal behavior in health and disease. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. As the Scientific Co-founder and Scientific Advisor at Stellaromics, his academic background includes an AB in biochemical sciences from Harvard University and an MD and Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University. His work in optogenetics earned him many prestigious accolades, including the 2018 Kyoto Prize, 2021 Lasker Award, and 2023 Japan Prize.