Jonathan M. Rothberg, Ph.D.
Founder, CEO and Chairman

Dr. Rothberg is the father of high-speed (massively parallel) DNA sequencing, bringing to market the first new way to sequence genomes, 454 Sequencing, since Sanger and Gilbert won the Nobel prize in 1980, and was the first to report the sequence of an individual human Genome. Dr. Rothberg led the effort to complete the first sequence of an individual human genome (James D. Watson’s genome became the first publicly available and was placed on the internet in May of 2007), and initiated the first large-scale sequencing of ancient DNA - the Neanderthal Genome project (In collaboration with Svante Paabo).
                                                                                             
While developing 454 sequencing, Dr. Rothberg envisioned both the routine sequencing of individual humans, as well as the use of sequencing in a broader sense.  These ideas, and collaborations under his tenure, enabled 454 life sciences and collaborators to crack the mystery behind the disappearance of the Honey Bee, uncover a new Virus killing transplant patients, and elucidate the extent of individual human variation – work recognized by Science Magazines as the breakthrough of the year for 2007.  The collective work of his team, collaborators and ultimately customers, initiated the era of low cost DNA sequencing, enabled what the New England Journal described as “The New Age of Molecular Diagnostics for Microbial Agents, and made possible projects as diverse as uncovering the complexity of life in the world’s oceans and the sequence of extinct wooly mammoth. Dr. Rothberg’s invention of the first new way to sequence DNA in the miniature, inspired by his son’s visit to the emergency room, also introduced the era of personal genomes, and is now in use at major pharmaceutical companies, universities, genome centers, and medical centers around the world – low cost DNA sequencing as enabled by 454 sequencing, was recognized by Science Magazine as one of the top 10 breakthroughs for 2008.

Dr. Rothberg is the founder of, and founding CEO and Chairman of 454 Life Sciences, CuraGen Corporation, The Rothberg Institute for Childhood Diseases, RainDance Technologies and ION Torrent Systems. Dr. Rothberg is also a founder of Clarifi Corporation.  Dr. Rothberg has appeared on CNBC for his pioneering work in the field of genomic medicine, and his scientific work has been featured on the covers of leading scientific journals including Cell, Science, and Nature.  Dr. Rothberg was early to recognize the importance of Genomics to Medicine, and under his leadership CuraGen developed a series of new medicines, now in a number of human clinical trials, for the treatment of a wide range of cancers.

Dr. Rothberg was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering with an option in Biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University. Dr. Rothberg was twice named as The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer, is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of awards including The Wall Street Journal’s First Gold Medal for Innovation, Nature Methods First Method of the year award, and The Irvington Institute’s Corporate Leadership Award in Science. Dr. Rothberg is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University.

Gregg Fergus     
President and Chief Operating Officer

Gregg joined Ion Torrent Systems in June of 2009. Gregg brings extensive life science operational experience, as well as industry knowledge based on his venture capital experience.
                                                                 
Prior to Ion Torrent Systems, Gregg joined Baird Venture Partners in January of 2007. He was an Executive-In-Residence within BVP's healthcare and life sciences team. Gregg's role involved sourcing, evaluating and managing new investment opportunities for BVP and, as a former industry executive with over 22 years of experience in the life sciences field, he contributed value-added operating experience to BVP's portfolio companies with direct operational and Board involvement. In 2007, Gregg also served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Cellular Dynamics, Inc. and Stem Cell Products, Inc., privately held stem cell companies located in Madison, Wis.

Prior to joining Baird Venture Partners, Gregg served as a Senior Vice President of Sales and Global Operations for Affymetrix, Inc., a manufacturer of consumables and systems for genetic analysis in the life sciences and clinical healthcare markets.  He was responsible for worldwide commercial development and grew the business to over $300M in revenue. Gregg also held high-level commercial roles at VWR International, LLC, Covance, Inc. and Amersham, plc, now part of GE Healthcare. Gregg was also an independent member of the Board of Directors of NimbleGen Systems Inc., which was recently sold to Roche Applied Sciences for $270M.

Gregg currently sits on the Board of Frontage Laboratories, Inc., and on the Board of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Gregg also serves on the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Wisconsin, a non-profit organization providing year-round sports training and competition for children and adults with cognitive disabilities. Gregg is a founder of GenTel Biosciences, Inc., a life science multiplexed protein platform company. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin.

Jamie Kole
Vice President, Finance and Administration

Jamie joined Ion Torrent Systems in December 2009, bringing over 20 years finance and operational experience ranging from research phase start-ups to publicly traded companies.

Prior to Ion Torrent Systems, she was chief financial officer and vice president, operations at iPierian, a stem cell therapeutics company.  At iPierian, she was responsible for managing the finance and administrative functions as the company established and expanded the start-up operations.

From 2001 to 2008, Jamie was vice president finance at Affymetrix, and acted as chief financial officer from December 2006 to June 2007.  She oversaw many facets of finance and commercial operations as the company scaled from a $200 to $370 million entity.  From 1994 to 2000, she worked in various domestic and international finance management positions at Dade Behring, a clinical diagnostics company.  Prior to Dade Behring, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Xerox Corporation.

Jamie holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BS in Applied Mathematics from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Maneesh Jain, Ph.D.
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

Maneesh Jain is an experienced entrepreneur who has successfully commercialized multiple life science technologies over the past 13 years.  Maneesh joined Ion Torrent Systems in May 2009 bringing extensive startup and marketing management experience.

Previously, Dr. Jain co-founded Auriphex, a cell sorting and analysis company.  He served as interim CEO, leading up to its acquisition in 2009 by a major life science tools company.  Prior to that Dr. Jain held the role of Senior Director, Global Marketing at Affymetrix with worldwide marketing responsibility across the company’s RNA and DNA products.  Dr. Jain joined Affymetrix in 2005 following the acquisition of ParAllele BioScience, a company he co-founded in 2001 with researchers from Stanford University.  At ParAllele, he spearheaded the company’s first product launch and successfully led strategic business alliances which resulted in the $120M acquisition by Affymetrix.  In 1996, Dr. Jain joined the Stanford Genome Technology Center to develop novel DNA sequencing approaches and co-invented the Molecular Inversion Probe technology for highly multiplexed genetic testing. 

Dr. Jain has served as an executive consultant and advisor to several life science companies developing products and services to address unmet needs in life science research, bioinformatics, molecular diagnostics and consumer genetics.

Dr. Jain received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology where he was a Ford Scholar.  He holds six pending and issued patents and has written more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books.

Stephen C. Macevicz, Ph.D., J.D.
Vice President Intellectual Property

Stephen Macevicz is an Intellectual property attorney with extensive experience creating and organizing IP functions in entrepreunerial companies.  He is an authority in the area of DNA sequencing, and is unique in terms of the breadth of work he has done in the DNA sequencing field. His practice has included strong interaction with business development and strategic planning functions, and has included management of attorneys, licensing professionals, and support staff. Stephen had personally drafted over 130 issued U.S. patents in wide range of fields, including molecular biology, analytical instrumentation, organic chemistry, software, and opto-electronics; and has negotiated and drafted dozens of license, research collaboration, supply, and related commercial agreements with both domestic and international parties.

Steve holds an A.B. in Mathematics, with distinction, minor in Physics, San Diego State University, A Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a J.D., University of California (Boalt Hall), Berkeley.

James M. Bustillo
Vice President, Sensor Technology

James Bustillo joined Ion Torrent Systems in 2007. Jim has 25 years of silicon-based microfabrication and technology development experience at leading-edge research laboratories and commercial enterprises.  The breadth and depth of experience he has brought to ION’s chip technology development effort has already contributed greatly to the early realization of the first-ever highly scalable semiconductor sequencing sensor platform.  Prior to joining Ion Torrent Systems, Mr. Bustillo served as Associate Director of the Molecular Foundry, a Nanotechnology Science Research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he was able to extend his area of knowledge to materials and techniques somewhat outside conventional silicon-based microfabrication.  Previously he held Director level positions at three pre-IPO companies Lilliputian Systems, a developer of silicon microfabricated fuel cell devices, Turnstone Systems, a provider of copper relay automated frame switch products, and Onix Microsystems, an optical switch manufacturer – all positions where he led development of early-stage MEMS products and/or technologies.  It was at these smaller companies that his experience with outsourced partners in semiconductor/MEMS fabrication and packaging were highly refined. 
                                                                                          
Prior to his start-up experience, Mr. Bustillo was Assistant Director of Technology at the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center an Industry/University/NSF Cooperative Research Center where he held positions of increasing responsibility, which provided a unique opportunity to work in and learn first-hand the challenges of pushing the limits of an established industry (seconductor manufacturing) and apply it to novel designs and process architecture for new applications (MEMS).  Earlier in his career he held industrial positions at Advanced Micro Devices Integrated Technology Division and Fairchild Semiconductor’s Digital Division developing processes and technologies for the commercial semiconductor products.  It was here that Mr. Bustillo gained his intimate familiarity with high volume semiconductor fabrication methods and what constitutes production-worthy design. 

Jim received his Masters of Engineering in Applied Solid-State Physics from Cornell University and a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Physics from Lehigh University.  He has authored or coauthored papers and patents in the fields of semiconductor technology, MEMS, biofluidics, optical data storage, and genomic semiconductor sequencing, has worked as an independent consultant in the field of MEMS and microfabrication, and has been an invited speaker on the subject of silicon micromachining for microelectromechanical systems.  He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board for CuraGen Corporation, giving him insight into the field of genomics and biotechnology, and repeatedly on the Technical Program Committee for the premiere IEEE Solid-State Sensor & Actuator Workshop at Hilton Head, NC.

G. Thomas Roth
Vice President, Engineering

Thomas’s core technical engineering expertise lies in electronics, optics and systems analysis. Thomas joined Ion Torrent Systems in 2008 with a passion for bringing high technology products to market. Thomas was responsible for the development of the first next-gen sequencing systems, and he built and managed the instrument engineering team at 454 Life Sciences where he served as Director of Instrumentation Engineering from 2001. Thomas served in the additional role of Program Manager, leading all aspects in preparation of the global launch. In addition to Sequencer Development, he coordinated the leads of Marketing, Kit Development, Reagent and Instrument Manufacturing, Quality, and Distribution.

Prior to 2001, Thomas played a similar role as Senior Program Manager in the FDA-regulated environment of Home Diagnostics Inc. where he saw worldwide sales of his low cost blood glucose meters exceed 1 million units. His first startup, Cauzin Systems/Softstrip, inventors of the two dimensional barcode, marketed the first 2-D barcode system to the consumer PC market in 1984.

Thomas received a B.S.E.E. from George Washington University in 1987.Thomas has been awarded 8 patents with 3 more pending, and has two publications in the journal Nature. For the GS 20, Thomas received the R&D 100 Editor’s Choice Award in 2005 and the Genome Technology Innovator of the year in 2003..

John H. Leamon, Ph.D.
Director of Molecular Biology

John’s research interests revolve around nucleic acids in general, including sequencing, nucleic acid amplification, microfluidics and genomics, with a personal interest in the practical benefits and limitations of single molecule amplifications. John joined Ion Torrent Systems in 2008. Prior to Ion Torrent Systems, John led the development of genomic applications for RainDance Technologies' droplet-based nanoreactor technology, resulting in the company’s first commercial product, an amplification system for targeted exon sequencing. John has been actively developing technologies for molecular biology since 1994, with an emphasis on commercial applications since 2001.  Following his post-doc, John developed and productized the first non-bacterial all in vitro cloning system, and brought to market the first commercial massively parallel template preparation method at 454 Life Sciences.  The concepts pioneered by John have become universal, and the basis for all next-generation sample preparation systems. 

John obtained a B.A. in Zoology from Connecticut College in 1989, his M.S. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Connecticut in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Neurobiology from the University of Connecticut in 1999 with a thesis on physiological genetics and population flow. John conducted his postdoctoral research at Yale School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Paul Lizardi, working on developing technologies to permit characterization of disease states through single molecular detection via rolling circle amplification.  John is an author on over 20 peer-reviewed articles, several on emerging sequencing technologies and their real-world application, and is listed as a co-inventor on three published patents and more than five patent applications.