Two important hires signal a recent shift in focus for Philadelphia biotech firm BioNanomatrix. In December, the company hired Gary Zweiger as VP of business development, and last week it announced the hire of Michael Kochersperger as VP of engineering.
“We’re moving into the next stage as a company, from pure research to more of a development stage with an eye toward commercialization,” says CEO Mike Boyce-Jacino. “[Zweiger and Kochersperger] are key to bringing in commercialization. They will work with outside customers to bring our products to the market.”
For the past several years, the company has been researching a patented nanoscale technology that enables it quickly to analyze individual long strands of DNA in sequence. The goal of the technology is to be able to take single pieces of DNA out of cells and look at changes in genome-related peptides and proteins as relates to disease or therapy.
“One of the challenges we have is seeing all the pieces of the puzzle that make up a disease,” Boyce-Jacino says. “We always use the analogy: image how much more difficult it is to put together a million-piece puzzle than a hundred-piece puzzle.”
BioNanomatrix is developing a device that will be able to reduce the number of puzzle pieces by taking material out of a cell to analyze it. The company has already built several devices and is currently building kits and conducting tests at its Philadelphia lab. Toward end of 2009, the company is hoping to have some initial applications ready to commercialize.
As BioNanomatrix moves forward with development, it will add new hires, according to Boyce-Jacino; he is hoping to bring on three to four more people in the first half of 2009.
Source: Mike Boyce-Jacino, CEO of BioNanomatrix
Writer: John Davidson
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