Appistry Launches Scientific & Technology Advisory Board

The advisory board includes leading influencers with extensive technical credibility and perspectives across disciplines as diverse as bioinformatics, genomic data analysis, defense and intelligence.
Appistry's new board will share the company's commitment to accelerating the development of innovative solutions and new approaches for Next Generation Sequencing, High-Throughput Computing, Personalized Medicine, High-Resolution Satellites and other breakthrough technologies. The board will team with internal and external stakeholders, including Dr. Richard Mazzarella, Appistry's Senior Strategic Computational Biologist, and Michael Groner, the company's Co-Founder and Chief Architect, to identify opportunities for solution design, pipeline development and other new business and strategic partnerships for the life sciences and defense industries.

Brian Athey Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan Medical School, will serve as the Chairman.

"Appistry has emerged as one of the most compelling innovators in bioinformatics, high-throughput, cloud-based, genomics computing. Not surprisingly, I jumped at this exciting opportunity to join Appistry's advisory board," said Dr. Athey, who also serves as a Founder and Chairman of the non-profit, Scientists and Engineers of America (SEA), based in Washington D.C. "I look forward to forging relationships with the other S&TAB members in pursuit of advancing better, faster and the most cost-effective technologies for the analysis of next-generation heterogeneous 'omics data."

Additional charter members of the S&TAB include:

-- Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD -- Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology and Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University, St. Louis. Internationally known for his plant science work, Dr. Quatrano was one of the earliest investigators to apply the tools of molecular biology to the study of plant gene expression. He is widely recognized for his significant contributions in the field of plant science. Formerly, Dr. Quatrano served as Chairman of the Department of Biology and Director of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University.

-- Martin Leach, PhD -- Chief Information Officer at the Broad Institute. Dr. Leach oversees and helps integrate the institute's multi-faceted computing and information technology-related endeavors. He was previously at Merck & Co., where he led IT for Discovery and Pre-Clinical Sciences across all the North American research sites. Over his career Dr. Leach has provided support and strategic vision for IT, informatics, and data-mining activities at a range of life sciences organizations, from basic research laboratories to large pharmaceutical companies.

-- Bob Flores -- President of Applicology, an independent consulting firm specializing in information technology and cyber security issues, and former CTO, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mr. Flores spent 31 years at the CIA and held various positions in the Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Support, and the National Clandestine Service.

"Following my initial introduction to Appistry, it was readily clear to me that the company had developed an innovative approach to the application of next-generation technologies for advanced data management in the life sciences," said Dr. Quatrano. "The opportunity to offer my expertise in genomics and systems biology to the Appistry team is something that I look forward to with great anticipation. I am confident that the formation of this advisory board will help to further accelerate the incredible momentum achieved by this company in only a short period of time."

"The formation of this advisory board is a critical step in our development as a leading provider of next generation technologies," said Kevin Haar, CEO of Appistry. "More importantly--we are excited to say that this is no ordinary panel. We have assembled a team of some of the sharpest minds in their fields to help shape the future of next-gen sequencing and high-throughput computing."