GENNEXT TECHNOLOGIES - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Director of Marketing Communications
• GenNext 's Director of Marketing

Bridget is GenNext's Director of Marketing where she is responsible for establishing the company brand, designing and implementing the marketing strategy, and generating market awareness. Before GenNext, Bridget held senior-level marketing positions with Synthego and 10X Genomics where she launched gene editing and single-cell analysis technologies respectively. Prior to that, Bridget was the Principal of Marketing on Demand for Life Sciences (MOD.LS) - an agency focused on launching innovative products and establishing world-class brands for emerging companies. A partial list of clients included Thermo Fisher, BD Biosciences, Parabase Genomics, QuantaLife, Scipio biosciences, CellPly, and others. Prior to MOD.LS, Bridget held senior marketing, communications, field marketing, and international communications positions with Eksigent Technologies, Agilent Technologies, Ciphergen Biosystems, and Applied Biosystems.

Job Titles:

• Professor

Since completing his PhD in 2003, Professor Tabb has invested considerable effort in proteomics technology assessment, bioinformatics, and biostatistics education, quality control for mass spectrometry, and non-model organism biology. He has authored approximately 140 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Since 2015, Prof. Tabb has become a globetrotter, first spending five years in South Africa at Stellenbosch University and currently spending two years in France. A key principle that has animated Prof. Tabb's career is the conviction that researchers must understand the fundamental algorithms of the software they use for their research data. The algorithms that proteomics researchers use to identify tandem mass spectra to peptide and proteoform sequences are the most common topic for his teaching. During 2022, he will teach short courses on this subject for the American Society of Mass Spectrometry conference, the International Mass Spectrometry Conference, and the Human Proteomics Organization World Congress. With a strong background in detecting post-translational modifications and a fascination with protein structure models, Prof. Tabb is excited about the possibilities of HRPF. His experience of proteogenomics has sought to understand the perturbation of protein structures resulting from replacing one amino acid with another. HRPF is a promising lens to examine structure via mass spectrometry.

Job Titles:

• Non - Executive Director
• Founder and CEO of Lemnos Advisory
• Principal of Lemnos Advisory

Dr. Grant brings to the table significant BOD governance, global business development, and corporate development expertise. Half Moon Bay, CA. - January 10, 2023 - GenNext Technologies, Inc., an innovative provider of laboratory tools for advanced structural characterization of proteins, announced today that Dr. John L. Grant has joined its Board of Directors. Dr. Grant served as a highly valuable mentor for GenNext during the BioTools Innovation 2022 Cohort Program where the company was selected as the Grand Prize Winner. During this intensive collaboration, Dr. Grant gained exposure to the GenNext team and technology, ultimately deciding to take on a more formal role as an advisor on the BOD. Currently, Dr. Grant is the principal of Lemnos Advisory, LLC, which provides insights into strategic topics and corporate development for operating companies, transaction advisors, investment banks, and venture investors. He also holds various director and advisor positions in technology-intensive startups and non-profit BODs, mentors and judges for venture accelerators, and invests with multiple angel groups. Previously, Dr. Grant led global strategy and external business development in several 3M divisions within the Healthcare and Industrial Business Groups. He led and participated in 25 acquisitions, divestitures, and minority corporate venture investments. Earlier, he held managerial positions in product and technology development, quality management, strategic marketing, and business management. Dr. Grant's earned an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and a PhD from Northwestern University. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and has earned the NACD Certified Director designation. "GenNext has two critical elements in its favor. An experienced, cross-disciplinary team with a very positive culture. And truly novel and highly valuable technology." Dr Grant went on to say, "I'm impressed with team's ability to gain grants from the NIH and generate commercial sales. I look forward to participating in the continued success of this capable and ambitious company."

Job Titles:

• Chief Technology Officer
• Executive Director

Professor Sharp is a world renowned and internationally recognized expert in HRPF. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles in the field of HRPF method development, fundamentals, and applications between 2002 and today, with over forty-five publications overall. Professor Sharp published the first benchtop methods for HRPF, including the first method using UV photolysis of hydrogen peroxide for hydroxyl radical generation. With numerous invited lectures to both academia and private industry on the application of HRPF to biotherapeutics, Dr. Sharp has addressed problems associated with formulation, biosimilarity, aggregation, and protein-protein and protein-ligand interaction mapping. Professor Sharp's lab is also known for their work in glycosaminoglycan structure-function analysis, and his team commonly leverages their expertise in both areas to study protein-carbohydrate complexes. Professor Sharp received his PhD in 2003 from a joint program between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Hettich. He performed his postdoctoral studies at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the Laboratory of Structural Biology, under the supervision of Dr. Kenneth Tomer. In 2007, he joined the University of Georgia's Complex Carbohydrate Research Center as a research faculty member. Most recently, Professor Sharp joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Director of the Glycoscience Center of Research Excellence. He has received multiple awards for excellence in research, most recently winning the New Investigator Research Award from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy and being designated the University of Mississippi nominee for the 2019 Blavatnik Award in Life Sciences. Professor Sharp serves on multiple national and international advisory and review panels as an expert on protein and carbohydrate biophysical and structural analysis by mass spectrometry. Professor Sharp is a world-renowned and internationally recognized expert in HRPF. He has over twenty-one peer-reviewed articles and has presented numerous invited lectures on the subject of biopharmaceutical HRPF. Josh is also an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Research Professor of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Mississippi.

Job Titles:

• Chief Science Officer
• Professor

Professor Lisa Jones has pioneered the field of in-cell and whole-organism FPOP. In the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD, the Jones Lab is a structural proteomics group that uses biochemical, analytical, and biophysical approaches to study protein interactions important in biological processes. Their research focuses on using protein footprinting methods coupled with mass spectrometry to identify these interactions. A major focus of their lab is extending FPOP as an in-cell method for monitoring proteins in their native cellular environment. This method would be especially useful for membrane proteins, the largest class of drug targets, which are challenging to study in vitro owing to the difficulty of purifying these proteins. The Jones lab has further expanded FPOP for in vivo analysis in C. elegans, an animal model for human disease. Dr. Jones received her PhD at Georgia State University studying the affinity effectors of calcium binding proteins. She was a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Dr. Peter Prevelige at the University of Alabama-Birmingham where she used hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to study protein interactions in virus capsids. Dr. Jones was a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Dr. Michael Gross at Washington University in St. Louis where she expanded the use of the FPOP method for studying biologics. As CSO, Dr. Jones will shape the scientific strategy of GenNext and lead its R&D efforts aimed at investigating the protein interactions of membrane proteins, the largest class of drug targets. By developing a new way to study this important biological process, GenNext will enable biopharmaceutical researchers to perform in-cell monitoring of proteins in their native cellular environment, without the challenges associated with purifying these types of proteins.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Professor

Professor Orlando has more than 40 years of experience with mass spectrometry, over 30 of these years focused on the identification/characterization of proteins and their post-translational modifications with MS. He currently directs the mass spectrometry research laboratory at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Professor Orlando has firsthand experience with small start-up companies, having founded three spin-off/start-up companies: BioInquire in 2007, GlycoScientific in 2009, and PhotoChem Technologies in 2012. BioInquire became profitable in 2008, and in 2010 it was acquired by NuSep (a publicly-traded, Australian company). Professor Orlando was given the award of Entrepreneur of the Year from the Georgia BioBusiness Center because of his critical role in BioInquire's success. Moreover, he has also been nominated to be a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors by Innovation Gateway.

Job Titles:

• Applied Research Manager

Dr. Chea is the Applied Research Manager at GenNext Technologies. She received her PhD while studying with Professor Lisa Jones at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Emily is a highly skilled research scientist in the use of LC-MS techniques for proteomics studies, focusing on utilizing IC-FPOP for proteome-wide structural biology to characterizing cellular drug-target interactions. Emily has made significant contributions to the development of FPOP and HRPF with particular emphasis towards in-cell FPOP (IC-FPOP).

Job Titles:

• Professor

Professor Chance is an internationally recognized expert in proteomics and structural biology who has built multiple science and training programs over a 30-year career in academia. He has published over 300 papers with over 15,000 citations. He is currently Vice Dean for Research and holds the titles of Distinguished University Professor, the Charles W. and Iona A. Mathias Professor of Cancer Research, as well as Professor appointments in the Departments of Nutrition, Genetics & Genome Sciences, and General Medical Sciences at the School of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He is the founding director (since 2005) of the Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics and founding director of the Center for Synchrotron Biosciences (since 1994). Prior to his appointment at CWRU, Dr. Chance was professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. At Einstein, Dr. Chance developed a synchrotron-based radiolysis and "footprinting" approach to define the folding mechanism of the Tetrahymena ribozyme on millisecond timescales, revealing fundamental principles of RNA packing. Subsequently, Dr. Chance envisioned an approach to develop protein structure assessment using OH-radical footprinting technology.

Job Titles:

• Non - Executive Director

Martin Verhoef has over 30 years of experience in the life sciences and molecular diagnostics markets working in The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and the US. His work in Fortune 500 companies as well as startups gives Martin an exceptional view on starting and growing companies. Currently he is Interim CEO at IXRF Systems, a material sciences company. While at Inscopix, Martin was the Chief Commercial Officer and played a key role in the sale of the company to Bruker, Inc. Martin held VP positions in Marketing, Strategy and R&D at Molecular Devices, a Danaher operating company, before being promoted to VP of Innovation for the multibillion dollar Life Sciences Instrumentation Group. At Ciphergen, a proteomics company, Verhoef was Executive Vice President and President of the tools business and participated in the IPO. At PrimeraDx, Martin was CEO and raised a total of $48M in Series A and B. He began his career at Agilent (then still Hewlett-Packard) as Marketing Manager and R&D Leader for the DNA micro-array program. Martin holds a double BS degree in Clinical and Analytical Chemistry from the van ‘t Hoff Institute in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

At Washington University in St. Louis, the Gross research group focuses mainly on the development of mass spectrometry (MS) in biophysics and structural proteomics, specifically to probe protein-ligand interaction interfaces, affinities, aggregation, and folding/unfolding. The work includes both instrument and method development and application to important proteins and protein complexes. His research group also employs specific chemical reagents to footprint proteins and determines their interfaces and orientations in complex biological settings, hydrogen/deuterium exchange, and native MS. Professor Gross received his PhD at the University of Minnesota under the tutelage of E.A. Hill and was a postdoctoral person with E.R. Thornton at U of Penn and then with F.W. McLafferty at Purdue. He began his independent career in 1968 as Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he directed an NSF Center for Mass Spectrometry. In 1994, he joined Washington University in St. Louis and assumed the role of PI of an NIH Research Resource in Mass Spectrometry. Professor Gross is a highly cited chemist who has won the American Chemical Society Field and Franklin Award, the ACS Midwest Award, and the ACS Analytical Chemistry Award. He was awarded the JJ Thomson Medal and the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Distinguished Contributions to Mass Spectrometry and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Pioneer Award for "In Search of the Health Consequences of Dioxin in Our Environment." He was honored by the Washington University Graduate Student Senate with the Outstanding Mentor Award in 2001. He is founding editor of the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Mass Spectrometry (published by Elsevier), and was editor until 1990 of Mass Spectrometry Reviews. He has served on numerous editorial boards and as a consultant to industry and academic laboratories.

Job Titles:

• Operations Manager

Raina received her BA from the University of California, San Diego. She has over a decade of experience in office management and human resources, and several years of experience in accounting work. Raina is a co-founder of the Concord, CA microbrewery Epidemic Ales, successfully transitioning from homebrewer to startup business owner. Having gotten that out of her system, she is now happy to be a part of the GenNext team.

Job Titles:

• Director of Software Engineering and Development

Bob has over 30 years' experience of life science software development creating software solutions for: HPLC, HPCE, LCMS, MALDI-TOF, SELDI-TOF MS, FTICR, label-free biosensor (waveguide and interferometry), clinical diagnostics, and HOS analysis.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• Chairman
• Founder
• President
• Founder and CEO of Gen

Scot has over thirty years of industrial experience in pioneering and commercializing cutting-edge tools for life science research. Scot is a prolific inventor and holds 22 United States Patents for solutions in liquid chromatography, ultraviolet - visible spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, time-of-flight mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, protein biochip technology, tandem mass spectrometry, and surface-tethered and free-solution label-free biosensors. He has authored over thirty scientific publications, 6 book chapters, and has over 2,000 citations in the areas of translational medicine, life science research, and technology development. As an entrepreneur, Scot has been in the founding teams of Linear Instruments, Linear Scientific, Biomolecular Separations, and Ciphergen Biosystems. More recently, he founded and launched Molecular Sensing and GenNext Technologies. Scot Weinberger, Founder and CEO of GenNext explained, "With having established commercial momentum and adding next generation elements to our offering, the time is right for John to join our governance team. With John's valuable business acumen, combined with his understanding of the underlying science and technology behind our products, I am assured that he will make significant contributions to our expansion."

Job Titles:

• CEO of GenNext

Scot Weinberg, CEO of GenNext said, "I have admired and respected Lisa for many years, and I am thrilled that she will sit on the company's leadership team. Her vast scientific research experience, along with her ability to innovate and break through boundaries, will be sure to help us realize our goal of helping biopharmaceutical companies discover and produce safer and more effective biologics."