MENLO PARK, Calif., May 4, 2020 \u2014 GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured, today announced Mostafa Ronaghi, PhD, joined the GRAIL Board of Directors.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostafa brings a wealth of experience in building successful companies as well as highly\u00a0relevant expertise in research and technology development,\u201d said Hans Bishop, Chief Executive Officer at GRAIL. \u201cIn addition to joining our Board, Mostafa will also become a scientific advisor to GRAIL, and we look forward to working with him as we advance our multi-cancer early detection test.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to one of the most important applications of genomic sequencing platforms in human medicine with the company that is pioneering advances in early cancer detection,\u201d said Dr. Ronaghi. \u201cI look forward to helping harness the convergence of advances in sequencing, and innovations in machine learning and AI, to decrease the global burden of cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Ronaghi is Illumina\u2019s Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurial Development, and previously served as the company\u2019s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. As Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Ronaghi was responsible for leading internal research and technology and was a co-founder of GRAIL. He was also a co-founder of Illumina Accelerator, the world\u2019s first business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry. In 2007, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded Avantome, a privately held sequencing company that was acquired by Illumina in 2008. Before this, he co-founded NextBio, a search engine for life science data that was acquired by Illumina in 2013. In 2001, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded ParAllele Bioscience, which was eventually acquired by Affymetrix, Inc., and was involved in the development and commercialization of highly multiplexed technology for genetic testing. In 1997, he co-founded Pyrosequencing AB, which was renamed to Biotage in 2003.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ronaghi was a principal investigator at Stanford University from 2002 until 2008 and focused on the development of novel tools for molecular diagnostic applications. He serves on the board of directors of BaseHealth and Clear Labs. Dr. Ronaghi earned his PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He holds more than 30 (pending and issued) patents, and has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books.<\/p>\n
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