NuProbe Forms Scientific Advisory Board and Appoints New Director
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NuProbe Global, an early stage molecular diagnostics company, announced today the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with genomics pioneers George M. Church, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and David R. Walt, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. The SAB will help to guide the company’s strategy and advance its technology platform. It is also expanding its Board of Directors with the addition of veteran healthcare investor Kevin Chen, Founding Partner at Biotrack Capital.
“The success of many therapies and the possibility to prevent surgeries will rely on the availability of strong diagnostic capabilities to detect diseases at an early stage,” said Dr. Church, who has a successful track record of developing and transferring technologies to more than 15 biotech companies including AbVitro (acquired by Juno), Editas Medicine, and eGenesis. “NuProbe’s technology has the potential to provide disruptive solutions toward this aim.”
NuProbe’s toehold probe-based platform technology enhances qPCR and NGS mutation detection sensitivity and multiplexing capability. This opens the possibility for ultra-sensitive and non-invasive blood tests to improve detection of cancer and infectious diseases and help guide treatment decisions.
“NuProbe’s technology could expand the reach of non-invasive molecular diagnostics and bring us closer to realizing the potential of precision medicine,” said Dr. Walt, who is also the Scientific Founder of Illumina and Quanterix, and co-founder of several other life science companies including Ultivue.
“We are fortunate to have Dr. Church and Dr. Walt join NuProbe’s SAB,” said Peng Yin, Ph.D., who together with David Yu Zhang, Ph.D., and Victor Shi, Ph.D., co-founded NuProbe. “Being able to leverage their unparalleled knowledge and experience will be instrumental in moving our molecular diagnostic tests forward into the clinic.”
Dr. Yin is also Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute. Dr. Zhang is the Ted Law Jr. Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. Dr. Shi is NuProbe’s CEO.
With the appointment of Kevin Chen to NuProbe’s Board of Directors, the company is adding further industry expertise. Mr. Chen has led investments in over 20 leading healthcare companies including Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Betta Pharma, and Yuwell Medical. “I’m excited to work with NuProbe to help expand its role as a global molecular diagnostics company with growing operations in the United States and in China” said Mr. Chen.
“We are very pleased to have Kevin Chen join our Board as he brings a tremendous wealth of experience from the healthcare industry to NuProbe to help pave the way for an impactful diagnostic portfolio,” said Dr. Shi.
NuProbe was established in 2016 and has operations in Cambridge, MA and China. Its investors include Sequoia Capital China, Serica Partners and WuXi AppTec Corporate Ventures.
George M. Church, Ph.D., is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, and a Founding Member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. Dr. Church is also Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Technology Center, Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science, and Director of the Personal Genome Project. He is the co-founder of more than 15 biotech companies including AbVitro, Editas Medicine, Veritas Genetics, Warpdrive Bio, eGenesis and ReadCoor. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He received a B.A. in Zoology and Chemistry from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University.
David R. Walt, Ph.D., is a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a Member of the Wyss Institute, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Previously, he was University Professor at Tufts University. Dr. Walt is the Scientific Founder of Illumina and Quanterix and has co-founded several other life sciences startups including Ultivue and Arbor Biotechnologies. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from SUNY at Stony Brook.
Kevin (Penghui) Chen is a Founding Partner at Biotrack Capital. Previously, he was a Partner at Sequoia Capital China, responsible for healthcare investment. Before Sequoia Capital, Mr. Chen set up the first healthcare fund at Everbright Holdings and served as Head of Everbright Healthcare Fund. He has led investments in over 20 leading healthcare companies in China, including the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Betta Pharma, Yuwell Medical, Zai Lab, and Amcare Hospital. Before Everbright, Mr. Chen served as President of ShangPharma, a leading China CRO company, and was the COO and CFO of ShangPharma and took the company public at NYSE in 2010. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from Nanjing University, a M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from Tulane University, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
About NuProbe
NuProbe’s vision is to pioneer technology innovation to advance human health. Its technology enables precise and comprehensive capturing of disease signatures with uniquely high sensitivity and multiplexing capability. The proprietary and patented technology is compatible with common PCR and sequencing platforms, and clinical workflow. NuProbe develops multiple platforms for diverse molecular diagnostics applications, including cancer, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), and infectious disease. To learn more, visit www.nuprobe.com.
