Leadership
Roger D. Cone, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer, is a co-founder of Znomics and has served as Director, President and Chief Scientific Officer since 2001. In addition to serving as an officer of the Company, Dr. Cone is currently Director of the Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and a Senior Scientist at the Vollum Institute at OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Cone was also a co-founder of Northwest NeuroLogic, along with Mr. Sessions. He has served as a scientific advisory board member to Neurocrine Biosciences, Lexicon Genetics and Trega Biosciences, and is a current scientific advisor to the public biopharmaceutical company, Mannkind Corporation. He has authored over 130 publications in the field of neuroendocrinology and obesity, and is the recipient of national and international awards for his research in this area. Dr. Cone earned his B.A., summa cum laude, in Biochemistry from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Richard A. Sessions, M.B.A., Chief Executive Officer, is a co-founder of Znomics and has served as Chief Executive Officer on a consulting basis since 2001. Mr. Sessions brings extensive experience in research management to the Company. He co-founded Northwest NeuroLogic and served as its Chief Executive Officer from 1993 to 1996. From 1990 to 2001 he served as Administrative Director of the privately endowed ($40 million) Vollum Institute at OHSU. Prior to that he spent nineteen years in engineering and medical research management at UCLA including positions as the Executive Officer of the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Administrative Director of the School of Medicine’s Center for Ulcer Research and Education. Mr. Sessions holds a B.A. from California State University, Fresno, an M.S.W. from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Graduate School of Management.
Kerry D. Rea, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, has over 20 years experience in finance, primarily in publicly owned companies. Prior to joining Znomics, he was Vice President and Controller of AccessLine Communications; from 2003 to 2006 serving in various consulting roles. From 1997 to 2002 Mr. Rea held the positions of Vice President of Finance and Vice President and Controller for Electric Lightwave. He has also served as CPA with two public accounting firms. Mr. Rea holds a Bachelor of Science of Business Administration from Oregon State University and a Masters of Taxation from Portland State University.
Stephen E. Kurtz, Ph.D., Director of Operations, is a co-founder of Znomics and is responsible for evaluating new technologies, overseeing certain laboratory operations and providing liaison with university and corporate scientists that engage in collaborative programs with the company. He was previously Chief Scientific Officer at Northwest NeuroLogic. From 1992 to 1997 Dr. Kurtz was a Senior Scientist in the Department of Microbial Molecular Biology at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Institute, Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Kurtz received his B.A. in Biology from Brown University, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Chicago.
David Ransom, Ph.D., Director of Genetics and Functional Genomics, has extensive experience as a zebrafish researcher studying the molecular mechanisms of hematopoiesis and cancer, including authoring or co-authoring 17 scientific publications in his field. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology from the University of Virginia and trained as a postdoctoral researcher with Znomics’ scientific advisor, Howard Hughes investigator Leonard I. Zon, M.D., Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Harvard University’s Children’s Hospital. Dr. Ransom has received research grants and awards including the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award.
Jianxin Wang, Ph.D., M.Sc., Director of Bioinformatics, is responsible for the ZeneMark Library database and all informatic programming, analysis and data storage. From 2002 through 2005 he was a Bioinformatics Programmer/Analyst at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. In 2002 he obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology and M.Sc. in computer science from the University of New York, Buffalo. His B.S. in biology is from Liaoning University, Shenyang, China. He has authored or co-authored 15 scientific publications.
Stephane Berghmans, D.V.M., Ph.D., Director of Drug Discovery is a world expert and leader in using the zebrafish for drug discovery. His most recent position was head of safety pharmacology at the publicly held biotechnology company, Summit PLC. Dr. Berghmans received a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1994 and a Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics in 2000 from the University of Liege, Belgium. From 2000-2004 he was a research fellow at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. He is the author of many pioneering papers on the development of human disease models and drug screening in the zebrafish.
Kathleen Phillips, Controller, has over 30 years experience in financial positions including five years with Cahall, Veltrie & Foster, CPAs, where she was manager. She is experienced in all aspects of accounting and in the preparation of complex financial reports.
Research Consultants
Wenbiao Chen, Ph.D. is a co-founder of Znomics and has served as Research Consultant since 2001. Dr. Chen is an Assistant Scientist at the Vollum Institute at OHSU. Dr. Chen is an expert on retroviral insertional mutagenesis in the zebrafish, and was one of the key scientists involved in the development of the technology while a postdoctoral research fellow at MIT. Dr. Chen earned his B.S. in Biology from Hunan Normal University, and a Ph.D. in Biology from OHSU.
Gregory P. Golling, Ph.D., is an expert on retroviral insertional mutagenesis and zebrafish physiology, having completed postdoctoral research at MIT, along with Dr. Chen, in the laboratory of Dr. Nancy Hopkins. Dr. Golling graduated with a B.S. in Biology from California State University, Bakersfield, and received a Ph.D. in Genetics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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