Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Amnis Corporation has created the
ImageStream® Cell Analysis System, a breakthrough technology for high speed
imaging and analysis of cells in flow. The system is a next generation instrument
that combines the power of microscopy and flow cytometry in a single platform
to advance applications in drug discovery, basic biomedical research and
diagnostics. The ImageStream makes it possible to gather detailed quantitative
morphologic and fluorescence information from tens of thousands of cells
in a single experiment and use that information to define and analyze cell
subpopulations. The system enables advanced applications in apoptosis, nuclear
translocation of transcription factors such as NFkB, co-localization of
cell surface markers and intracellular molecules, automated morphologic
cell classification and many others.
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David A. Basiji, Ph.D., President and CEO
David A. Basiji, Ph.D. is co-founder of Amnis Corporation and serves
as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. As a co-inventor
of the ImageStream system and other key Amnis technologies, Dr. Basiji has
been deeply involved in all phases of corporate development since the company
began operations in 1999. In addition to providing technical leadership,
Dr. Basiji has guided the marketing and sales operations, supervised the
drafting of all business plans and negotiated the investment of more than
$15 million in financing for the company. Other areas of his management
leadership include the development of critical applications for the ImageStream
system, prosecution of the company’s intellectual property portfolio, successful
development of more than $2.5 million in research grant funding and negotiation
with key suppliers and strategic partners.
Dr. Basiji earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of
Washington, where he developed an ultra-sensitive DNA and protein analysis
platform for the Human Genome Project, a technology that was later commercially
licensed to Oxford GlycoSciences. Dr. Basiji received his Master’s degree
in Bioengineering from the University of Washington and graduated cum laude
with a Bachelor’s degree in Biophysics from the University of California,
Berkeley. He currently holds 16 U.S. Patents.
William E. Ortyn, Chief Operating Officer
William E. Ortyn is co-founder of Amnis and serves as the Chief
Operating Officer. Mr. Ortyn co-invented Amnis’ technologies and
has over 20 years of experience in technology management and commercialization
of complex image processing-based systems. Since the company’s inception
Mr. Ortyn has lead Amnis’ research and development efforts, built the production
and customer service capacities of the Company, developed the operating
and business plans and played instrumental roles intellectual property development,
fund raising and federal grant applications. Prior to founding Amnis, Mr.
Ortyn was a Senior Manager and product architect at NeoPath, Inc. where
he managed technology and product development, oversaw third party technology
partnerships, serviced NeoPath’s systems around the United States, Japan
and Australia and helped to build the Company’s FDA GMP certified production
facility. He was one of three speakers representing NeoPath at the company’s
FDA, PMA panel hearing. His operations, management and technology development
expertise is complimented by a wealth of experience in intellectual property
prosecution and fund raising. Mr. Ortyn has worked with KLA-Tencor, Spectra
Physics, Stratos Product Development LLC and IBM Corporation. He holds 40
issued patents in the areas of high throughput image processing systems
architecture, optical design, mechanical design, algorithm development and
image processing systems characterization.
Patrick G. McDermott, Chief Financial Officer
Pat joined Amnis in September, 2005 as Chief Financial Officer.
He has over 25 years experience in the financial, accounting, and general
management areas. Pat graduated from the University of Washington
with a BA in business administration in 1976. After graduation, he
joined Price Waterhouse as a staff accountant and obtained his CPA certificate.
In 1979 he entered private industry as the division controller for Marco,
a ship builder and equipment manufacturer. Pat’s varied work experiences
have centered in the manufacturing and distribution areas with industry
expertise that includes forest products, construction, and optical measurement
systems. Pat spent five years with US Bank, with the last three years
as a commercial lending officer. Prior to joining Amnis he spent seven
years as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Cully
Enterprises, a distributor of fasteners and construction supplies to the
electrical industry.
Pat is one of the founders of Charter Bank, a commercial business bank
located in Bellevue, Washington. He is a member of the Board of Directors
and has been the chairperson of the loan committee since the inception of
the bank (1998).
Thaddeus George, Ph.D., Director of Biology
Dr. Thaddeus C. George joined Amnis in 2002 and serves as Director of Biology. As one of the first biologists at Amnis, Dr. George has been intimately involved in targeting and developing novel applications for the ImageStream system. Dr George has been instrumental in the development of customer training programs, marketing and sales of the platform to academic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers, management of collaborative efforts with academic and industrial partners, as well as providing customer-oriented guidance for all instrumentation and software projects at Amnis. Dr. George earned his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas) in 1999 for his work elucidating the role of natural killer cell receptors in bone marrow transplant rejection. He performed his post-doctoral training at Immunex and Amgen (Seattle), establishing their cell-based models for the study of murine and human regulatory T cells. Dr. George has authored or co-authored 27 publications, 12 while at Amnis.
David J. Perry, Vice President of Engineering
David J. Perry serves as Amnis’ Vice President of Engineering,
Mr. Perry was a Bausch and Lomb Science Scholar at the University of Rochester
and was awarded the Bachelor’s Degree in Optics with Honors. He was selected
for a TRW Fellowship and completed graduate research in thin film coatings
at the University of Arizona where he earned the Master's Degree in Optical
Sciences. For over 23 years he has held many positions in management and
leading edge development for advanced medical and biotech instrument developers
(TriPath Inc., Amnis Corp.), commercial laser-based printing developers
(ECRM Inc. and Vital Technology Australia Ltd), and major aerospace and
defense corporations (TRW, Honeywell). His expertise has been instrumental
in the development and production of free space laser communication systems
for the military, laser scanning and recording products for the printing
industry, and automated video microscopy and flow cytometry system for biological
research, drug discovery, and clinical diagnostics. He has a broad background
in the design, fabrication, and testing of optical instrumentation and a
proven track record of developing successful products from conceptual design
to volume production. Mr. Perry is a named inventor on 9 patents and has
additional patents pending.
Jeff Hudson, Director of Domestic Sales
Jeff Hudson, joined Amnis in April 2004 and serves as Director
of Domestic Sales. For more than 20 years Mr. Hudson has sold capital equipment
to pharmaceutical, biotech and research labs in the life sciences marketplace.
He excels in the lean and fast paced environments of early stage companies
and his expertise has played a significant role in leading these companies
to profitability. Mr. Hudson served as the first sales representative for
Molecular Dynamics (MDYN) where he helped to propel MDYN to one of the leading
instrumentation tools companies on the sales successes of the Computing
Densitometer™ film & gel reader, the PhosphorImager® gel scanner and the
Sarastro® Confocal Microscope. Mr. Hudson followed his sales success at
MDYN by joining Molecular Devices (MDCC) where he helped to identify and
demonstrate the appropriate market positioning of the FLIPR® High Throughput
Screening system by outselling the sales team and consistently beating sales
forecasts. Mr. Hudson also worked at eBioinformatics® where he recruited
and hired sales positions in the Northeast US as well as LKB® Instruments
where he was responsible electrophoresis and separations instrumentation
sales.
Christopher Doman, Director of International Sales
Christopher Doman joined Amnis in June of 2008 as Director of International Sales and brings with him over 25 years of extensive international experience in the biotechnology and medical device markets. Chris, received his B.A. from the University of St. Thomas and went on to obtain his MBA in international business from the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Business in 1977. His strategic and operational effectiveness was well demonstrated during his previous seven years with the Gentra Systems company introducing advanced capital equipment instrumentation products in the DNA analysis markets. Chris established from scratch a global distribution network of over 50 international dealers, specific to the research and clinical laboratory markets, that contributed over 50% of total company sales. During his international sales career he has launched over 20 new products, established licensing agreements, transfers of technology and private label agreements on all continents. His global experience and success with larger companies such as Steris-Amsco, Spacelabs Medical and Chronimed will further enable Amnis to maximize our global position.
Cathleen A. Zimmerman, Director of Software
Cathleen A. Zimmerman serves as Amnis' Director of Software.
She joined Amnis in 2002 to lead the design and development of INSPIRE and
IDEAS, the fundamental software packages of the ImageStream system. Ms.
Zimmerman received her Bachelor's Degree in Computer science from Washington
State University and has, in addition, a strong background in project management.
For over 20 years she has held many leadership positions in the development
of a wide variety of software applications. She has a proven track record
in delivering robust, user-friendly solutions, as well as providing technical
support during the sales process and post software delivery. While at Boeing,
she developed real-time communication software for the Airborne Warning
and Control System Airplane, programmed and tested firmware for the B1-B
Weapon System Trainer real-time computer image generation system, and developed
software tools to analyze and reduce guidance and navigation data from B1-B
test flights. As a project manager at Gentronics Wang, she led the analysis,
design, coding, and implementation of a centralized security project for
over 500 U.S. Citibank branches. Serving as Program Manager for ThinkShare
Corporation, Ms Zimmerman exercised comprehensive responsibility for design,
development, production and support of the company's applications for hand-held
devices.
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Carl Gordon, Ph.D.
General Partner
Orbimed Capital
Wei-Wu He, Ph.D.
General Partner
Emerging Technology Partners
Richard H. Robb
General Partner
Crown Venture Fund, LLC
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David Basiji, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Founder
Amnis Corporation
William Ortyn
Chief Operating Officer
Founder
Amnis Corporation
Annette J. Campbell-White
Senior Managing Member
MedVenture Associates
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