After 15 years of working in big pharma — on both the commercial and R&D sides at Abbott Laboratories and most recently as global VP of oncology, metabolic, and cardiovascular commercial franchises at Searle-Monsanto — Hollis Kleinert, the new CEO of Protometrix, had very specific requirements for her next “adventure.”
“I was looking for a great technology, with wonderful people to work with,” says Kleinert, who moved to the Guilford, Conn., protein-chip company from Chicago.
She views her diverse background in the pharmaceutical industry as a significant asset to Protometrix. “It is the integration of the science to seamlessly work with the commercial, to plan together and execute together, that really makes you successful and gives you a competitive edge,” Kleinert says. “That is what I want to do right from the beginning in this organization.”
Protometrix has several technologies that help it perform high-throughput protein cloning, expression, and purification; build microarrays based on the 3D structure of the proteins and study protein function under different conditions; and create a software infomatics program to manage the data. The technologies were invented by Yale scientist Michael Snyder.
Since taking over as president and CEO, Kleinert says, “Things have been going great. Better than expected.” The 20-person-and-growing company hopes to have its first product, the yeast biochip, “characterized” by the end of the year, she says. The eventual goal is to produce a human biochip.
— Dana Frisch