Illumina Ventures: Malek Faham, Charles Lin, and Dave Johnson,

Illumina Ventures, an independently managed, healthcare-focused venture firm in a strategic partnership with Illumina, has promoted Malek Faham as its Chief Scientist. Faham previously served as the company’s venture partner and entrepreneur in residence. Prior to Illumina Ventures, Faham cofounded and served as CSO of Sequenta, an immune cell receptor repertoire sequencing startup that was later acquired by Adaptive Biotechnologies. Faham received his PhD in Human Genetics, MD, and Psychiatry training from the University of California, San Francisco. 

In addition, the company has appointed Charles Lin as a principal. Lin most recently served as the vice president of business development and marketing at Element Biosciences. He holds a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Illumina Ventures also appointed Dave Johnson as an entrepreneur in residence. Johnson was the founder and CEO of GigaGen, a single-cell immune genomics company that was acquired by Grifols. Before that, he was COO and the senior vice president of research and development at Natera. Johnson earned a PhD in Genetics from Stanford University and completed his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.