Clinical diagnostic startup NewGene, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, recently revealed its management team (see related article in this issue).
David Huntley is the company's chief executive. He has experience as chief executive and owner of service, technology, and engineering companies in the US and the UK. Huntley holds an undergraduate degree in economics and is a qualified accountant.
Ann Curtis is NewGene's scientific director. She began her scientific career as a researcher with the UK's Medical Research Council and then entered the clinical genetics diagnostic field. She helped develop such services for the National Health Service in Edinburgh and Newcastle, and she worked as head of the NHS Molecular Genetics Laboratory in Newcastle for 16 years. Curtis is a registered clinical scientist with the Health Professions Council and holds PhD and BSc degrees.
Jonathan Robinson is NewGene's business development manager. Previously, he was a commercial manager for a drug development company. Before that, he was production manager for a manufacturing company in the biopharmaceutical sector, and prior to that, he worked as a state-registered scientific officer across several disciplines in NHS pathology laboratories. Robinson holds an undergraduate degree in biotechnology and an MBA.
Jonathan Coxhead is a senior scientist at NewGene, where he heads the firm's high-throughput sequencing facility. He holds a PhD in molecular biology from Newcastle University and an undergraduate degree in physiology from the University of Sunderland.
David Allison is the company's chairman. He is the executive director of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he is responsible for operations, business, and development.
John Burn is a NewGene director. He is the medical director and head of the Institute of Human Genetics at the Centre of Life at Newcastle University, where he is also a professor of clinical genetics. In the past, he headed the university's genetics department for six years. From 1989 until 2004, he was clinical director of the Northern Genetics Service. Prior to that, he worked for the Medical Research Council at the Hospital for Sick Children in London. Burn holds a medical degree from Newcastle Medical School and specialized in pediatrics.
Michael Wright is also a NewGene director. He is an assistant medical director at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals. Before that, he was the clinical director of Northern Genetics Service. Wright is a consultant clinical geneticist with over 20 years of experience in the NHS. His undergraduate training was in Edinburgh, with postgraduate training in Manchester, Newcastle, and Baltimore, Md.
Micro Imaging Technology, A California-based company that has developed a microbial identification system, has added Kary Mullis to its science advisory board. In 1993, he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction.