Our Company

Dr. Luo is an entrepreneur with more than 14 years of start-up experience in leadership and innovation. Before ACD, Dr. Luo was a founder of Panomics (previously named Genospectra before its acquisition of Panomics), a life science company that was acquired by Affymetrix in 2008. At Panomics, Dr. Luo served various roles including Vice President, Functional Genomics and Chief Scientific Officer and he led the development and launch of all of its flagship product lines. Prior to Panomics, Dr. Luo was one of the earliest senior scientists at Exelixis, where he led a team to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets. Dr. Luo has published many research papers in top peer-reviewed journals. His inventions are the subject of over a dozen patents and patent pending applications. Dr. Luo received his doctorate in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Chen brings to ACD over 14 years’ experience in technology innovation and management.  Before ACD, Dr. Chen co-founded Genospectra with Dr. Luo, served as its Chief Technology Officer and led the development of its microarray instrumentation systems. Prior to Genospectra, Dr. Chen was an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland, College Park where he conducted research in the field of optical sensors and instrumentation. His research work has resulted in several dozen peer-reviewed journal publications and 6 issued patents. Dr. Chen holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from University of London.

Mr. Tom Olenic has over 25 years of successful commercial and executive management experience in biotech industry. Prior to joining ACD, Tom was General Manager of the Sequencing Organization and Senior VP of Commercial Operations of the Forensic Organization at IntegenX, Inc., where he implemented an aggressive global commercial strategy that achieved  rapid revenue growth. He also held commercial and senior management roles in companies ranging from startups to public corporations including Bios Corp., PerSeptive Bioscience, Millipore, Molecular Devices (a Danaher Company) and FreeSlate. At Molecular Devices, Tom held successful commercial leadership positions with increasing responsibilities, ending as the General Manager of an organization that grew from $10 million to over $200 million in annual revenue. Mr. Olenic has a B.S. degree in Biology from University of South Florida.

Jessie Wang brings to ACD over 15 years of broad financial management experience. Starting from 2011, she has consulted with multiple start-up companies, helping them successfully raise funds from top tier venture capital firms, venture debt and complete financial audits. Prior to that, Jessie held various managerial positions including VP Controller since 2005 at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where she developed her expertise in SEC reporting, merger and acquisition, internal control, stock plan administration and revenue recognition. Jessie Wang obtained her public accounting training from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Moss Adams after she received her MBA from California State University, Hayward and her BS in Management Science degree from Fudan University, China.

Dr. Rob Monroe brings to ACD a record of success providing medical leadership for both venture-backed and public companies in the clinical diagnostics industry. Most recently, he served as Medical Director and Vice President of Laboratory Operations for Veracyte (VCYT), a diagnostics company focused on molecular cytology, where he led the company’s CLIA laboratories, including oversight of the highly successful Afirma^® Thyroid FNA Analysis and recent launch of the Percepta™ Bronchial Genomic Classifer. Prior to Veracyte, Dr. Monroe served as Chief Medical Officer of BioImagene (acquired by Ventana, a member of the Roche Group, in 2010), a leading provider of imaging solutions for anatomic pathology and clinical diagnostics where he headed the company’s efforts to develop software applications for pathologists, including multiple FDA-cleared algorithms for immunohistochemistry analysis. Dr. Monroe was also Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of OncoMDx, a Palo Alto-based molecular diagnostics laboratory later acquired by CORE Diagnostics to support expansion of next generation diagnostics in India.  Prior to joining BioImagene, Dr. Monroe served as a Medical Director for Central Coast Pathology where he led cytopathology and molecular pathology programs.  Dr. Monroe is board certified in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, and cytopathology.  He holds MD and PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School and completed his pathology training at Stanford and UCLA.

Dr. Ma is a leader in genomic research and molecular diagnostics for personalized medicine. Applying his multi-disciplinary expertise in molecular biology, bioinformatics and statistics, Dr. Ma has a proven track record of developing molecular signatures for cancer diagnostics and identifying novel drug targets for over 14 years. Prior to joining ACD, Dr. Ma was Vice President of R&D/Biostatistics in bioTheranostics (formerly AviaraDx and Arcturus Bioscience), a bioMérieux company, where he led efforts to successfully develop several advanced molecular diagnostic tests in cancer classification and prognosis. Prior to bioTheranostics, Dr. Ma held senior bioinformatics positions at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute and Monsanto/Searle. He received his doctorate training in biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Iowa and post-doctoral training in molecular genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Bunker brings ten years of experience in business development with pharmaceutical/biotechnology organizations. Prior to joining ACD, Dr. Bunker was Director of Business Development at Cell Signaling Technology, Inc. (CST), where he helped build the company from its initial spin-out to a $100M business. Before CST, Dr. Bunker pursued cancer research at Genome Therapeutics Corp. Dr. Bunker received a Ph.D in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University and a M.B.A. from the executive program of Boston University. He received post-doctoral training in cancer molecular biology at University of California, San Francisco.

Mr. Silva brings to Advanced Cell Diagnostics a strong track record of product and business growth in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining ACD, he was Vice President of Commercial Operations at BioScale, assisting in resetting the company’s strategy toward pharma assay services and diagnostics.  Prior to that Chris was Vice President of Marketing at ForteBio/Pall Life Sciences, leading the company’s strategic planning process, multiple product launches and internal sales and applications team, culminating in the successful acquisition of ForteBio by Pall Corp. Previously, he was Director of Strategic and Worldwide Product Marketing at Molecular Devices.  At Molecular Devices, he led three product families (including the SpectraMax microplate reader line, the company's largest product line), and doubled revenues to greater than $70 million in five years. Chris began his career as a founding member of Kairos Scientific Inc. He holds a BS in molecular biology from San Jose State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University. Chris holds four patents and is co-author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles.

Ms. Deborah Wright is a medical diagnostics and device executive with over 30 years of experience in ISO and FDA cleared products.  Prior to ACD, Deborah was Vice President of Operations for GenturaDx until its sale to Luminex. Before GenturaDx, Deborah was Vice President at Cepheid overseeing the manufacturing, process development and quality systems.  She actively contributed to many of the company’s successes including FDA clearance of the reagent/instrument, winning and supporting the Postal contract for anthrax screening, and the company's initial public offering. Deborah also held various manufacture and quality management positions at Syva and Bio-Rad Laboratories in the earlier years of her career.