Unchained Labs | Life Sciences Tools

Vision

Deliver killer tools to unleash science.

Path

Uncover scientific problems.
Solve them. Period.

People

The right group of people can accomplish anything.

Products

Science is no joke. That’s why we uncaged the right tools for the job. Ones that make a big-time difference in getting it done. Products that prepare, process and characterize even the most unruly samples and totally crank up your research.

Events

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

ASGCT

May 11-14, Virtual Event. Register.

Gene Therapy Analytical Development Europe

May 25-27, Virtual Event. Register.

Inhalation Drug Delivery Systems

Dec 7-8, San Diego. Register.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Lab Automation Seminar: Princeton University & Bristol-Myers Squibb

May 11, 2021, 8 am PT, 11 am ET, 5 pm CET Register.

Lab Automation Seminar: Georg Wuitschik, Roche

May 18, 2021, 8 am PT, 11 am ET, 5 pm CET Register.

PAST WEBINARS

Select Science Webinar: Off-load gene therapy and vaccine buffer exchange to Big Tuna

Apr 29, 2021 Watch recording.

News

Apr 26, 2021

The Carlyle Group to acquire rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs Read more.

The Carlyle Group to acquire rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs

April 26, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) today announced that it has agreed to acquire the rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs for $435 million, in partnership with its management team, from Novo Holdings A/S, Canaan Partners and TPG Biotech. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q2 2021.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Pleasanton, CA, Unchained Labs is a life science tools company focused on solving problems for biologics and gene therapy researchers. Unchained systems are used by biopharma researchers around the world to analyze and characterize large, complex molecules and to make their research jobs easier. Unchained has 170 employees and expects to generate over $75 million of revenue in 2021.

“This is a great day in the history of Unchained Labs,” said Tim Harkness, Unchained Labs Founder and CEO. “The Unchained team has solved a ton of problems for researchers over the past few years, but we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the biologics and gene therapy opportunity. I am thrilled to welcome Carlyle as our new partner! They have the team, the vision, the conviction, the experience, and the capital to help us accelerate organic and inorganic growth and realize our full potential. I have never been more optimistic about our future and I am truly excited about joining Carlyle for the next part of our journey.”

“Unchained Labs sits at the intersection of one of the most attractive sectors in healthcare, life science tools, and its fastest growing end market, biopharma,” said Steve Wise, Global Head of Healthcare at Carlyle. “With strong industry tailwinds, we believe Unchained Labs has significant growth opportunities and we’re excited to support another founder-backed business to scale through investments in research and development, digitization and geographic expansion.”

“In the midst of the genomic revolution, Unchained Labs is on a mission to bring highly innovative products that are critical to drug development to researchers globally,” said Robert Schmidt, a Managing Director specializing in healthcare investing at Carlyle. “We look forward to partnering with Tim and his impressive management team as they help their pharma and biotech customers work on critical scientific discoveries and accelerate the Company’s aggressive growth plans.”

The investment in Unchained Labs is a continuation of Carlyle’s long-term global commitment to healthcare, in which it has invested more than $16 billion of equity since inception. Equity capital for the investment came from Carlyle Partners VII, an $18.5 billion fund that makes majority and strategic minority investments primarily in the U.S. in targeted industries, including healthcare.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisor and Cooley LLP acted as legal counsel to Unchained Labs. Citi acted as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Carlyle.

About the Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $246 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2020, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs 1,825 people in 29 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow The Carlyle Group on Twitter @OneCarlyle.

About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.

Carlyle Contact:
Brittany Berliner
Brittany.berliner@carlyle.com
+1(212) 813-4839

Unchained Labs Contact:
Tim Harkness
Founder and CEO
tim.harkness@unchainedlabs.com
+1(925) 587-9800

Download PDF of the press release.

Apr 1, 2021

Unchained Labs makes another big splash with Big Tuna in gene therapy and vaccines! Read more.

Unchained Labs makes another big splash with Big Tuna in gene therapy and vaccines!

April 1, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new gene therapy and vaccine applications on the Big Tuna platform today. Big Tuna is already the ultimate buffer exchange platform for biologics, and now it can take on buffer exchange, concentration and clean-up of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).

AAVs are produced at low concentrations and need to be concentrated up for characterization. LNPs are made in the presence of ethanol which needs to be cleared out quickly to keep them stable. Both are tough to handle due to their large size and how fast their buffers flow through filtration membranes. Big Tuna’s new high molecular weight cutoff plates, concentration application and tunable pressure settings make it perfectly dialed in for these molecules.

“The use of AAVs and LNPs for gene therapies and vaccines is literally booming,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Researchers developing these complex molecules need better tools to clean them up, concentrate to dosable levels and get them into formulations that solve cold chain issues. With the new features on Big Tuna, researchers can now fully automate these steps in their workflow and ditch the slow and manual ways of the past.”

About Unchained Labs

Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.

Contact:

Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9800

Download PDF of press release.

Jan 11, 2021

Unchained Labs sticks it to viruses, launches new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner! Read more.

Unchained Labs sticks it to viruses, launches new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner!

January 11, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner today. Stunner is the only platform that can simultaneously quantify the total amount of mRNA and measure the size distribution of lipid nanoparticles – two critical qualities of these novel vaccines.

Stunner’s super short pathlength for UV/Vis and DLS makes it the perfect tool for measuring both the mRNA concentration and the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) size in these typically cloudy samples. It gets it done straight up, with no dilutions, completely label-free and can crank through 96 samples in an hour using only 2 µL of these very precious samples.

“LNPs need to be just the right size to deliver mRNA for a solid immune response,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Researchers working on these challenging molecules are in urgent need of better analytical tools that can keep up with their crazy pace. Stunner is the accurate, hassle-free, high-throughput quantification and sizing platform they’ve been thirsting for.”

About Unchained Labs

Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.

Contact:

Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9806

Download PDF of press release.

Oct 6, 2020

Unchained Labs launches the ultimate gene therapy tool; tackle AAV titer, empty/full ratio and more with Stunner! Read more.

Unchained Labs launches the ultimate gene therapy tool; tackle AAV titer, empty/full ratio and more with Stunner!

October 6, 2020 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new gene therapy quantification application on Stunner today. Stunner is the first platform that gives researchers a full read-out on how many AAV capsids they have, how many are packed with DNA and if there is aggregation – in less than a minute using only 2 µL of sample.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) used in gene therapies are hard to manufacture and tough to characterize. Researchers need to be able to quickly and accurately measure their capsid titer, and how many of them are full of DNA they are supposed to deliver to cells. Other methods that gather this info require labels, dyes, reagents, standard curves or use a lot of sample. Pulling it all together is a big lift and takes way too long with existing technologies.

Stunner makes AAV titer a snap. Researchers just pipette 2 µL of their sample, up to 96 samples per run, and then Stunner takes it from there. UV/Vis measures the total protein and DNA in the sample. Dynamic light scattering identifies AAV capsids based on their size and checks for aggregation. Stunner then combines all this information to provide an accurate titer and empty/full ratio.

“Gene therapy researchers are hungry for better tools and Stunner delivers all the data they need,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “No other instrument quantifies AAV capsids, both full and empty, and can see aggregates. These complex molecules demand that traditional techniques be reimagined or combined to provide better insights, and with Stunner’s AAV application we’ve done both.”

About Unchained Labs

Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.

Contact:

Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9806

Download PDF of press release.

Apr 1, 2020

Unchained Labs jumps into gene therapy and vaccines with new AAV stability application! Read more.

Unchained Labs jumps into gene therapy and vaccines with new AAV stability application!

April 1, 2020 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new AAV stability application on the Uncle platform today. Uncle is already the gold standard for measuring protein stability and, with this new application, jumps in to support researchers in pursuit of novel gene therapies and better vaccines.

Many gene therapies, immunotherapies and vaccines being developed use adeno-associated viruses or AAVs. These viral vectors are great at sneaking past the body’s immune system to deliver DNA that commands cells to make proteins that end diseases or antibodies that seek out and destroy viruses. A stable AAV stays intact until it finds its target and won’t aggregate – or worse, leak potentially toxic DNA into the body.

Uncle’s newest application helps researchers understand their AAV stability. It uses a thermal ramp with a DNA-binding fluorescent dye to help them get a read on when DNA starts to leak from an AAV, even before the capsid starts to fall apart. Uncle’s DLS and SLS combo can measure the particle titer to see how many capsids they have. They’ll also know when aggregation gets out of hand.

“With this new application, Uncle lends a helping hand to researchers working on life-changing gene therapies and vaccines,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “With deeper insights into AAV stability, researchers can now screen and refine their capsids for strength, find the best formulations, and optimize storage conditions, all with a single instrument.”

About Unchained Labs

Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping biologics researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.

Contact:

Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9806

Download PDF of press release.

Old News

Need more? Check out news from prior years.

Our Tribe

READ BIO

Tim Harkness

Founder and CEO

Tim Harkness, Founder and CEO

Building great teams and great life sciences companies is just in Tim’s DNA. He has 2 successful exits under his belt and brings 20+ years of life science leadership experience to the Unchained Labs table. As CEO of ProteinSimple, Tim and team built a unique protein analysis pure-play from scratch and sold it for $300M. Prior to that he helped build Molecular Devices into a diversified life science tools provider and sold it for over $600M. In his early career as a healthcare investment banker, Tim helped raise over $1B for life science companies in the public equity markets. He enjoys his work on corporate boards and has been part of 4 successful exits as an independent board member. He is a Founding Venture Partner at Tri-Valley Ventures, has an M.B.A. from Stanford and a B.B.A from the University of Wisconsin. Tim is married with 3 children, is out hacking around on the links or riding his bike whenever he can, and happily gets up at the crack of dawn to coach his son’s hockey and lacrosse teams.

READ BIO

Jason Novi

CFO

Jason Novi, CFO

Jason leads the finance team for Unchained Labs, and is on the front line of fundraising, acquisitions and integrations. Prior to joining Unchained Labs, Jason was the CFO and VP of Operations at ProteinSimple, a part of Tim’s team that raised $60M, acquired four businesses and built a $60M+, profitable life sciences tools company over a six year period. That business was sold to Bio-Techne in July 2014 for $300M. Prior to joining ProteinSimple, Jason was VP of Finance at Nektar Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly seven years in various senior financial leadership roles at Molecular Devices, responsible for the worldwide accounting, finance and treasury functions, and Jason played a key role in the execution and integration of its corporate development activities. He began his career with Ernst & Young, based in San Francisco, California, holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and is a CPA (inactive). Jason and his wife Erin have two kids, and when he isn’t coaching their softball and baseball teams, you can find him hacking away on the golf course or cheering on the SF Giants and 49ers.

READ BIO

Will Lachnit

VP Corporate Dev

Will Lachnit, VP Corporate Dev

Will’s been around the Life Sciences block a time or two, and can’t get enough when it comes to making companies thrive. He has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry across multiple functions. Prior to joining Unchained Labs, Will was the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Solutions Development at Freeslate. Prior to Freeslate, he was the Vice President of Sales and Service for ProteinSimple. While there, his other roles included leadership of the marketing and applications functions and he played a key role in integrating 4 acquisitions. Previously, at Molecular Devices Corporation, Will had leadership roles for the North American Drug Discovery sales organization, an entrepreneurial product development organization in Switzerland, and Corporate Development. Dr. Lachnit started his career in Pharmaceutical R&D in scientific and research management positions at Roche and Syntex, including running a best-in-class HTS organization. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmacology and his B.S. in Physiology from the University of California, Davis. Will has a passion for cooking for his family and loves tinkering around in his woodshop.

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Krista Witte

VP Product Dev

Krista Witte, VP Product Dev

Krista loves building assays and analytical tools to do great science. She has over 15 years of experience in life sciences instrumentation and application development. Prior to joining Unchained Labs, Krista was a founding team member of ForteBio, now Pall ForteBio. In her decade at the company, she held many roles including heading up Applications, Assay Development, System Integration, QC and R&D. She saw the company from angel-funded start-up to a leading provider of label-free instrumentation. Prior to ForteBio, Krista headed up the Applications team at Zyomyx, taking a lead role in developing their protein microarray technology. Krista holds a Ph.D. in Carbohydrate Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute and a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M (Gig ‘em Aggies!). When not doing science, Krista is obsessed with being around the water and can be found swimming, diving or sailing.

READ BIO

Taegen Clary

VP Marketing

Taegen Clary, VP Marketing

Taegen loves marketing life science tools. He has over 15 years of experience using and marketing enabling life science instrumentation and consumables. As the Director of Pharmaceutical Segment Marketing at Agilent Technologies, he led the marketing organization focused on the company’s largest customer segment, which has experienced consistent, above-market growth rates and 2014 sales revenues of $1B. Over his 7 years at Agilent, Taegen was the Product Manager for Proteomics and Protein Chemistries and also led the Life Science group’s efforts in the area of protein therapeutics. He began his career at Berlex Biosciences, now a part of Bayer Healthcare, running mass spectrometers and developing assays to measure drug passage across the blood brain barrier. Taegen has an M.B.A. in Marketing from St. Mary’s College of California and a B.S. in Biotechnology from the University of California, Davis. Taegen is married with two children, loves mountain biking, camping, fishing, golfing and is huge fan of the San Francisco Giants and 49ers.

READ BIO

Dustin Giberson

VP Operations

Dustin Giberson, VP Operations

Dustin lives to build great products, solve tough problems and help make customers successful. He started his career applying automation to advance life science research and then never looked back. He leads the Operations and Global Service & Support organizations including Manufacturing, Tech Support, Field Service, and Contract Testing teams that delivers products to customers and helps them get the most out of their automation and analytics tools. Prior to Unchained Labs, Dustin was head of Operations at Freeslate providing workflow automation tools to biologics, chemicals, and energy researchers. Before that he held leadership positions at Affymetrix and Beckman Coulter developing commercial, high throughput automation systems and assays. Dustin has a B.S. in Biology from the University of Vermont, a Master of Software Engineering from Brandeis University, and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Apart from work, Dustin enjoys traveling, cooking, and being outdoors with his wife and 3 kids and when he’s not doing that you can probably find him at the gym pumping iron while listening to heavy metal.

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Steve Cypes

VP Workflow Sales

Steve Cypes, VP Workflow Sales

Steve’s all about building commercial teams that get disruptive technologies into the hands of scientists. He started his career at Merck and has been passionate about getting to the bottom of life science R&D challenges ever since. He leads the global Workflow and QC sales team, collaborating with customers to leverage Unchained Labs’ automated instrumentation and know-how to tackle their biggest development problems. Prior to Unchained Labs, Steve was the VP of Sales for automated workflows at Freeslate, with a focus on biologics and small molecule applications. Before that, Steve held a number of positions at Symyx Technologies, including leadership roles in engineering, product management, contract testing and sales. Steve has a B.S. and M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell. He loves being active outdoors with his wife and 2 kids, playing golf, hiking, running and helps coach youth lacrosse on the side.

READ BIO

Todd Lewis

VP Analytical Sales

Todd Lewis, VP Analytical Sales

Todd can’t wait to dig in and help scientists find ways to hit their research goals. He’s got 20 years under his belt in both direct sales and managing sales teams in the life science instrument space. At Unchained Labs, Todd leads the global Analytical sales team, focusing on bringing tools to researchers in the biologics drug discovery and development arena. Prior to Unchained Labs, Todd was the Director of Sales for North America at MilliporeSigma, where he led the largest-revenue market. Before that, he honed his commercial expertise at companies like BD, PerkinElmer and Guava Technologies. Todd has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University. In his free time, Todd’s typically on either the soccer field or the volleyball court, and loves traveling with his wife and kids.

jobs

Unchained people get amazing amounts of work done, focus on what matters and never give up. They thrive on mind-blowing results and make decisions with incomplete information on a daily basis. They’re team players that always know it’s all about we, not I.

We move fast and expect a lot. So if you’re not down with the unknown, making mistakes and feeling accountable, stop reading. But if a fast pace, autonomy, flexibility and real responsibility float your boat, just hit the button and send your resume on in. We’re hiring for the following positions:

Admin

No positions are currently available.

Service

Field Service Engineer-Europe

Operations

Materials Manager-Belgium
Receiver-Inspector
Production Technician-Consumables
Consumables Technician-Belgium

Sales & Applications

Sales Associate, Workflows-US West
Field Application Scientist-Southern Cal

Marketing

Marketing Automation Specialist
Product Manager-Uncle
Product Manager-Big Tuna

Product Development

Sr. Mechanical Engineer

Build something big with us!

Send Resume

Board

READ BIO

Tim Harkness

Founder and CEO, Unchained Labs

Tim Harkness, Founder and CEO, Unchained Labs

Building great teams and great life sciences companies is just in Tim’s DNA. He has 2 successful exits under his belt and brings 20+ years of life science leadership experience to the Unchained Labs table. As CEO of ProteinSimple, Tim and team built a unique protein analysis pure-play from scratch and sold it for $300M. Prior to that he helped build Molecular Devices into a diversified life science tools provider and sold it for over $600M. In his early career as a healthcare investment banker, Tim helped raise over $1B for life science companies in the public equity markets. He enjoys his work on corporate boards and has been part of 4 successful exits as an independent board member. He is a Founding Venture Partner at Tri-Valley Ventures, has an M.B.A. from Stanford and a B.B.A from the University of Wisconsin. Tim is married with 3 children, is out hacking around on the links or riding his bike whenever he can, and happily gets up at the crack of dawn to coach his son’s hockey and lacrosse teams.

READ BIO

Brent Ahrens

General Partner, TMIVCITW, Caanan Partners

Brent Ahrens, General Partner, TMIVCITW, Caanan Partners

His term sheets make the NY Times best seller list. His patents file themselves. Other venture capital-ists go through his trash can looking for business plans. He is…The Most Interesting Venture Capitalist in the World.

Brent Ahrens joined Canaan in 1999 as a member of the Kauffman Fellows Program. A raconteur ex-traordinaire, in his work hours, Brent focuses on healthcare investments and has led investments in life sciences companies such as DexCom (DXCM), Revivant (acquired by ZOLL), Peninsula Pharmaceuti-cals (acquired by JNJ), Cerexa (acquired by FRX), Calixa (acquired by CBST), Durata Therapeutics (DRTX), and Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by DNPUF).

Brent serves on the board of Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs. He is also on the boards of EndoGastric Solutions, the leading company offering medical devices for treatment of reflux disease; Minimally Invasive De-vices, a developer of a franchise of products that substantially improve visualization during laparoscop-ic surgery; Relievant MedSystems, a maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain; Semnur, a developer of pain managements solutions; and Spinifex, a biotech company developing new treatments for chronic pain.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent worked in both commercial and technical roles at General Surgical Inno-vations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (J&J), and IAP Research. He also has several surgical instrument patents to his credit.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College after graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton.

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Scott Beardsley

Senior Partner, Novo Ventures

Scott Beardsley, Senior Partner, Novo Ventures

Scott is employed as a Senior Partner at Novo Ventures (US), Inc., which provides financial investment consultancy services to Novo A/S. Prior to joining the Novo Ventures team in 2012, Scott was employed from 2009 through 2012 as a Senior Partner with Novo A/S’ Growth Equity team. Before joining Novo, Scott was an investment banker for 20 years in various capacities. Most recently, Scott was a Managing Director at JP Morgan in San Francisco, where he led the firm’s West Coast biopharmaceuticals effort. Before that, Scott led Piper Jaffray’s US biopharmaceuticals investment banking practice, was a banker in the Health Care Group at Montgomery Securities and a junior banker at Kidder, Peabody. Scott currently is a member of the board of directors of Inogen and served on the board of directors of Aerocrine AB, both publicly-traded medical technology companies. Scott received his Masters of Business Administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Colorado State University.

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Heather Preston, MD

Managing Partner, Pivotal BioVentures

Heather Preston, MD, Managing Partner, Pivotal BioVentures

Prior to joining Pivotal BioVentures in July 2018, Dr. Preston was a Firm Partner and Managing Director with TPG Biotech for 13 years, where she invested in tools, biotech platform technologies and biopharmaceutical products across all stages of development and commercialization. Prior to TPG, she invested with JP Morgan Partners and New Enterprise Associates. Dr Preston also spent five years at McKinsey & Co. in New York, where she was a leader of their pharmaceutical and medical products consulting practice. She advised large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies on critical strategic issues such as R&D portfolio prioritization, M&A opportunities, new technology acquisitions, new product launches and product growth strategies. Dr. Preston has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of London and a medical degree from the University of Oxford. Dr. Preston completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University and trained in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and subspecialized in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UCSF. During her academic medical career, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fulbright Cancer Research Scholarship, a Har-lech Scholarship and a Science and Engineering Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship Award.

Dr. Preston co-founded Virobay Inc., a biotechnology company which is seeking to develop new therapies for the treatment of pain and auto-immune diseases. Dr. Preston currently serves on the board of directors of Oxford Biomedica (OXB); Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. [ALDR]; Otonomy, Inc. [OTIC]; Avalyn Therapeutics, Azura Opthalmics and Unchained Labs. She previously served on the boards of Aptalis Pharma (acquired by Forest Labs in February 2014), Albireo (ALBO) and Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Sunovion in September 2012) and is responsible for overseeing TPG Biotech’s investment in Par Pharmaceuticals.

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Max Carnecchia

CEO, Illuminate Education

Max Carnecchia, CEO, Illuminate Education

Max Carnecchia was the Chief Executive Officer of Illuminate Education, which creates cloud delivered tools for educators that promote student success. Over 7 million K-12 students benefit from the Illuminate Education solutions. Illuminate Education is an Insight Venture Partners portfolio company.

Before joining Illuminate Education, Max was the Chief Executive Officer of BIOVIA-Dassault Systèmes. After acquiring Accelrys in 2014, Dassault Systèmes announced the creation of the BIOVIA brand combining Dassault Systèmes’ own efforts in BioIntelligence, their collaborative 3D EXPERIENCE technologies and leading life sciences and materials science solutions from Accelrys. Prior to this, Mr. Carnecchia had served as President and CEO of Accelrys and as a member of the Board of Directors since 2009. Mr. Carnecchia led Accelrys through significant growth and transformation, successfully transitioning the company to the leading global provider of Scientific Product Lifecycle Management software and services.

Prior to Accelrys, Mr. Carnecchia served as President of Interwoven, a global leader in content management solutions, having previously served as Vice President of Alliances and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations after joining Interwoven in 2001. Prior to this, Mr. Carnecchia served as Vice President of Global Sales for Xoriant; Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations for Smart DB Corporation sales; and he held management positions at Intel and Group 1 Software.

Mr. Carnecchia holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from The Stevens Institute of Technology. He served on the Board of Directors of Guidance Software (NASDAQ: GUID), which develops and provides software solutions for cyber security. He also served on the Board of Directors of ALDA (Analytical Life Science & Diagnostics Association), an industry trade association for companies that develop and supply life science, analytical and diagnostics products and services.