Unchained Labs | Life Sciences Tools

Vision

Build the first Biologics tools pure play.

Path

Acquire right. Invest like crazy. Create something UNbelievable.

People

The right group of people can accomplish anything.

Products

Biologics are a pain. That’s why we uncaged the right tools for the job. Ones that make a big-time difference in figuring them out. Products that characterize even the most unruly molecules and totally crank up your research.

Events

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

Analytics East Coast Demo Day Spring

Apr 23, Woburn, MA. Register.

PDA Visual Inspection Forum

Apr 23-24, Washington, DC. Booth 210. Register.

Proteins & Antibodies Congress

Apr 24-25, London, UK. Booth 28. Register.

Formulation & Drug Delivery Congress UK

Apr 29-30, London, UK. Booth 10. Register.

Automation East Coast Workshop

May 1, Collegeville, PA. Register.

ISBER

May 7-10, Shanghai, China. Booth 51. Register.

Analytics Europe Demo Day

May 14, London, UK. Register.

Biologics Formulation Development and Drug Delivery Forum

May 15-17, Madrid, Spain. Register.

ACHEMA Asia

May 21-23, Shanghai, China. Booth G64. Register.

Automation West Coast Workshop

May 22, Pleasanton, CA. Register.

OPRD USA

Jun 17-19, Toronto, Canada. Register.

Next Generation Protein Therapeutics and Bioconjugates Summit

Jun 18-21, San Francisco, CA. Booth 104. Register.

Bioprocessing Summit

Aug 12-16, Boston, MA. Booth 200. Register.

Analytics East Coast Demo Day Fall

Aug 20, Woburn, MA. Register.

ACS National Meeting Fall

Aug 25-29, San Diego, CA. Booth 2314. Register.

BioProcess International

Sep 9-12, Boston, MA. Booth 1011. Register.

Analytics West Coast Demo Day Fall

Sep 10, Pleasanton, CA. Register.

ASHG

Oct 15-19, Houston, TX. Booth 1106. Register.

AAPS PharmaSci 360

Nov 3-6, San Antonio, TX. Booth 1111. Register.

PEGS Europe

Nov 19-22, Lisbon, Portugal. Booth 212. Register.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Select Science Webinar: Get the rundown on your protein with same-time quality & concentration measurements

May 28, 2019 Register.

PAST WEBINARS

BioPharm International Webinar: Direct identification of contaminant particles on lyophilization cakes

Apr 18, 2019 Watch recording.

Tech Networks Webinar: Cut through the chaos of protein stability with Hunky

Mar 26, 2019 Watch recording.

Get answers with Unchained Labs particle ID and silicone quantification contract testing services

Mar 21, 2019 Watch recording.

C&EN Webinar: Discovering optimal reaction conditions via high-throughput experimentation

Mar 7, 2019 Watch recording.

Select Science Webinar: Big Tuna automates buffer exchange because you have bigger fish to fry

Nov 15, 2018 Watch recording.

Tech Networks Webinar: Stunner bangs out protein quant and characterization in one shot

Nov 8, 2018 Watch recording.

BioPharm International Webinar: Using high-throughput automation to accelerate biologic drug formulation

Oct 25, 2018 Watch recording.

C&EN Webinar: Rapid Expansion of Data-driven Chemical Development Through the Combination of Laboratory Automation, DoE and Modeling Techniques

Sep 25, 2018 Watch recording.

CHI Webinar: Automate visual inspection and viscosity and take an early day today

Jul 19, 2018 Watch recording.

News

Jan 15, 2019

Unchained Labs cuts the ribbon on new contract testing lab in North America! Read more.

Unchained Labs cuts the ribbon on new contract testing lab in North America!

January 15, 2019 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, opened the doors to its new contract testing lab today. The lab is located at the company’s headquarters in Pleasanton, California and provides identification of unwanted particles in drug products and quality assessment of the silicone layers on drug delivery devices.

Two Unchained Labs instruments are heavily used for contract testing. For visible particles, Hound determines the count, size, shape and identity with either Raman or LIBS spectroscopy. If clients have particles in the sub-visible range, the lab has the tools to hunt down those too. Bouncer is used to measure the silicone thickness and distribution on syringes, cartridges and vials.

All sample preparation and testing are handled by trained experts who deliver detailed reports that document the test plan, measurement parameters and results. Turnaround time for results can be as quick as 3 days.

“If someone has particle problems or wants to confirm that the right amount of silicone is on their device, we’ve got their back,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “The new Pleasanton contract testing lab makes it easier for more customers in North America to take advantage of these services and expands capacity beyond our current test lab in Europe.”

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.

Nov 5, 2018

Unchained Labs takes the chore out of buffer exchange, reels in the Big Tuna! Read more.

Unchained Labs takes the chore out of buffer exchange, reels in the Big Tuna!

November 5, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, launched Big Tuna today – the ultimate automated solution for buffer exchange – a mission-critical step in biologics formulation.

The buffer exchange process moves proteins from one solution into another and is used to find the best condition to keep them stable. It’s a major bottleneck and quality concern for protein characterization, development and formulation teams. Because the process needs lots of hands-on time and eyeballing to do it right, it’s one of the most annoying things researchers have to do.

Big Tuna solves all of this. It wipes the bottleneck by letting scientists automate buffer exchange at whatever throughput they want – just a few samples or up to 96 simultaneously. It nails quality using a unique pressure-based exchange process that lets scientists pick how slow or fast they want their protein to move between solutions. Final protein concentration is dead-on, cutting out extra steps usually required after manual buffer exchange. Big Tuna is also the only system that exchanges anywhere from 100 µL to 8 mL at a time, so it’s right at home in any stage – from early screening and optimization to final formulation development.

“Biologics researchers have bigger fish to fry than buffer exchange,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Big Tuna provides complete relief from one of their biggest pains in the neck. It eliminates the whole hands-on process and delivers better results to boot.”

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.

Oct 8, 2018

Unchained Labs blows minds with biologic quant and quality mashup, launches Stunner! Read more.

Unchained Labs blows minds with biologic quant and quality mashup, launches Stunner!

October 8, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, launched Stunner today — the first instrument to combine protein concentration and size-based quality measurements under the same hood.

Every day, biologics researchers ask themselves two critical questions about their samples: How much protein do I have, and is it in good shape? To get the answers, they typically need to run experiments on multiple instruments, which eats up time and sample. Stunner gives them both in one shot by combining UV/Vis concentration and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) quality measurements from the same tiny sample.

Stunner gives scientists the best of two worlds — the dead-on UV/Vis accuracy Unchained Labs’ Lunatic is known for, and the company’s fresh take on DLS technology, which is super easy to use compared to other systems out there. With just 2 µL, Stunner bangs out concentration and quality measurements like hydrodynamic size, polydispersity and detection of aggregates in 1 minute. Researchers dealing with a full plate can knock out 96 samples in an hour. For heavy duty workflows, they can hook Stunner up to their favorite robot to add more zip.

“Biologics researchers have needed a solution like this forever, which makes Stunner a real head-turner,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Concentration is something they check constantly and DLS has been notoriously hard to use. Stunner makes it ridiculously easy to get these measurements at the same time on one system and literally makes DLS a push button activity.”

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.

Aug 20, 2018

Unchained Labs just couldn’t take it anymore, frees the Big Kahuna! Read more.

Unchained Labs just couldn’t take it anymore, frees the Big Kahuna!

August 20, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, renamed its flagship workflow solution today. Freeslate is now the Big Kahuna.

“We really love this product and it deserved to be a part of the Unchained Labs family,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “It’s always been the Big Kahuna to us and from here on out that’s what we’re going to call it.”

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.

Apr 30, 2018

Unchained Labs brings in the muscle with Bouncer and releases the Hounds! Read more.

Unchained Labs brings in the muscle with Bouncer and releases the Hounds!

April 30, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, launched Hound and Bouncer today at the PEGS conference in Boston. The QC duo are the ultimate tools for getting biopharmaceutical manufacturers to particle-free biologics and trouble-free drug delivery devices faster.

Particles in a drug formulation throw a wrench into development and manufacturing. Hound uses Raman spectroscopy to fingerprint protein and organic particles. Metal, glass, and other inorganic particles get blasted by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to identify their elemental makeup. In just minutes, researchers can fully ID unwanted particles, find their source and fix their process.

Silicone oil makes a drug injection smooth and easy. Too little and the device can get jammed up. Too much and silicone can ooze into the drug and may cause aggregation. Bouncer lets manufacturers measure the thickness of sprayed-on and baked-on silicone coatings using a combo of reflectometry and interferometry. Scientists can get a handle on their coatings in minutes and fine-tune their process accordingly for top-notch device performance.

“This tag team of QC tools for biologics labs has no equal”, said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Hound goes way beyond just finding particles – it forensically identifies them by what they’re made of. Bouncer helps dial in the silicone coating process, ensuring delivery devices work every time and are as safe as possible.”

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.

Apr 16, 2018

Unchained Labs crushes it with Uncle 3.0! Read more.

Unchained Labs crushes it with Uncle 3.0!

April 16, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, released its Uncle 3.0 software today. This update adds a brand-spanking new application and makes Uncle QC-ready for biologics labs.

When formulating proteins at high concentrations, G₂₂ measurements are the only way for scientists to quickly tell if a formulation makes their protein more apt to stick to itself or not. Uncle is the first platform to give researchers a G₂₂ for their biologic with just a click of a button, letting them check for attractive forces that could cause aggregation troubles later on.

For scientists working in regulated environments, where controlling access to data and keeping its integrity are a must-have, the new 21 CFR Part 11-compliant software tools in Uncle 3.0 software can be turned on without a hitch.

“Uncle’s still the go-to instrument for screening protein stability. With the 3.0 release, high-concentration biologics can be assessed earlier in development. That’s a huge deal because these formulations are more effective and can be dosed less often, but are also at higher risk for aggregation,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “The new compliance features we’ve added to our Uncle also make it a piece of cake for customers to transfer their applications to QC.”

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.

Mar 27, 2018

Unchained Labs keeps them coming, acquires rap.ID! Read more.

Unchained Labs keeps them coming, acquires rap.ID!

March 27, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, acquired rap.ID today. Rap.ID is a leading provider of systems used for particle identification in biopharmaceutical development and quality control. The company also provides contract services in these areas. This is Unchained Labs’ 6^th acquisition in just over 3 years.

Particles muck up the quality of a drug and can shut down its production. Single Particle Explorer is the only tool out there that identifies particles by their shape and then forensically identifies them by their chemical and elemental fingerprints. In minutes, researchers know the culprit without a doubt, can track it back to the source, and fix their workflow or manufacturing process.

Silicone oil makes it easier to dispense drugs from injectable devices. Layer Explorer lets researchers measure the thickness and consistency of the silicone, so they can fine-tune their processes to use only a thin, uniform layer to minimize the amount that gets into their formulation.

“These products are great additions to our biologics tools arsenal. We can now help our customers identify the source of any particle that shows up in their process,” said Tim Harkness, Founder and CEO of Unchained Labs. “This acquisition expands our portfolio firmly downstream into biologic quality control.”

“Unchained Labs is an ideal home for our products and employees,” said Dr. Oliver Valet, Managing Director of rap.ID. “They have a great platform to help realize the potential for our products.”

In just over 3 years, Unchained Labs has grown to over 180 employees, $50M+ in revenue, 9 product lines and has direct distribution around the world. In connection with this transaction, the company raised $17M in a Series D financing. Novo Ventures, Canaan Partners, TPG Biotech and Tri-Valley Ventures all participated in the financing.

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.

Jan 8, 2018

Unchained Labs gives Lunatic a boost, nails high-end biologic quant! Read more.

Unchained Labs gives Lunatic a boost, nails high-end biologic quant!

January 8, 2018 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting biologics researchers the right tool for the job, amped up the protein quant range on Lunatic today, making measurements of up to 250 mg/mL IgG a cinch for biologics researchers.

High-concentration biologics don’t have to be administered as often, plus patients see better results. Lunatic’s new IgG Quant app hits the upper analysis range needed to measure these protein drugs, and does it with only 2 µL of sample straight up – no dilution needed.

Lunatic is the go-to, high-throughput tool for measuring biologic concentrations – from early research to QC. Other tools are kluge, run only a handful of samples at a time, require sample dilution which can skew results, or use way too much sample for early-stage analysis.

“What makes Lunatic special is that it can now reach the protein quant range scientists are really looking for,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Because Lunatic uses super small volumes, it can be used upstream when there’s boatloads of samples but not much of them to work with and downstream when there’s buckets of only a few that need analysis. So it’s the ideal tool for measuring protein concentration at all stages of biologics development.”

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 Team

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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.

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Jason Novi

CFO

Jason Novi, CFO

Jason wears a bunch of hats and loves to build businesses. He leads the finance, manufacturing, service and administrative functions 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.

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Terry Salyer

CCO

Terry Salyer, CCO

Terry is all about helping customers up the pace of their research through better tools, and has sold thousands of life science systems in her 20-year career. Terry leads Global Commercial Operations at Unchained Labs, supporting customers with her field sales and applications teams. Prior to Unchained Labs, Terry was CCO at BioNano Genomics and VP of Sales at ProteinSimple, Pall ForteBio and Eksigent. She helped develop and sell products at each, and was integral in demonstrating the scientific impact of these new technologies to customers. Terry has a B.S. in Biotechnology from Minnesota State at Mankato. She spends her free time cooking and golfing, and jumps at the chance to travel to a great beach location any time she can. Terry is a huge fan of the Minnesota Vikings and plans on watching them take a Super Bowl someday.

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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.

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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.

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

Sr Cost Accountant
Accountant Europe-DE, UK & BE

Service

Lab Technician

Operations

Quality Manager
Warehouse Manager
Manufacturing Engineer

Sales & Applications

Sales Specialist-Texas
Sales Specialist-Boston
Sales Specialist-Germany
Field Application Scientist-Europe
Field Application Scientist-Japan
Strategic Account Manager-Japan

Marketing

Inside Sales Representative

Product Development

No positions currently available.

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Board

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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.

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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.