Chris has spent over 30 years in the development, application, and marketing of analytical equipment with the majority of that time concentrated in biotechnology applications. He has held key technology and management positions at several start-up and more established companies such as Hamilton, Sagian, Aurora Biosciences, and Cytokinetics. Prior to co-founding Etaluma, he co-founded Blueshift Biotechnologies, which was acquired by MDS Analytical Technologies in 2008. He also co-founded CytoPrint, which was acquired by Atto Biosciences, now part of BD Biosciences. He has a large breadth of knowledge of the industry and the requirements of successful instrumentation. He has over 40 publications and presentations and holds 14 patents. Education: B.A. Chemistry, 1984, Washington University; Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, 1989, Washington State University.

Robert has over 30 years of engineering experience with industrial and scientific instruments. He has contributed to and directed a wide variety of projects including automated cooking equipment, printer controls, combinatorial chemistry sorting systems, slurry dispensing machines, automated microscopes, and gas chromatographs. In the 1990s Robert worked in Japan for five years in the hard disk manufacturing industry and became fluent in Japanese. He holds a patent for a parallel liquid dispensing system and a patent for a tire changing machine. Education: B.S. Physics, 1991 San Diego State University.

Frank handles all aspects of corporate risk management and finance. He is also a visiting professor of finance at SDSU and teaches The Global Financial Environment course in the MBA for Executives program. After obtaining a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, Frank gained the bulk of his applied financial experience from Eastman Kodak as a financial planner. At Kodak, he analyzed dividend policy and quarterly performance for its Asian, African, and Australian regions, and developed annual financial goals for these divisions. He worked on an award-winning inventory reduction team, international transfer price changes, and implementing performance plans for international managers. Following his time at Kodak, he marketed financial systems and software services for businesses in the Seattle area. Frank then returned to academia to obtain his Masters in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Eric has over 17 years of experience in instrumentation for scientific and industrial products, spanning the bridge between science and engineering. He has worked in the disciplines of microscopy, optics, capacitive and temperature sensor design and construction, image acquisition/analysis, electronics, TGA/TMA, IT management, and others. As the product manager for the Nexus Biosystems Crystal Farm (an automated incubator/imager for protein crystallization), he was involved in design, manufacture, QC, support, and service. His education includes a BA in Environmental Chemistry and a MS in Chemistry, both from UC San Diego.

Dr. Brian Rasnow is a lecturer in physics at California State University Channel Islands and a mentor, inventor, and consultant. For 10 years he was a Principal Scientist in Research & Automation Technologies at Amgen Inc., where his group automated drug discovery, pioneered new technologies, and developed novel biodetection platforms. His systems tested tens of millions of pharmaceutical candidates and significantly contributed to several clinical trials, earning him Amgen’s “Excellence in Science and Engineering” award in 2007. Dr. Rasnow studied neuroethology and physics at Caltech, where he received a Ph.D. in physics in 1994. There he established a successful research program on weakly electric fish and proposed the first plausible model of how these animals might perceive objects with their electric sense. Dr. Rasnow’s diversity is perhaps his strongest asset. He is an amateur astronomer and photographer, competent in electronics and programming, an organic farmer growing ~100 varieties of fruit trees, and he mentors students from Caltech and other universities on numerous international development projects for the poor in Central America. His inventions range from a novel method for threshing pearl millet (being developed in Africa) to biochemistry assays and electro-optical detectors.

Dr. Niles has over 30 years experience in basic scientific research and in the development of biomedical technologies. His inventions include computer-based real time localization of single presynaptic transmitter release sites for positioning focal extracellular recording electrodes, a quantitative FRET microscope for measuring nanometer-scale distances between membranes, a piezoelectric subnanoliter liquid dispenser optimized for volume and drop trajectory control, an automated laboratory for production and screening of target biosensor cell lines, and a microfluidic clinical immunodiagnostic platform with a time to result of under 5 minutes. He has held positions leading research and research and development teams at Rush University Medical Center, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Aurora Biosciences, Genoptix, Biosite Diagnostics, and Aurora Discovery, and been a consultant for Abbott Laboratories, BD Biosciences, Eli Lilly and Co., and several engineering companies seeking entry to the life sciences. Education: B.S., California Institute of Technology; Ph. D., University of Wisconsin — Madison; Postdoctoral, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.