WaferGen Biosystems, www.wafergen.com – a bold pioneer in genomic analysis systems for the life science/pharmaceutical industries, with products like the revolutionary SmartChip Real-Time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) System that does everything on a single platform, announced the appointment of Gary P. Schroth, Ph.D. to the newly created position of Senior VP, Genomics Research and Applications.
The appointment is aimed at realizing the full potential of WGBS’s lead in Real-Time PCR, with Dr. Schroth managing biological and chemical research, the development of new genomic applications, and WGBS’s SmartChip-based Gene-Expression Profiling Services. Dr. Schroth comes to WGBS from Illumina, Inc., where he helped pioneer next-gen gene expression.
Chairman and CEO of WGBS, Alnoor Shivji, noted the importance of the SmartChip Real-Time PCR platform due to the rapidly growing demand for a comprehensive validation solution to address the enormous quantities of data being generated by next-gen sequencing.
Shivji explained that Dr. Schroth will report directly to COO and Exec. VP, Mona Chadha, while heading up the Company’s gene expression profiling service at WGBS HQ in Fremont, California, where he will be a major asset as WGBS pushes its amazing technology platform further into the discovery and validation markets.
Shivji noted the 15 years of genomic research and leadership experience of Dr. Schroth, and his tireless efforts to advance gene expression techniques using DNA sequencing, microarrays, PCR and next-gen sequencing, all of which has resulted in numerous publications and patents spanning the entire field of genomic analysis.
Dr. Schroth expressed his excitement over the opportunity to push the SmartChip platform forward as a perfect solution for multiple global research efforts that are focused on making improved and more targeted therapeutics, and called the SmartChip system “the most advanced quantitative analysis and validation platform available today”, quantifying the statement by arguing that researchers seeking to confirm discoveries made via next-gen sequencing would flock to the technology.
Dr. Schroth cited the high throughput capacity of the SmartChip system, and its ability to allow research to be extended across huge panels of genes and hundreds of samples at a very reasonable cost, as further evidence of the vast potential/demand for SmartChip.
Dr. Schroth, in addition to his work at Illumina, was former Senior Director, R&D at Solexa, Inc. (acquired by illumine in 2007), and held various research and management roles at Applied Biosystems (now part of Life Technologies), Genelabs Technologies, and Gen-Probe.
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