Our Team
Acuamark Diagnostics has an experienced multidisciplinary team, which includes, highly distinguished diagnostic assay developers and a world-renowned scientific team of inventors of detection assays, multiplexing and sequencing technology.
AcuamarkDx's team of scientific advisors has over 170 issued US patents combined, and has over 30 years experience in DNA mutation detection, DNA microarrays, DNA sequencing, and colorectal cancer (CRC) genomics. Previously, AcuamarkDx’s team members have invented foundational technologies such as qPCR, LDR, LCR, multiplexing (LDR-PCR, PCR-LDR, PCR-PCR), zip-coding and the universal array. These technologies have been widely adopted across the industry by companies such as Roche, Abbott Labs, ThermoFisher and Quest.
AcuamarkDx’s team has now designed novel first-in-kind multiplexed detection assays, specifically designed to address the challenges and vast unmet need of blood-based early-cancer detection. AcuamarkDx’s has an experienced board of directors and multidisciplinary advisory board which provides guidance and leadership to our team.
Acuamark Diagnostics is based in New York City, NY.
Our Leadership
Bernard Peperstraete, MD MBA
President / Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Bernard M. Peperstraete is CEO and co-founder of Acuamark Diagnostics, Inc. Bernard is a medical entrepreneur, and has been involved in operating in, founding and investing in life science businesses for over 20 years; Prior to Acuamark, Bernard ran ACT Biotech, a cancer pharmaceutical company (acquired by Eddingpharm). Earlier, Bernard was involved in healthcare venture capital for nearly a decade, most recently as a Partner at NGN Capital. Bernard served on the boards of Exosome Diagnostics (acquired by Bio-Techne), ACT Biotech and Potentia Pharma (aka APLS:NASDAQ), and was closely involved with a number of transactions, e.g. Santhera (SANN:SIX) and Artisan Pharma (acquired by AKP). Before completing his MBA at Harvard, Bernard worked on emerging market opportunities at Novartis in Basel, was a Deputy Director at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore (during the SARS crisis) and successfully co-founded and ran a contract research business, also in Singapore. In 1999, after serving as a physician, Dr. Peperstraete managed the HIV business unit at Bristol Myers & Squibb, Singapore. MD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; DTMIH, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium MBA, Harvard Business School.
Mathew Moore, PhD
Consultant Head of Technology
Dr. Mathew W. Moore is a distinguished worldwide leader in the field of molecular diagnostic development. He can be frequently seen behind the podium at international conferences speaking on Companion Diagnostics and Next Gen Sequencing, among other topics. Dr. Moore, an Australian expatriate, is a seasoned industry expert, technology advocate, and regulatory specialist. He was previously VP of Research and Development of Neogenomics, Inc. He is principal and co-founder of ResearchDx, a full contract diagnostics development organization, and brings his dedication to strong customer service and a collaborative client focus to ResearchDx. As Vice President of Research and Development for CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics, Inc., Dr. Moore was responsible for the oncology, and developmental disorders programs. Previously he served as Senior Scientist with US Labs, a division of Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) and as Director of product development at Response Genetics. These past responsibilities provide ResearchDx with a highly respected reputation in the industry as well as a collaborative focus on client goals. Dr. Moore received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology, graduating with honours. He received his PhD in Biotechnology from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
Francis Barany, PhD
Co-Founder, Scientific Expert Advisor
Dr. Barany is best known for inventing the ligase chain reaction (LCR), ligase detection reaction (LDR), and Universal DNA arrays, which are the foundation of commercial tests to diagnose genetic diseases, detect infectious pathogens, identify cancer mutations, and identify diseases using DNA microarrays and targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). He received a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow (1982-1985), Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award (1992-1997), Mayent/Rothschild Visiting Professor, Institut Curie (2000), Medical Diagnostics Research leader, Scientific American 50 (2004), Ezra Innovation Award, Cornell University (2011), International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Award for Significant Contributions in Molecular Diagnostics (2014), and National Academy of Inventors Fellow (2016). Barany holds 66 U.S. and over 100 international patents that are widely used by molecular diagnostic and sequencing companies. Barany previously founded Coferon Inc. and co-founded Acuamark Diagnostics Inc. and Unii Therapeutics; the latter for developing a new class of protein-degradation drugs. He has published over 125 peer-reviewed articles.
Gene Godick, CPA, CMA
VP Fin, Treasurer
Gene Godick is AcuamarkDx’s VP of Finance (consulting) and Treasurer. He has over 25 years of executive and financial experience, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in equity and debt financing, leading over fifty M&A transactions, and working with some of the top buy and sell side analysts on the “Street.” Today, he runs G-Squared Partners, providing outsourced CFO services and strategic financial, accounting, and operational expertise to CEOs, VC-backed start-ups and entrepreneurs. Gene started his career in Arthur Andersen’s Enterprise Group where he worked with emerging growth companies. While at Arthur Andersen, he was responsible for over 100 audits, 20 M&A transactions, and an initial public offering. Gene served as a senior manager at KPMG, during which he worked with clients including Safeguard Scientifics, Internet Capital Group, Primavera Software, US Interactive, Integrated Circuit Systems, Verticalnet, and Triton PCS. Gene was the EVP and CFO of Verticalnet and led its IPO in 1999, raising over $60-million, considered one of the most successful IPO’s of the internet era. During Gene’s tenure, the company raised well over $300-million and completed more than 25 acquisitions and divestitures.
Our Advisors
Paul Brooke
Commercial Advisor
Managing Member of PMSV Holdings, a biotech, ESG and real estate investment firm. Executive Chairman of Caelum Bio, a pharmaceutical company focused on AL Amyloidosis. Board Member of Manning and Napier Mutual Funds, Cerus Endovascular and Pure Earth. Previously: Board of WebMD, Incyte, Viropharma and other public and private companies. Co-Founder and Managing Partner of venBio, a life sciences investment firm. Partner at Morgan Stanley, where he was Global Head of Health Care Research and Strategy. Managing Director at Tiger Management where he was responsible for health care investing, and Venture Partner at MPM Capital, a healthcare VC investor. As Chairman and CEO of Ithaka Acquisition Corp in 2008, he structured purchase of Alsius Corp and successfully sold its assets to Zoll Medical.
Haywood D. Cochrane
Commercial Advisor
Mr. Cochrane is the Chair of UNC’s Board of Trustees. Previously, Mr. Cochrane was CEO at CHD Meridian Corp (Walgreens), at Allied Clinical Labs and at Take Care Employer Solutions; EVP/CFO of LabCorp, COO at Biomedical Reference Labs, SVP North America Diagnostics and COO at Roche Biomedical Labs; Director at Tripath, American Esoteric Labs, Sonus Corp, Ameripath, Unilab.
J. William Efcavitch, PhD
Technology Advisor
Technology Officer (Consulting) Ohio University in 1978; Postdoctoral fellow University of Colorado, Boulder; Sr. Director R&D, Applied Biosystems Inc.; SVP Product Development & CTO, Helicos BioSciences Corp.; SVP R&D, Affymetrix; Independent Consultant.
Olivier Elemento, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM), he is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine, Director of the Laboratory of Cancer Systems Biology, Co-Leader of the Genetics, Epigenetics, and Systems Biology Program in the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, Assistant Dean for Scientific Computing and Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
Kerry J. Flom, PhD
Commercial Advisor
Previously, Dr. Flom was EVP and Chief Regulatory Officer at Cepheid (acquired by Danaher NYSE:DHR) where he had worldwide responsibility for development, implementation and management of Cepheid’s clinical and regulatory programs. Earlier, he served as Sr. Director, Clinical Affairs and Regulatory Submissions at Abbott Molecular Diagnostics, at Baxter as Director of Clinical Affairs, at Oncor and at Boehringer Mannheim. Throughout his career, Dr. Flom has led for over 30 products through regulatory filings and registration in the US and numerous international product registrations.
Paolo Fortina, MD PhD
Clinical Advisor
Professor of Cancer Biology and Medical Oncology at the Jefferson Medical College. Director of the NCI-funded and CLIA-certified Cancer Genomics Laboratory at the Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University.
David Gelfand, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Inventor of the real-time PCR (or “qPCR”) or "TaqMan" Assay. Previously, Vice President, Discovery Research Division and Director for the Program in Core Research at Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. CSO of WaferGen BioSystems, Inc., and currently, a consultant at the Centre National de Génotypage in France.
Howard Johnson, MBA
Commercial Advisor
Mr. Johnson is Chief Business Officer at Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA), an oncology company focused on developing innovative T cell therapies for solid tumors. Howard is a senior entrepreneurial executive with thirty-years of experience in operations, finance, business development, and investor relations at biotechnology companies. A founding investor and initial Board Member of Acorda Therapeutics.
Larry J. Kricka, PhD
Clinical Advisor
Emeritus Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Director of the General Chemistry and Critical Care Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Steven M. Lipkin, MD PhD
Clinical Advisor
Professor - Weill Cornell Medicine. University of California San Diego in 1995, Board Certified. Internal Medicine Duke University, Board Certified. Clinical Genetics National Human Genome Research Institute, Recognized authority on colorectal cancer genetics.
Christopher Mason, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Associate Professor Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine Institute for Computational Biomedicine with appointments at Department of Physiology,Biophysics and System Biology,, Meyer Cancer Center, Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute. Director, WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar. Affiliate Fellow of Genomics, Ethics, and Law, ISP, Yale Law School.
Larry J. Kricka, PhD
Clinical Advisor
Chief of Clinical Genetics Service, Robert and Kate Niehaus Chair in Inherited Cancer Genomics and Vice Chair, Academic Affairs, Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Member of the Program in Cancer Biology and Genetics at the Sloan-Kettering Institute Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medicine.
Mark Pochapin, MD
Clinical Advisor
Sholtz/Leeds Professor] of Gastroenterology, , Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicne, Director, division of gastro-enterology & hepatology, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Advanced gastrointestinal endoscopy, and the prevention, early detection, and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.
Joseph Smith, Esq
Commercial Advisor
Previously, Executive VP BD and General Counsel of Cepheid (now Danaher), Sr. VP BD at Applied Biosystems (ABI), VP Intellectual Property at ABI and PE Biosystems (Perkin-Elmer). Responsible for building and designing ABI's IP acquisition strategy, expanding its IP estate in fields such as PCR thermal cyclers, PCR reagents and DNA sequencing.
Steven A. Soper, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Professor - The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Professor - Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology. The University of Kansas in 1989. Post-doc Los Alamos National Laboratory. Development of ultrasensitive detection methodologies and rare cell analysis tools for biological discovery.
Eugene Spier, PhD
Technology Advisor
Latvian Academy of Sciences in 1989, Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine. Senior Director roles at Life Technologies and Fluidigm. Lead bioinformatics pipeline for Taqman assays, Applied Biosystems. Founded UniTaq Bio to commercialize novel methods for highly multiplexed qPCR for diagnostics.
David Weavil, CPA
Commercial Advisor
Previously, founder, CEO and President of Solstas Lab Partners (sold to Quest). Prior to that, CEO of Specialty Laboratories (sold to Quest), Chairman and CEO Unilab Corporation; Earlier, helped build Biomedical Reference Labs into Roche Biomedical Labs, which merged with National Health Labs to form LabCorp.
Paolo Fortina, MD PhD
Clinical Advisor
Professor of Cancer Biology and Medical Oncology at the Jefferson Medical College. Director of the NCI-funded and CLIA-certified Cancer Genomics Laboratory at the Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University.
Larry J. Kricka, PhD
Clinical Advisor
Emeritus Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Director of the General Chemistry and Critical Care Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Steven M. Lipkin, MD PhD
Clinical Advisor
Professor - Weill Cornell Medicine. University of California San Diego in 1995, Board Certified. Internal Medicine Duke University, Board Certified. Clinical Genetics National Human Genome Research Institute, Recognized authority on colorectal cancer genetics.
Kenneth Offit, MD
Clinical Advisor
Professor - Weill Cornell Medicine. University of California San Diego in 1995, Board Certified. Internal Medicine Duke University, Board Certified. Clinical Genetics National Human Genome Research Institute, Recognized authority on colorectal cancer genetics..
Mark Pochapin, MD
Clinical Advisor
Sholtz/Leeds Professor] of Gastroenterology, , Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs, Department of Medicne, Director, division of gastro-enterology & hepatology, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Advanced gastrointestinal endoscopy, and the prevention, early detection, and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.
Paul Brooke
Commercial Advisor
Managing Member of PMSV Holdings, a biotech, ESG and real estate investment firm. Executive Chairman of Caelum Bio, a pharmaceutical company focused on AL Amyloidosis. Board Member of Manning and Napier Mutual Funds, Cerus Endovascular and Pure Earth. Previously: Board of WebMD, Incyte, Viropharma and other public and private companies. Co-Founder and Managing Partner of venBio, a life sciences investment firm. Partner at Morgan Stanley, where he was Global Head of Health Care Research and Strategy. Managing Director at Tiger Management where he was responsible for health care investing, and Venture Partner at MPM Capital, a healthcare VC investor. As Chairman and CEO of Ithaka Acquisition Corp in 2008, he structured purchase of Alsius Corp and successfully sold its assets to Zoll Medical.
Haywood D. Cochrane
Commercial Advisor
Mr. Cochrane is the Chair of UNC’s Board of Trustees. Previously, Mr. Cochrane was CEO at CHD Meridian Corp (Walgreens), at Allied Clinical Labs and at Take Care Employer Solutions; EVP/CFO of LabCorp, COO at Biomedical Reference Labs, SVP North America Diagnostics and COO at Roche Biomedical Labs; Director at Tripath, American Esoteric Labs, Sonus Corp, Ameripath, Unilab.
Kerry J. Flom, PhD
Commercial Advisor
Previously, Dr. Flom was EVP and Chief Regulatory Officer at Cepheid (acquired by Danaher NYSE:DHR) where he had worldwide responsibility for development, implementation and management of Cepheid’s clinical and regulatory programs. Earlier, he served as Sr. Director, Clinical Affairs and Regulatory Submissions at Abbott Molecular Diagnostics, at Baxter as Director of Clinical Affairs, at Oncor and at Boehringer Mannheim. Throughout his career, Dr. Flom has led for over 30 products through regulatory filings and registration in the US and numerous international product registrations.
Howard Johnson, MBA
Commercial Advisor
Mr. Johnson is Chief Business Officer at Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA), an oncology company focused on developing innovative T cell therapies for solid tumors. Howard is a senior entrepreneurial executive with thirty-years of experience in operations, finance, business development, and investor relations at biotechnology companies. A founding investor and initial Board Member of Acorda Therapeutics.
Joseph Smith, Esq
Commercial Advisor
Previously, Executive VP BD and General Counsel of Cepheid (now Danaher), Sr. VP BD at Applied Biosystems (ABI), VP Intellectual Property at ABI and PE Biosystems (Perkin-Elmer). Responsible for building and designing ABI's IP acquisition strategy, expanding its IP estate in fields such as PCR thermal cyclers, PCR reagents and DNA sequencing.
David Weavil, CPA
Commercial Advisor
Previously, founder, CEO and President of Solstas Lab Partners (sold to Quest). Prior to that, CEO of Specialty Laboratories (sold to Quest), Chairman and CEO Unilab Corporation; Earlier, helped build Biomedical Reference Labs into Roche Biomedical Labs, which merged with National Health Labs to form LabCorp.
Olivier Elemento, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM), he is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine, Director of the Laboratory of Cancer Systems Biology, Co-Leader of the Genetics, Epigenetics, and Systems Biology Program in the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, Assistant Dean for Scientific Computing and Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
David Gelfand, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Inventor of the real-time PCR (or “qPCR”) or "TaqMan" Assay. Previously, Vice President, Discovery Research Division and Director for the Program in Core Research at Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. CSO of WaferGen BioSystems, Inc., and currently, a consultant at the Centre National de Génotypage in France.
Christopher Mason, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Associate Professor Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine Institute for Computational Biomedicine with appointments at Department of Physiology,Biophysics and System Biology,, Meyer Cancer Center, Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute. Director, WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar. Affiliate Fellow of Genomics, Ethics, and Law, ISP, Yale Law School.
Steven A. Soper, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Professor - The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Professor - Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology. The University of Kansas in 1989. Post-doc Los Alamos National Laboratory. Development of ultrasensitive detection methodologies and rare cell analysis tools for biological discovery.
J. William Efcavitch, PhD
Technology Advisor
Technology Officer (Consulting) Ohio University in 1978; Postdoctoral fellow University of Colorado, Boulder; Sr. Director R&D, Applied Biosystems Inc.; SVP Product Development & CTO, Helicos BioSciences Corp.; SVP R&D, Affymetrix; Independent Consultant.
Eugene Spier, PhD
Technology Advisor
Latvian Academy of Sciences in 1989, Postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine. Senior Director roles at Life Technologies and Fluidigm. Lead bioinformatics pipeline for Taqman assays, Applied Biosystems. Founded UniTaq Bio to commercialize novel methods for highly multiplexed qPCR for diagnostics.
