About

I created SanDiegOmics.com to serve as the home for my passion for genomics. After receiving my doctorate from the University of California – Davis, I kicked off my career by joining Illumina, which at the time was a small San Diego startup working on a new microarray technology. Little did I know that this 15-person startup would grow into the dominant next generation sequencing company. I’d like to say I was prescient, but mostly I was lucky and hungry for a job. I started as a research scientist, developing the basic platform and creating Illumina’s first gene expression product. I later transitioned into a product marketing role which expanded greatly with acquisition of Solexa and its sequencing platform.

After I retired from Illumina in 2010, I started engaging with the genomics community in new ways. I became the co-founder and CSO of AllSeq, an online sequencing marketplace, which offers a unique and unbiased perspective on the consumer and technology trends in the genomics market. I also started sharing my technical and market expertise as a consultant, later adding the role of genomics angel investor.

In the news

Genetic Engineering News (3/2020) "Genomic Medicine Identifies Reconcilable Differences"

The Verge (2/2020) "Layoffs at genetic testing companies reflect the changing market"

GenomeWeb (11/2019) "Oxford Nanopore Rejects Illumina's Expanded IP Offer, Suggests NovaSeq Divestiture"

San Diego Business Journal (10/2019) "Illumina’s $1.2 Billion Acquisition of Pacific Biosciences Tentatively Rejected"

Clinical Omics (9/2019) "Going Deeper into Long Reads: Oxford Nanopore Licenses CRISPR-Cas9 IP from Caribou"

Reorg M&A (9/2019) "PACB/ILMN: FTC Unlikely to Delay Merger Decision to Account for CMA Inquiry"

Biocompare (8/2019) "Cutting the Cost of Sequencing"

Genetic Engineering News (8/2019) "DNA Sequencing Accuracy Comes a Long Way"

San Diego Business Journal (6/2019) "UK Agency says Illumina-Pacific Biosciences Deal Raises Competition Concerns"

San Diego Business Journal (5/2019) "Illumina Dominates DNA Sequencing, But Potential Competition is Afoot"

Genetic Engineering New (3/2009): "Sequencing Platforms Make a Splash on Marco Island at AGBT Meeting"

MLex Market Insight (1/2019): "Illumina-PacBio antitrust review to focus on technological promise, falling prices, substitutability"

CTFN M&A Reporting (1/2019): "Customers Comment on PacBio/Illumina"

The Capital Forum (1/2019): "Illumina/Pacific Biosciences: Existing, Future Competition Questions Create Gene Sequencing Tie-up Antitrust Risk"

Genetic Engineering News (1/2019): "All Aboard the Genome Express"

Mendelspod (11/2018): "Keith Robison and Shawn Baker on Illumina Buyout of PacBio"

Biocompare (5/2018): "Long and the Short of Sequencing"

Genetic Engineering News (2/2017): "Next-Generation Sequencing Challenges"

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