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Home / About / Management Team / Board of Directors / Partners
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Jeff Helfer, CEO
Diffinity Genomics is led by Jeff Helfer, an entrepreneur and angel investor with 33 years experience in medical product development and manufacturing, new business development, and regulatory affairs. He recently co-founded and served as CEO of MYOTECH, LLC, to commercialize a unique, alternative human heart pump, and VP of Engineering for Biophan Technologies, Inc. where he successfully developed new medical device technologies that led to business partnerships with Boston Scientific and Medtronic. Previously, at Johnson & Johnson, he served as Program Director, Director of New Business Development, Director of Regulatory Affairs, and Director of Engineering. At Eastman Kodak Company, Helfer participated in the early development of the company’s Ektachem clinical diagnostic business, formed and managed the company’s radiographic imaging research laboratory, and participated in multiple life science business development initiatives.
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Dr. Lewis J Rothberg, CTO, Co-founder and Inventor
 Dr. Rothberg holds a BS in Physics, Magna cum Laude, from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles. His current appointments include Professor of Physics, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. Past appointments include Director, NSF Photo-induced Charge Transfer STC, University of Rochester, and Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ. Dr. Rothberg’s research has been integrated into Sony and Lucent products, and he has helped in the formation of several start-up companies. He and Dr. Huixiang Li, also at the University of Rochester, co-invented the Company’s DNA purification and molecular diagnostic technologies.
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Michael Riedlinger, Co-founder & Director
Michae l is the founder and president of Technology Sales and Licensing Services, and currently serves as the Director of the Rochester BioVenture Center. Technology Sales and Licensing Services was founded in 2002 and specializes in business development programs for organizations that seek new sources of revenue from licensing or selling their technical innovations to others. The company also provides consulting services to support economic development and public/private technology commercialization activities in the Upstate New York region.
Michael also served as the president of NaturalNano, Inc., to November, 2006. NaturalNano, Inc., founded in 2004, is a publicly traded nanomaterials company developing proprietary technologies and processes for providing novel properties for a wide range of applications. These include industrial polymers, plastics and composites; and additives to cosmetics, agricultural, and household products. Prior to founding Technology Sales and Licensing, Mr. Riedlinger was Chief Executive Officer of Vitalwork, Inc., an organizational development company focused on training and corporate culture change for the telecommunications industry.
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Robert A. Evans, Director
Evans is currently a Management Consultant providing services in general management, sales and marketing, acquisitions and divestitures involving medical device manufacturers over the last 15 years. Evans background includes tenure as Corporate Vice-President of Graphic Controls, where he formed and grew their Medical Products Division to a $40 million business; coordinated the acquisition of Devon industries, a $75 million manufacturer of operating room specialty products; established an Abbott manufacturing facility in Ireland; and oversaw several acquisitions and divestitures. Prior to Graphic Controls, Evans served as General Manager of Abbott Laboratories Medlon Products Division; General Manager of Abbott Ireland, LTD; and Business Unit Manager of Abbott’s Fluid Systems Division. He has personally managed over 20 acquisitions and divestitures throughout his career. He has joined Diffinity’s Board of Directors as the representative of a group of Series A Shareholders, which includes the Rochester Angel Network, Seed Capital Fund of Central New York, and the Western New York Venture Association.
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John F. Foskett, Director
Foskett is co-founder of and currently serves as the Technical Director of Kapa Biosystems, a company using high-throughput protein evolution technology for the development and sale of life science tools for DNA amplification, next-generation DNA sequencing, and molecular diagnostic applications. John has joined Diffinity’s Board of Directors as the representative of Table Mountain Capital LLC, a private investment company where he serves as founding Partner and Investment Committee Member. Partners of Table Mountain Capital have been involved in the founding and successful sale of other life science and technology-based ventures that include Agencourt Bioscience, a nucleic acid purification reagents and sequencing services company, Agencourt Personal Genomics, a next-generation DNA sequencing company, and ECHO LLC, a broadband network-engineering firm. Foskett is also a Partner of L.H. Investments LLC, a private investment company with a focus on alternative investments. He received a B.S. in Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Anthropology from Emory University and a M.S. in Evolutionary Biology and Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado.
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