Dominga

Scientific Advisory Board

Ronald Green, Ph.D. – Medical Ethicist
As a member of the founding team with 27 years experience in Ethics, Ron has had a substantial influence on the direction of Dominga. Currently he serves as the Chairman, Religion Department of Dartmouth College, where he also directs the Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics. He has taught at Dartmouth Medical School, Amos Tuck Business School, Stanford, and Harvard. His positions of distinction include working with the National Institutes of Health to develop an Institute on “The Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications of the Human Genome Project.” He served as Director, Office of Genome Ethics, and was a member of the Human Embryo Research Panel.  Professional associations include American Academy of Religion serving as Secretary, Bioethics Committee of March of Dimes Birth Defect Fdn, and The Business Enterprise Trust. Ron is on the Editorial Review Board of Business Ethics Quarterly and The Journal of Religious Ethics. He has published six books, over 100 articles, and co-produced an award-winning film aired on public television.

Dennis Drayna, Ph.D. - Geneticist
Dennis has over 26 years experience in the field of Molecular Genetics. He has been with the National Institute of Health for the past five years, from 1996 - 1997 at the National Center for Human Genome Research, and currently as Special Expert to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. In 1992 he founded Mercator Genetics and served as Director of Research until its merger in 1996. From 1985 to 1992 he worked for Genentech as a Senior Scientist. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Douglas T. Dieterich, M.D. – Medical Clinician
Dr. Dieterich was recently named one of the top 50 physicians by New York Magazine.  He serves as the Chief, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cabrini Medical Center. At New York University School of Medicine, he serves as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. He also has attending physician responsibilities at New York University Tisch Hospital, Bellevue Hospital Center, and Beth Israel North.  At the National Institutes of Health, he has served as Chair of several committees of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. Dr. Dieterich is the author of numerous journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters on Viral Hepatitis and AIDS-associated infections of the Gastrointestinal Tract and Liver. After undergraduate work at Yale University, he attended New York University School of Medicine followed by residency and fellowship at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Business Advisory Board

Jack Harding - Technology Venture Consultant
Jack currently serves as the Chairman and CEO eSilicon, a web based integrated circuit design and manufacturing company. Prior, to eSilicon, he served as President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, Inc., the world's largest supplier of design software and services for the electronics industry. As the CEO of Cooper and Chyan Technology, he guided the electronic design automation company from IPO to merger with Cadence Design Systems. Jack is a member of the Council on Competitiveness, a Washington, D.C. based, non-partisan organization of Fortune 500 CEOs and University presidents dedicated to the global competitiveness of the U.S. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Development Strategies, Graduate School of Public Policy, Indiana University. Jack holds a B.A. in Economics and Chemistry from Drew University, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees.

Jack Strauss, MSEE, PMP, CISSP - Internet Security Expert
Jack Strauss is an information security expert with more than two decades of experience in the design, development, and management of complex military and commercial computer and communications systems. While in the military, Jack became an expert in Internet technologies for command, control, and communication systems, as well as specialized high-performance, classified computing systems for military fighter and reconnaissance aircraft. He has worked at the highest levels of classification and has held a Top Secret Security Clearance throughout his career. While president and CEO of Spectral Systems, Inc. (SSI), Jack was the chief architect of highly complex and sophisticated reconnaissance and intelligence programs for the U.S. Air Force. In January 2000, Jack founded SafeCorp, a professional information security consultancy that helps growing technology companies identify, develop, implement and monitor information security best practices. Jack has a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Loyola Marymount University and a M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Team

Alice Rathjen – Founder
Her vision is that the company would mobilize the public for cures and empower individuals to become informed and involved in shaping the direction of genetic technology. 

CEO - Search Initiated (by Charles Grebenstein of Skott/Edwards)

Susan Stuart, Ph.D. – Chief Technology Officer (Consultant)
Susan brings to Dominga her passion for patient advocacy and extensive network of cancer researchers throughout the country.   She previously served as Senior Director of Functional Genomics at Signature BioSciences.  Previously Dr. Stuart had served as the Sr. Director of Biology and Functional Genomics at Incyte where she established a program in Cancer Biology as Sr. Director including active research collaborations with the Huntsman Cancer Institute, The Texas Children’s Cancer Center and the Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of California at San Francisco.   Dr. Stuart has published extensively and co-authored many of the utility patents for newly discovered genes.  She had been at Incyte since May of 1994 - initially as a Sr. Scientist, then Group Leader and Director of Molecular Biology. 

Susan completed her Ph.D. in Genetics and Biochemistry at the University of New Hampshire in 1983.  Her post-doctoral training was at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.  This was followed by a fellowship in the Department of Immunology at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto with Dr. Ira Mellman at Yale University.  Dr. Stuart spent the next four years as a Research Specialist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California at San Francisco investigating the developmental and functional roles of T lymphocyte cell surface receptors and intracellular kinases (laboratory of Dr. Dan Littman) prior to joining Incyte.

William Kimmerly, Ph.D. –Scientist (Consultant)
Previously as Director of Genomic and Information Resources for Ceres, Inc., a plant functional genomics company in Malibu, CA. At Ceres, Dr. Kimmerly managed high-throughput DNA sequencing, high-throughput cloning and plant transformation vector construction, bioinformatics, and information technology. Previously, as Principal Scientist and Department Head at Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute, Bill directed his efforts toward discovery of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in crop plant genomes, and developing high-throughput methods for detecting SNPs to support marker-assisted breeding programs. At Glaxo Wellcome he held the position of Senior Research Investigator and head of DNA Sequencing. While at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory he served as Assistant Director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has had broad strategic authority and day-to-day operational responsibility covering a wide range of activities from production DNA sequencing to laboratory instrumentation to bioinformatics and administration. Bill received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley.

Lois Harding, M.D. - Medical Consultant
After completing her medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Lois received specialty training in Adult Psychiatry at California Pacific Medical Center. Her interest in Dominga stems from her clinical experience with the varied responses people exhibit related to personal health issues.

Keith Dieterich - Business Consultant
Keith is formerly from Etrade and has over 20 years experience in the securities industry both domestically and abroad. He currently owns and operates an antique and art business in San Francisco.  Keith has supported and funded Dominga since its inception.

Xavier Thomas – Visualization Specialist
Xavier currently works in Autodesk's Kinetix division, using the latest in 3D animation and streaming media software to create next generation environments. He’ll be using his his expertise in surface texture, lighting, and special effects to depict the essence of life.

Jackie Appell – Information Specialist
Jackie recently served as project manager for a series of international award-winning technical publications at Autodesk.  Her experience in project management and developing custom applications will be critical for managing the development of the software that Dominga will create to display genetic information.

Alex Fordyce – Application Developer
Alex currently has his own consulting business performing custom web application development. While at Autodesk, he served as the Webmaster and Systems Administrator for a product site where he was application designer, project manager and development manager for the site's sample applications.