16 Oct GenTel Appoints Burke to its Scientific Advisory Board
MADISON, Wis. — October 17, 2003. GenTel BioSurfaces, Inc., a privately held UW–Madison biotechnology spin-off, announced today that it has appointed Thomas J. Burke, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board.
“Tom’s extensive scientific experience, as well as his demonstrated expertise in grant writing, intellectual property management, and new product development make him ideally suited to advise and guide GenTel in its next stage of growth,” said Bryce P. Nelson, Ph.D. and GenTel’s Chief Scientific Officer. “As a consultant to GenTel, Tom’s has been an instrumental player in our efforts to accelerate product development. We are fortunate to have him on our scientific advisory board.”
Dr. Burke brings more than 15 years of experience in the drug discovery and life science industries, most recently at PanVera LLC in Madison, WI (now Invitrogen), where he was a founder and former Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. In this position, Dr. Burke managed all aspects of scientific operations, including new product development, and was a key contributor in developing the strategic and operational direction for the company. During his ten-year tenure, PanVera grew from three founders to more than 125 employees with annual revenues of $20 million dollars. Before founding PanVera, Dr. Burke was employed at Promega Corporation as the Director of Manufacturing. Dr. Burke received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Marquette University and received post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Burke is currently consulting with local biotech startups and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison teaching in the Masters in Biotechnology program.
GenTel’s vision is to create the next generation of biochips that can move beyond basic research and development laboratories into drug discovery, diagnostics, and medical devices,. “Each of these new markets requires more reliable biochip surfaces and surface chemistries than are currently available,” Nelson states. “GenTel’s superior surfaces, attachment methods, and novel microfluidics technology can revolutionize these markets.”
GenTel BioSurfaces, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is located in the University Research Park. GenTel holds exclusive licenses from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) on technologies developed in the laboratories of Chemistry Professors Robert Corn and Lloyd Smith. The Company’s technology is centered on surface chemistries for the life sciences and encompasses multiple detection techniques, microfluidics and applications development.