Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D.
CEO, Founder, & Director
Dr. Stephan is an industry veteran having had a career spanning genomics research, translation, and commercial development of healthcare solutions. During his research career, Stephan has served as professor and chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, the 3rd top NIH-funded university in the USA in fiscal year 2022, and has held academic affiliations with Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University and Children’s National Medical Center. During his research career, Dr. Stephan has identified the genetic basis of dozens of rare and common diseases, developed new genomics technologies, and participated in large multi-institutional collaborations, with approximately 150 peer-reviewed publications. In his translational roles, Dr. Stephan served as Deputy Director for Discovery Research at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), where he oversaw all programmatic divisions and established and directed the Neurogenomics Division to address neurological and mental health disorders. In addition, Dr. Stephan has contributed to various translational institutes including founding the Cancer Genome Institute at Fox Chase Cancer Center, crafting the vision and leading the early coalition-building with partners resulting in the New York Genome Center, and founding a translational institute in the Washington DC region. These efforts have led to new molecular diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, created thousands of jobs, and nucleated bio clusters. Dr. Stephan has founded, co-founded, advised, and led as CEO or Chairman several biotechnology companies including Amnestix (acquired by Syngis AG), Navigenics (acquired by Life Technologies), LifeCode (acquired by MedGenome), Genia Technologies (acquired by Roche), iGenomX (acquired by Twist), JumpCode, Pendulum Therapeutics, Guardant Health, Peptilogics, Sharp Therapeutics, Navio Theragnostics, FarmaceuticalRx, and others. Many of these companies are delivering diagnostics and therapeutics that are benefiting patients across the globe. Dr. Stephan received his B.Sc. from Carnegie Mellon University, his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, and did his fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.