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Dietrich Stephan

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Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D.
Born (1969-08-25) August 25, 1969 (age 55)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Scientist and Entrepreneur
Known forFounder of NeuBase Therapeutics, Navigenics, Amnestix, Aueon, DiaVacs, Silicon Valley Biosystems

Dr. Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D. (born August 25, 1969) is an American human geneticist and entrepreneur who works in personalized medicine. Stephan is currently CEO of NeuBase Therapeutics[1] and a General Partner in Cyto Ventures. Before NeuBase, Stephan was CEO of LifeX[2] and Chairman and Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior, he was founding Chairman of the Neurogenomics Department at the Translational Genomics Research Institute. Stephan has founded or co-founded 14 biotechnology companies and advised many others. Stephan was co-founder of Navigenics,[3] a personal genetics company.

Academic career

Stephan received his B.Sc. in Biology from Carnegie Mellon University and his Ph.D. in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute.[4]

In 2003, Stephan worked at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) as a Senior Investigator and founding Chairman of the Department of Neurogenomics. He later served as the Deputy Director of Discovery Research at TGen. His laboratory has identified the genetic basis of 20 single gene disorders, and several dozen complex genetic disorders using high-throughput technologies and strategies, many if which were developed by his team [5]

He served as full tenured professor and Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2013 to 2018

He has also implemented personalized genomic medicine clinical programs with sustainable business models. Stephan crafted the business case and obtained the initial funding for the Gene Partnership Project at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.

Stephan led the Population Genetics and Translational Acceleration effort at the Personalized Medicine Institute, a joint initiative between the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Health Sciences and UPMC, the largest integrated health system in the US. He has held faculty positions at the Children's National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University.

Stephan has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the scientific literature, in top tier journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, Proceedings of the National Academies of Scienced and he served as the Chairman of the NIH Neuroscience Microarray Consortium for seven years. This was the highest volume genome scanning infrastructure in the world including performing the International Autism Genome Project and the largest study in ALS (Lpu Gehrig's Disease).

Business career

Stephan co-founded Navigenics, a personal genetics testing company, with oncologist David Agus. In January 2007, he founded Amnestix, a pharmaceutical company that focuses on the treatment of learning and memory impairment . In 2009, together with Vern Norviel, he co-founded Aueon, Inc. l, a biotechnology company focused on providing early cancer diagnostic tests. In 2011, he founded a next-generation genome sequencing and interpretation company, Silicon Valley Biosystems (now Lifecode). In 2013, he founded DiaVacs Inc, a pharmaceutical company that hopes to utilize dendritic cell therapy to treat antigen-specific autoimmune disorders. In 2019, he founded NeuBase Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing antisense therapy.

References

  1. ^ Grover, Natalie. "Gene silencing company NeuBase Therapeutics to reverse merge its way onto Nasdaq via troubled microcap Ohr". Endpoints News.
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ http://www.navigenics.com/visitor/about_us/team/executives/dietrich_stephan/ Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine Stephan's profile on Navigenics
  4. ^ "File Not Found (404) – AAAS - The World's Largest General Scientific Society". aaas.org. Archived from the original on 2009-06-14. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  5. ^ https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-10-02-one-chip-genome_x.htm USA Today