Edward Abrahams, Ph.D., is executive director of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). Representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider and payer communities, PMC seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in November 2004 to over 160 today.

Previously Dr. Abrahams was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, where he spearheaded the successful effort that led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s investment of $200 million to commercialize biotechnology in the state. Earlier he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and held a senior administrative position at Brown University.

Dr. Abrahams worked for seven years for the U.S. Congress, including as a legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen, an economist for the Joint Economic Committee under the chairmanship of Representative Lee Hamilton, and as a AAAS Congressional Fellow for the House Committee on the Interior.

Mara is President and CEO of On-Q-ity Inc., an innovative personalized medicine company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. On-Q-ity: Oncology + Quality + Clarity. On-Q-ity revolutionizes cancer patient care by guiding individual treatment choices through proactive interventions. On-Q-ity enables clarity in the choice of patient of therapy and the real –time monitoring of therapy efficacy of an individual patients’ treatment, remission and potential relapse through the molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells in the blood.

For the last seven years, Mara was President of Genzyme Genetics, leading provider of testing in the oncology and reproductive markets. Under Mara's leadership, Genzyme Genetics set the standard for quality in the industry, while profitably growing at an unprecedented pace. She transformed the business – expanding its scope and reach to become one of the nation’s largest diagnostic laboratories. Previously, Mara served as President of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals where she restructured the business from generic drug manufacturing to value-added custom production. 

Mara has been on the Board of Predictive Biosciences since its inception, serving as Chairman for the last year.  Mara is also a Board member of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Mara has an appointment as Lecturer in Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and will teach a seminar on business and medicine each year.   

She is an active member of the Federal Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Commission on Genetics, Health and Society as well as Vice Chairman of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. Most recently, she co-authored, “Realizing the Promise of Personalized Medicine” in the Harvard Business Review. 

Bain & Company, an international strategic consulting firm, was where Mara started her business career. She earned her MBA from Harvard and her BA from Tufts University. 

top of page

Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than fifty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first Life Sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 110 Life Sciences companies which have already developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients.

Brook was the founding President and then Chairman, of four biotechnology companies which were incubated in KPCB's offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value over $8 Billion. He is currently on the Board of Directors of ten companies, most recently joining CardioDX, Genomic Health Incorporated, Five Prime Therapeutics, OptiMedica, Pacific Biosciences, Inc., Tethys and XDx, Inc. He was formerly a Director of Idec Pharmaceuticals (Chairman), Athena Neurosciences (Chairman), Signal Pharmaceuticals, Arris Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacopeia, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Hybritech (Chairman), Genprobe and others. These companies have pioneered the medical use of molecular biology, monoclonal antibodies, personalized medicine, molecular diagnostics and genomics.

Brook was President and a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a currently a Board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. He was Co-Chair of the five year, $1.4 billion, UCSF Capital Campaign. In 2007, he was awarded the “UCSF Medal” as their honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association.

He was formerly a Director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, the California Healthcare Institute, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, That Many May See (UCSF) Vision Research Foundation (Chairman), the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and was a founder of TechNet.

Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Brook graduated in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and received an MBA from Stanford.

top of page

Nadine Cohen, PhD, was trained as a pharmacist in France and received her Ph.D. in Immunogenetics in 1986 from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was a post-doctorate fellow at Stanford University until 1989, and after heading the genetic screening laboratory at the Foundation Jean Dausset-Human Polymorphism Study Center in Paris, she was an Assistant Professor from 1995-2001 at the Technion Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Haifa (Israel). She joined the Jansen Research Foundation in August 1999 to establish a Pharmacogenomics program. She is currently Head of the Pharmacogenomics Team at the Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development  (Raritan, NJ, USA). She has published more than 70 scientific papers in the area of immunogenetics and human molecular genetics. Nadine Cohen has been the chair of the industry Pharmacogenomics Working Group from 2006-2008, and represents Johnson and Johnson on various external organizations engaged in Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine. Nadine Cohen is also the editor of the book “Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine”, that was recently published by Springer-Human Press.

Dr. Katherine (Katie) Johansen is a Senior Scientist at the American Medical Association, where she leads the organization’s Program in Genetics and Molecular Medicine.  The Program is focused on identifying emerging genetic issues for health care providers, and developing educational tools to assist providers in integrating genetic technology into clinical practice.  Katie has recently lead development of educational programs and tools on pharmacogenomics, the genetic basis of warfarin dosing, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, the genetics of common disorders, and the genetics of hereditary cancers.  She also advises the AMA Board of Trustees and the House of Delegates on genetics issues such as the oversight of genetic testing, stem cell research, and newborn screening.  Katie has held a position on the Board of the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics since 2006, serving on past Project Evaluation, Nomination, and Program Committees.  Katie also serves as staff liaison for the AMA appointment to the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genomics, and has served as an Advisory Board member for Genetic Services Policy Project and as an advisor for the Illinois Humanities Council’s community genetics education program Future Perfect.

Katie earned her PhD in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied the molecular pathways involved in embryonic organogenesis.  Following her graduate training, she conducted research on the genetic control of muscle development during a post-doctoral fellowship at the USDA.  Genetics education has been an important area of focus for Katie.  She has held teaching appointments at UCLA, California State Polytechnic University, and University of Idaho, and currently holds an adjunct faculty position at Columbia College Chicago.

top of page

Marcia A. Kean is Chief Executive Officer of Feinstein Kean Healthcare (FKH), a consulting firm that provides integrated strategy and communication services to a wide range of academic, government and commercial clients.  Marcia has a 25+ year track record in the life sciences, counseling CEOs as well as senior leadership in government and academe in the use of communications to meet organizational objectives.

In 2003, Marcia founded the first Molecular Medicine communications practice in the country, to help clients manage the opportunities and issues inherent in the molecular-based transformation of health care.  Marcia currently serves as an advisor to the Board of Directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and was awarded that organization’s first Distinguished Service Award in 2006.  She is also a member of the Genetics Advisory Council of the Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine.  She served in 2006 as a member of the Personalized Health Care Expert Panel convened by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to explore factors related to the integration of personalized health care into clinical and public health practice.  Marcia has served as a member of the Evidence-Based Medicine Communications Collaborative of the Institute of Medicine since 2008.

top of page

David P. King is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp). LabCorp, one of the world’s largest clinical laboratories, has revenues of approximately $4.5 billion (2008) and more than 28,000 employees nationwide.

Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2007, Mr. King served as LabCorp’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2005.   Previously, he served as head of the Company’s US LABS / Esoterix Division, one of the nation’s leading specialty testing and cancer diagnostic laboratories, as well as Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. He is a member of the Company’s Management Committee.

Mr. King initially joined LabCorp as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer in 2001 after working for many years with the Company as an outside counsel. Prior to joining the Company, he was a partner with Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. in Baltimore, Maryland from 1992 to 2001.

Mr. King is also on the board of The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) which seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients.

Mark Levin co-founded Third Rock Ventures in May 2007 and focuses on the formation, development and business strategy of their portfolio companies as well as actively identifying and evaluating  new investments. Mark has  more than 25 years of experience building and operating leading biotech companies. After 10 years at Lilly and Genentech, Mark was co-Founder of Mayfield Fund’s  life sciences effort where he was founding CEO of Turalik, Cell Genesys/Abgenix, Focal, Stem Cells and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Mark was at Millennium as CEO for 12 years. Mark is a co-Founder of Young Entrepreneurs in Cambridge MA, a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and Member of Friends of Personalized Medicine.

Mark holds an M.S. in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from Washington University and is a Board Member of Seventh Sense Pharmaceuticals, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, and DC Devices.

Carol J. McCall is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and has 20 years of healthcare experience.  As Humana’s VP of R&D, she’s pioneered the use of new computational science methods to predict things such as a person’s future health severity, their health behavior, and predicting the occurrence of adverse health events.  She also leads Humana’s Health Service Research Center, focused on health services research, the psychology of health behavior change, pharmacovigilance, and personalized medicine research. 

top of page

Jeff Miller is the Managing Partner for Versum Health Advisors and currently focuses his consulting activities on the identification and development of transformational strategies and the implementation of technology-enabled business processes for a diverse set of health and information technology clients.

Mr. Miller has more than twenty-five years experience in strategic planning, product development, and operational process improvement in the health care, manufacturing, and technology industries. Prior to founding Versum Health Advisors, Mr. Miller established and led the Worldwide Health and Life Sciences organization at Hewlett-Packard Company. He has also led the development and delivery of management consulting services and information technology products at The Advisory Board Company, Deloitte Consulting, and IBM.

Mr. Miller is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and a bachelor of arts degree in Economics and Computer Studies from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

return to top

Sue Siegel is a Partner at MDVMohr, Davidow Ventures, a top tier Silicon Valley venture firm.  She leads investments in companies focused on personalized medicine, enabling platform technologies for biomedical research, and innovative healthcare businesses with disruptive business models.  Prior to joining MDV, Sue was President and Director of Affymetrix, Inc., a company that pioneered GeneChip® technology. Formerly, at Amersham International (now GE), Sue’s last role was as President, Hoefer-Pharmacia Biotech.  Sue serves on the board of directors of Navigenics, Pacific Biosciences, RainDance Technologies, OnQity, and iAccessCare. 

Additionally, Sue is a board member of The Silicon Valley Tech Museum, serves on the Presidents' Circle of the National Academies and as an advisor to the Institute of Medicine. She Chairs the External Relations Committee of The Gladstone Institutes, is a member of YPO, and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.  As part of this Fellowship, Sue and her husband co-founded with Stanford Hospital, Checking-In™, an organization dedicated to serving our aging population.    She lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband and two sons. 

top of page