Michael J. Powell

Michael J. Powell, PhD
Professor
DiaCarta, Inc, California, United States

Biography

Mike is currently Chief Scientific Officer at DiaCarta, Inc. where he manages the company’s scientific and strategic direction in molecular diagnostics for oncology and infectious disease personalized diagnostics markets, most notably the development of branched DNA (bDNA) signal amplification and a novel somatic gene mutation Real-Time PCR based assay technology called QClampTM for applications in the diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases and the rapid detection of cancer 'driver' and drug resistance genetic variations. Mike was previously a Founder of Odyssey Thera Inc., a privately held company that commercialized a proprietary fluorescent live cell-based assay and diagnostic imaging technology for the application in target validation and drug discovery. Mike was the Director of New Technology at Roche Diagnostics (Roche acquired Boehringer Mannheim Corporation in May 1997 for $11B). Prior to the acquisition by Roche, he was Director of New Technology at Boehringer Mannheim. He was also the Director of New Technology at Microgenics Corporation, in Concord, California. He was a pioneer and lead scientist and inventor of the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) assay technology and also developed catalytic antibodies at IGEN, Inc. The ECL technology is the basis of Roche Diagnostics automated ‘in-vitro’ diagnostics immunoassay platform: ‘ElecSys’. Mike has held several other R & D senior management positions at Integrated Genetics Inc., Medisense and Celltech PLC, in the UK. Mike has published many research papers in leading scientific journals and holds over 30 patents and patent-pending applications. He received his Ph.D. in medicinal organic chemistry from Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK and Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.