Companion Diagnostic and Biomarker Assay Development for Interrogation of Liquid and Solid Tumor Biopsies - From RNAscope to Exosomes

Here is his bio: Dr. Robert Monroe is the Chief Medical Officer of Bio-Techne and Advanced Cell Diagnostics. He leads the company’s efforts to develop diagnostic and CDx applications with the RNAscope platform. In this role, Dr. Monroe works with pathologists and researchers to identify unmet clinical needs in biomarker testing and subsequently oversees development of RNAscope-based tests for these diagnostic applications. Dr. Monroe also serves as the clinical lead in ACD’s CDx partnerships with Leica Biosystems and multiple biopharma companies for the development of CDx assays using RNAscope technology. Dr. Monroe holds an MD/PhD from Harvard and is board-certified in cytopathology, anatomic pathology, and clinical pathology.

Dr. Christopher Bunker is the Sr. Director of Business Development at Advanced Cell Diagnostics. Dr. Bunker did his doctoral research in Biological Chemistry at Harvard University and a Leukemia Society of America postdoctoral fellowship in molecular genetics at University of California, San Francisco. He was a senior scientist at Genome Therapeutics before joining Cell Signaling Technology at its inception in 2000. Dr. Bunker received an M.B.A from Boston University, and then joined Advanced Cell Diagnostics, where he has led its assay services business for the past nine years.

Michael Valentino is currently Scientific Director of Companion Diagnostics within the Business Development team at Exosome Diagnostics, a Bio-Techne Brand. Michael joined Exosome Diagnostics in 2014 as one of the first five Senior Scientists and was leading up next generation sequencing efforts in the R&D Team prior to joining the business development team in 2017. In his current role, he is responsible for providing the scientific support and expertise for the commercial biopharma services and partnerships and facilitates conversations between partners and internal R&D scientists. Michael has nearly 20 years of experience in a molecular laboratory setting and received a Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbiology from The University of Rochester School of Medicine before moving to Boston for a postdoc at Harvard Medical School.