Scientific Staff
Lyle Arnold, Ph.D., Senior Vice-President of Research & Development, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Arnold is a biotechnology executive, entrepreneur, and developer of innovative technologies covering therapeutics, molecular diagnostics, and genomics. Dr. Arnold recently founded Aegea Biotechnologies to acquire, develop, and commercialize, next generation nucleic acid technologies. Dr. Arnold also serves on the board of directors of Asuragen, a rapidly emerging biotechnology company in Austin, Texas as well as on the board of Aegea. Previously he was VP, Research at Gen-Probe from September 2003 to October 2009. He has also held senior scientific and management positions at Molecular Biosystems (co-founder), Genta, Synteni, Incyte Genomics, and Oasis Biosciences (co-founder), where he was President and Chief Scientific Officer from October 2001 to September 2003. In addition, Dr. Arnold was a faculty member in the UCSD School of Medicine and a member of the UCSD Cancer Center. Dr. Arnold is an inventor or co-inventor on 36 issued U.S. patents and more than 140 issued and pending patents worldwide. He is the principal inventor of the chemiluminescent Hybridization Protection Assay (HPA) and associated technologies; core to Gen-Probe assays that have generated more than $5B in product revenue. In addition, he has authored more than 50 scientific publications. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Chemistry/Biochemistry from the University of California at San Diego.
Farideh Z. Bischoff, Ph.D.,Vice-President Translational Research and Clinical Development
Prior to joining Biocept, Dr. Bischoff had been a full-time faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine from 1994 to 2007. An expert in clinical and molecular human cytogenetics, she has conducted research in non-invasive prenatal genetic testing and more recently cancer screening and surveillance. For more than 14 years, Dr. Bischoff has been a key investigator in the multi-center NIH/NICHD funded study focused on establishment of protocols and investigations into the clinical utility of circulating rare fetal cells. Dr. Bischoff has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from University of Texas Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences in Houston, Texas, with postdoctoral training at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Philip D. Cotter, Ph.D., FACMG, Vice President and Director of Clinical Laboratories
Prior to joining Biocept, Dr. Cotter was Director of Advanced Molecular Diagnostics at U.S. Labs in Irvine, California from 2002 to 2004. Previously, he was Director of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics at the Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, California from 1996 to 2002 and Director of Molecular Cytogenetics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York from 1994 to 1996. He has published extensively in cytogenetics, molecular genetics and prenatal diagnosis. Dr. Cotter holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Department of Human Genetics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics in both clinical cytogenetics and clinical molecular genetics. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco.
Kim B Phan, Ph.D., Scientist, Production Development Scientist
Kim B. Phan, Ph.D., is a production development scientist at Biocept. She has extensive theoretical and practical knowledge in protein chemistry and assay development. From 2006 to 2010, Dr. Phan was a research scientist at Sytera and later Sirion Therapeutics, conducting research to develop therapeutics to treat retinal diseases. She played a vital role in the pre-clinical development of several drugs and was a co-inventor of two patents while at Sirion. Dr. Phan received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2004 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute.
Julie Ann Mayer, Ph.D., Scientist, Translational Research and CLIA Development
Dr. Mayer holds a Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Following her graduate studies she obtained postdoctoral training in Translational Breast Cancer Research at Baylor College of Medicine and in Clinical Cancer Prevention at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, both located in Houston, Texas. An expert in Molecular Pathology, she has conducted research on the hormone biosynthetic pathway and the role of BMP signaling in stem cell activation and tissue conversion. More recently her research has focused on the role of p38 kinase on the growth of ER-negative breast cancer as well as ER/AP-1 crosstalk in breast cancer. She has multiple publications in top tier journals.
Tony J. Pircher, Ph.D., Director of Immunochemistry
Dr. Pircher joined the R&D department at Biocept Inc. in February 2001 and is currently leading the identification and validation of tumor specific markers for the capture of rare circulating tumor cells. He has extensive experience in developing proteomic and genomic diagnostic assays and is the inventor on several Biocept patents. He received his Ph.D. in molecular endocrinology from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, mentored by Dr. Lars-Arne Haldosen and the world renowned steroid receptor scientist Dr. Jan-Ake Gustafsson. During his postdoctoral training he worked in the field of molecular hematology at the Pennsylvania State University in the highly prolific research lab of Dr. Don M Wojchowski, where he gained extensive experience in the enrichment of erythroid progenitor cells from blood, bone marrow and spleen. He acquired expertise in protein alteration, expression, detection and purification technologies, antibody production and cellular reporter systems.
Karena Kosco, Ph.D., Project Leader, R&D/Molecular Biology
Dr. Kosco has over 10 years of expertise in genetics, molecular and cellular biology including the development of molecular assays designed to detect genetic variations in rare cell populations. Dr. Kosco received her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her doctoral degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology from Cornell University. During her time at Cornell, she studied several proteins involved in chromosome segregation and mitotic spindle function. Prior to joining the Biocept team in 2006, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, CA where she worked in the field of molecular immunology studying T-cell antigen receptor signaling.
Vassilios Alexiadis, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist, R&D/Molecular Biology
Dr. Alexiadis joined Biocept in April 2010 and has extensive experience in Molecular Biology. Before joining us he was employed as Research Scientist (Nov 2003 - August 2006) and Senior Research Scientist (August 2006 - April 2010) at Genpathway, Inc. were he contributed to the development and commercialization of ChIP (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation)-based assays. He received his PhD from the University of Konstanz, Germany and did his doctoral studies in the laboratories of Prof. Rolf Knippers (Section of Molecular Genetics). During his doctoral work he studied the effect of chromatin remodeling factors on the replication of chromatin in vitro. He did postdoctoral studies in the laboratories of Prof. James T. Kadonaga (Sep 1999 – Nov 2003, Section of Molecular Biology) were he studied the effect of chromatin structure on the biochemistry of proteins involved in DNA repair by homologous recombination.
Stephen Mikolajczyk, Sr. Director of R&D and Principal Scientist
Mr. Mikolajczyk has more than 30 years in research with a wide variety of fundamental protein, biochemical and immunological technologies, including extensive experience with diagnostic immunoassay development. Previously he held the position of Senior Staff Research Scientist/Group Manager, Clinical Discovery at Beckman Coulter, Inc., San Diego. During this time he received the Yamanouchi Award at the American Urological Association for his discoveries of several new diagnostic isoforms of PSA for use in prostate cancer. Mr. Mikolajczyk has more than 50 publications on his research findings in the scientific literature, and holds multiple patents. Mr. Mikolajczyk holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego
Pavel Tsinberg, M.S.E, Director of Technology Development
Mr. Tsinberg joined Biocept as a product development engineer early in 2000. Mr. Tsinberg has extensive experience in the field of microfluidics, rare cell enrichment, device design, and manufacturing. During his time at Biocept, Mr. Tsinberg has been awarded several patents and published several peer-reviewed articles in his field. Mr. Tsinberg holds a M.A. in Biomedical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania and a B.S in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. Prior to entering the field of rare cell separation and microfluidics, he worked on microarray development and hydrogel encapsulation of biological substances.