Our Team
Jesse Salk MD, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Scientific Officer, Board Member
Dr. Salk is a molecular biologist, clinical oncologist, and a cofounder of TwinStrand. He invented and developed TwinStrand’s core Duplex Sequencing Technology with colleagues at the University of Washington. Jesse has authored more than two-dozen peer-reviewed publications in cancer biology and genomics, and has more than 50 issued and pending patents. In addition to his executive and scientific leadership role at TwinStrand, Jesse is an Affiliate Clinical Faculty member at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and sees cancer patients part time at the VA Puget Sound in Seattle. He is Board Certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine. Jesse is a volunteer teacher in science and medicine for students from middle school through post-doctoral levels. He holds an MD/PhD with honors from the University of Washington and a BS in Biology Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University.
Elena Cant
Chief Operating Officer
Elena Cant leads TwinStrand’s operational organization. She has more than 20 years of diverse business experience, the last 15 of which has focused on life sciences. Elena worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving major pharmaceutical and device companies in the US and Europe, followed by global strategic and operational leadership roles at Mead Johnson Nutrition, Hospira, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Elena received her MBA from the University of Chicago.
Jeff Grainger JD
Chief Legal Officer
Jeff Grainger is an attorney, specializing in intellectual property, with more than 25 years’ of experience in early stage technology companies. In addition to his role at TwinStrand, Jeff serves as Chairman of the Board at Signum Surgical and is an advisor to several other early stage medtech companies in the US and abroad. Jeff served as a Managing Partner at The Foundry, a medical device incubator where he played a major role in launching FIRE1, Nuvaira, Twelve, Cotera, eValve, and other successful ventures. Jeff’s earlier positions include Vice President of Corporate Affairs and General Counsel at Xtent and Chief Patent Counsel at Heartport. He previously founded patent automation start-up First to File, served as an attorney at Townsend & Townsend, and was a robotics engineer at Boeing. Jeff holds a JD from the University of Washington and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.
Michele Fernandes
Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships
Michele Fernandes leads our corporate development and partnership strategy and has more than 20 years’ of global strategic and operational experience in biotech and pharma. Prior to joining TwinStrand, Michele led operations and/or alliance management for global organizations including Acerta Pharmacuticals, Loxo Oncology, Genentech, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck. Michele has navigated multiple global drug development programs across complex therapeutic areas. Michele holds a BSc with honors in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Surrey, UK.
Josh Mann MBA
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Josh Mann leads TwinStrand Bioscience’s commercial organization. He has more than 20 years’ experience commercializing new and innovative technologies within the biotech industry, working for global organizations including SOPHiA Genetics, Life Technologies/Invitrogen, QIAGEN, and Meso Scale Diagnostics. In addition to leadership roles in sales and marketing, Josh spent eight years in research & development, and as an application specialist. Josh received his Master of Business Administration at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg in Germany and completed the Disruptive Strategy program at Harvard Business School.
Kellie Bickel PhD
Vice President of Intellectual Property
Dr. Bickel is a doctoral-level scientist with nearly two decades of intellectual property experience. She works closely with our scientists and business teams to identify and develop key patent positions around our technology and to execute our patent strategy. Kellie has previously worked on nationally recognized legal teams at both Perkins Coie, LLP, and at the University of Washington, where she strategically created and managed patent portfolios for both start-ups and large, publicly traded companies. She holds a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Washington and is a USPTO-registered patent agent.
Lindsey Williams PhD
Senior Director of Assay Development
Dr. Williams is a molecular biologist and biochemist and has been with TwinStrand since its inception. She leads scientific development of our core Duplex Sequencing biochemistry, as well as new assays and applications. Prior to joining TwinStrand, Lindsey developed diagnostic products at Ariosa Diagnostics, and subsequently Roche Sequencing Solutions. Lindsey’s training includes a BS in Molecular Genetics and a BA in Anthropology at the University of Florida, post graduate research at Mayo Clinic, a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington, and a Postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University.
Clint Valentine MS
Director of Computational Biology
Clint Valentine manages bioinformatics analysis, the software development lifecycle and algorithm development as related to Duplex Sequencing data and interpretation. His interests lie in developing new computational methods to interrogate mutational biology and early carcinogenesis. Clint studied at Northeastern University where he earned a BS in Biology, a BS in Environmental Science, and an MS in Bioinformatics prior to joining the Biological Engineering Department at MIT through the Essigmann Lab. At MIT, Clint pioneered methods for applying Duplex Sequencing technology to the study of in vivo mutagenesis and cancer risk assessment. He serves on national leadership committees for genetic toxicology and mentors computational biology trainees through the Northeastern University Co-op internship program.
Board of Directors
Chad Waite
Chairman of the Board
Chad Waite leads TwinStrand’s board. He has more than 28 years’ of experience investing in IT and life sciences and serves on the boards of multiple other companies, including NanoString. Chad is the Managing Director of OVP Venture Partners, which has invested in 130 companies, with 53 exits, including 23 IPOs. Notable successes include WatchGuard, Seattle Genetics, and Rosetta Inpharmatics. Prior to joining OVP in 1987, Chad worked in the cardiovascular medical device division of Cobe Laboratories and as a General Partner at H&Q Venture Partners where he invested in IT and life sciences.
Steve Dow
Independent Board Member
Steve Dow’s venture capital investments over the past 37 years have spanned a broad range of technologies and markets, from software to communications technology to life science. Steve has served as an advisor, mentor, and board member for a variety of companies, typically beginning at the concept or seed stage and continuing beyond their IPO. He served as Chairman of the Board at Alder Biopharmaceuticals (ALDR) from its inception until 2018. He is a board member at Dataminr and Digital Ocean. Steve was the founding board member at Citrix Systems (CTXS) from its inception in 1989 until 2015, when it annual revenue was $3B. He has also been an advisor to several departments at Stanford University and on the investment committee at Caltech.
Terry Myerson
Board Member
Terry Myerson is a Venture Partner at the Madrona Venture Group, which led the Series A investment in TwinStrand. Prior to joining Madrona, Terry was a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Microsoft, leading the development of Windows, Surface, and Xbox. Prior to his Microsoft career, Terry cofounded Intersé, one of the first web software companies, which Microsoft acquired in 1997.
Jesse Salk
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Scientific Officer, Board Member
Dr. Salk is a molecular biologist, clinical oncologist, and a cofounder of TwinStrand. He invented and developed TwinStrand’s core Duplex Sequencing Technology with colleagues at the University of Washington. Jesse has authored more than two-dozen peer-reviewed publications in cancer biology and genomics, and has more than 50 issued and pending patents. In addition to his executive and scientific leadership role at TwinStrand, Jesse is an Affiliate Clinical Faculty member at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and sees cancer patients part time at the VA Puget Sound in Seattle. He is Board Certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine. Jesse is a volunteer teacher in science and medicine for students from middle school through post-doctoral levels. He holds an MD/PhD with honors from the University of Washington and a BS in Biology Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University.
