Jorge Leon
Dr. Jorge Leon is acting chief science officer at Orion
Genomics LLC and president
of Leomics Associates Inc. He holds a doctorate in cellular and molecular
biology from New York University. He completed his postdoctoral studies in
tumor immunology and cancer biology at the German
Cancer Research Center in Germany and at Columbia
University in New York City where, as an associate
senior scientist, he developed novel cancer diagnostic agents with current
clinical applications. He later transitioned to private industry and joined
Quest Diagnostics (then part of Corning Life Sciences), which went on to
become the largest molecular diagnostics lab in the world.
Dr. Leon was one
of the founders of the molecular diagnostic and applied genomics business at
Corning Life Sciences (later Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute), which he
successfully drove for several years. In 1998, Dr. Leon left Quest Diagnostics
to serve as chief scientific officer and senior vice president of business
development for NEN Life Science (now part of Perkin Elmer). There he helped
build a successful strategy that converted NEN into a functional genomics tool
company, later acquired by Perkins Elmer.
In 2000, Dr. Leon rejoined Quest
Diagnostics as vice president of applied genomics. In that position, he pioneered the development
of novel clinical diagnostics and pharmacogenomics using gene sequencing, high
through-put SNP analysis, microarrays, and proteomics. At the time of his departure
from Quest Diagnostics, he had helped grow the gene testing business into a
$350MM per year operation, which performed over 7 million tests per year in
2002.
Dr. Leon is recognized internationally within the investment and scientific
communities as an industry leader for molecular diagnostics. He has over 20
years of experience in evaluating, developing, and commercializing new technologies
and scientific innovations into successful diagnostic products. He holds several
patents, has been extensively published, and serves on the board of various
leading edge technology companies.
10/09/07 - Biomarkers: Ready for Primetime?
