BioNano Genomics Appoints Mike Ward to the Senior Executive Management Team

SAN DIEGO, May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BioNano Genomics, the leading genome mapping instrument company, announced today the appointment of Mr. Mike Ward as a member of the senior executive management team and vice president, corporate development.  Mr. Ward has more than 20 years of life sciences-dedicated investment banking, venture capital and private equity experience.

"With his impressive track record in mergers and acquisitions as a life sciences-dedicated investment banker and in corporate development for healthcare portfolio companies as a private equity investor, we are confident that Mike will help to further expand the reach of BioNano's technology and commercialization. Mike has dedicated his career over the past two decades to creating value-added strategic transaction opportunities for life sciences companies," said Erik Holmlin, president and CEO of BioNano Genomics. "Mike will be a great addition to the senior management team as we further advance BioNano Genomics as the leading provider of genome mapping technology and continue to accelerate placement of Irys instruments globally."

Before joining BioNano Genomics, Mr. Ward was at Lurie Investment Fund where he was responsible for managing the life sciences venture capital and private equity investments of the Lurie family. Mr. Ward guided senior executive management teams of Lurie's life sciences portfolio companies in conducting business and corporate development, clinical and regulatory strategy, commercialization planning, intellectual property management, M&A and financings. During his tenure, he also served on the boards of a number of life sciences portfolio companies on behalf of Lurie.

Prior to joining Lurie Investment Fund in 2009, Mr. Ward gained more than 15 years of investment banking experience at Leerink Partners, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, BMO and Vector Securities. During his career in investment banking, Mr. Ward executed more than 80 life sciences mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, strategic alliances, private placements, IPOs and follow-on public offerings. In his more than two decades of experience fostering the development of life sciences companies, he focused predominantly on medical technology, tools, diagnostics and biopharmaceutical markets. 

About Irys

Irys makes it possible to routinely and accurately detect genomic structural variation and to finish genome assemblies. The fully automated Irys benchtop instrument uses the IrysChip to uncoil and confine long DNA molecules in proprietary Nanochannel Arrays™ where they are uniformly linearized in a highly parallel display for high-resolution, single-molecule imaging. Irys does not employ DNA fragmentation or amplification, which are typical with next-generation sequencing. The result is sequence information over extremely long "reads" ranging from hundreds of kilobases to a megabase, where the sample's valuable structural information is preserved. Irys makes it possible for researchers to directly observe structural variants including replications, deletions, translocations and inversions.

About BioNano Genomics

Headquartered in San Diego, BioNano Genomics is delivering an altogether better way of gaining a fully informed understanding of genomes. The Company's platform provides researchers and clinicians the most comprehensive, organized and actionable picture of a genome with unprecedented insights into how the individual components of genomes are ordered, arranged, and interact with each other. BioNano Genomics works with institutions in life science, translational research, molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine. The Company is supported by Domain Associates, Battelle Ventures and other private investors and grant funding from genomics programs at federal agencies, including the NIH and NIST-ATP.

http://www.BioNanoGenomics.com

Notes: BioNano Genomics is a trademark of BioNano Genomics, Inc. Any other names of actual companies, organizations, entities, products or services may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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