PacBio Announces that Euan Ashley, M.D., Ph.D., Joseph Puglisi, Ph.D., and Jay Shendure, Ph.D., Join Newly Created Scientific Advisory Board

 World Class Team Will Provide Strategic Guidance and Direction for PacBio's Research and Development Activities

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PacBio (NASDAQ: PACB), a leading developer of high-quality, highly accurate sequencing solutions, today announced it is bringing together a group of scientific experts to form PacBio's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB will provide guidance to the research and development efforts at PacBio, including critical feedback, advice, and expertise on future technological and scientific direction to inform PacBio's priorities and roadmaps for current and future products. The goal of the SAB is to help provide a strong voice for the future of the 'omics and quantitative biology fields, while advocating for ways PacBio can create that future.

SAB members were chosen based on their leadership in fields such as biophysics, genomics, medicine, biology, chemistry and/or chip fabrication. The SAB will be made up initially of the following individuals:

• Euan Ashley, M.D., Ph.D. – Associate Dean and Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine, Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor of Genomics and Precision Health at Stanford University

Dr. Ashley graduated with 1st class Honors in Physiology and Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He completed medical residency and a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford before moving to Stanford University where he trained in cardiology and advanced heart failure, joining the faculty in 2006. His group is focused on the science of precision medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome. The article became one of the most cited in clinical medicine that year and was later featured in the Genome Exhibition at the Smithsonian in DC. Over the following three years, the team extended the approach to the first whole genome molecular autopsy, to a family of four, and to a case series of patients in primary care. They now routinely apply genome sequencing to the diagnosis of patients at Stanford hospital where Dr. Ashley directs the Clinical Genome Program and the Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Ashley has a passion for rare genetic disease and was the first co-chair of the steering committee of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network. He was a recipient of the National Innovation Award from the American Heart Association and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award.

• Joseph (Jody) Puglisi, Ph.D. – Jauch Professor and Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University

Dr. Puglisi is a leading scientist in the study of RNA structure and function in biology. He pioneered the use of NMR in the study of RNAs and RNA-ligand complexes. His early work showed how small molecules can bind to RNAs, which has led to the field of RNA as a drug target and riboswitches. Recent work has merged novel single-molecule approaches biochemical and structural methods to merge dynamic and static structural views of essential RNA mechanisms, including translation and viral infections.

Dr. Puglisi received his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley. After postdoctoral training at I.B.M.C du CNRS in Strasbourg and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge he returned to California, first as assistant professor at University of California, Santa Cruz and in 1997 as associate professor at Stanford University, School of Medicine. In 2004 he was appointed professor in Structural Biology at Stanford and the same year he was elected chair of the Department of Structural Biology. Dr. Puglisi was awarded the NIH Director's Transformative R01 (T-R01) Program Award in 2011 and the same year he was also granted the NIH Merit Award. In 2014, he was elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Jay Shendure, Ph.D. – Professor of Genome Sciences at University of Washington

Dr. Shendure is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, and Director of Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. His 2005 Ph.D. included one of the first successful demonstrations of massively parallel or next generation DNA sequencing. Dr. Shendure's research group in Seattle pioneered exome sequencing and its earliest applications to gene discovery for Mendelian disorders (e.g. Miller and Kabuki syndrome) and autism; cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer and reproductive medicine; massively parallel reporter assays and saturation genome editing; whole organism lineage tracing; and massively parallel molecular profiling of single cells. He is the recipient of the 2012 Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics, the 2013 FEDERAprijs, a 2013 NIH Director's Pioneer Award, and the 2022 Mendel Prize from the European Society of Human Genetics. He is an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the US National Academy of Sciences.

"We are thrilled to have scientific advisory board members who are on the forefront of genomics from both a technology and clinical perspective," said Christian Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer of PacBio. "I am confident that their expertise will help guide PacBio's innovation to develop new products and technologies that will push the field of genomics forward."

"I am honored and delighted to join PacBio's scientific advisory board," said Jody Puglisi, Ph.D., Jauch Professor and Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University. "The commitment to their mission to enable the promise of genomics to better human health is evident in everything they do. Their recent new product announcements – the Revio and Onso sequencing systems – are a testament to their scientific depth, creativity, and willingness to listen and learn as they develop future products."  

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB) is a premier life science technology company that is designing, developing and manufacturing advanced sequencing solutions to help scientists and clinical researchers resolve genetically complex problems. Our products and technology under development stem from two highly differentiated core technologies focused on accuracy, quality and completeness which include our existing HiFi long read sequencing and our emerging SBB™ short read sequencing technologies. Our products address solutions across a broad set of research applications including human germline sequencing, plant and animal sciences, infectious disease and microbiology, oncology, and other emerging applications. For more information, please visit www.pacb.com and follow @PacBio.
PacBio products are provided for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including statements relating to anticipated guidance by, and the goals of, the SAB, including in connection with the development of new products and technologies; the initial number of SAB members; and other future events. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and any such forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the following cautionary statements. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on current expectations and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, including, among others, challenges inherent in developing new products; potential conflicts and obligations of SAB members with third parties; and extensive competition in genomic sequencing that could make the products PacBio is developing, including any that it may develop in connection with input from the SAB, obsolete or non-competitive. Readers are strongly encouraged to read the full cautionary statements contained in PacBio's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Forms 8-K, 10-K, and 10-Q. PacBio disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.