Knome Appoints Hugh Y. Rienhoff, Jr., MD to Scientific Advisory Board

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knome, Inc., the human genome interpretation company, today announced that it has continued to expand its scientific advisory board to include respected life sciences expert and industry pioneer, Hugh Y. Rienhoff, Jr., MD.

“We are very pleased to appoint Dr. Rienhoff to our scientific advisory board”

“We are very pleased to appoint Dr. Rienhoff to our scientific advisory board,” said Martin Tolar, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Knome. “Dr. Rienhoff brings a unique, diverse, and deeply entrepreneurial perspective that will further strengthen our scientific advisory board as we pursue new drug development and clinical applications of Knome’s technology. We look forward to benefiting from the depth and breadth of his insights.”

Dr. Rienhoff has more than 20 years of experience as a technology visionary, entrepreneur, and venture investor in life sciences. He is currently a Managing Director of Life Science Venture Partners and serves as an Adjunct Scientist at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. In the field of genomics, Dr. Rienhoff is known for the founding of the nonprofit organization MyDaughtersDNA.org, a community focused on aiding those with challenging genetic conditions. He presently serves as Chief Executive Officer at FerroKin BioSciences, a company he founded as part of his ongoing interest in the treatment of rare disorders. Previously, Dr. Rienhoff served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of DNA Sciences, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company he founded in 1998 (formerly Kiva Genetics, Inc.). He was also a founding director of Healtheon Corporation, a health-focused Internet portal now widely known as WebMD Health.

“Knome brings together the team, technology, and application focus needed to bring genomics into the practice of medicine—and ultimately the lives of patients. This is a pivotal time for Knome: rendering genomic data manageable and actionable to a broad array of users will drive Knome’s ultimate success in addressing the dynamic needs of key markets. I am excited to join the Knome advisory team and look forward to helping Knome maintain its leadership position in the application of human genomic information,” said Dr. Rienhoff.

Dr. Rienhoff previously has served as a General Partner of Vanguard Ventures and as a Partner of New Enterprise Associates. Dr. Rienhoff was a member of the faculty in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He trained in mathematics, medicine, and genetics at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and received an MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Knome’s scientific advisory board is chaired by George Church, PhD, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Harvard-Lipper Center for Computational Genetics, and cofounder of Knome. Other members of the board include Lincoln Stein, MD, PhD, Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Platform Leader of Informatics and Biocomputing at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; David Goldstein, PhD, Professor of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Professor of Biology, and Director of the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University; Yaniv Erlich, PhD, the Andria and Paul Heafy Family Fellow and Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Anthony Sinskey, ScD, Professor of Microbiology and Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Knome Inc.

Knome is a life sciences company that specializes in the interpretation of human genomes. Knome provides tools and solutions that help researchers, drug developers, and clinicians determine the genetic basis of human disease and drug response. In 2008, Knome had the distinction of being the first company to interpret a human whole genome for a commercial client. Since then, Knome has worked on over 100 interpretation projects in more than two dozen countries.