OptraGURU. Digital genetic assistance and counselling using artificial intelligence based conversational technologies.

George M. Church, PhD ’84, is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, a founding member of the Wyss Institute, and director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. Church is known for pioneering the fields of personal genomics and synthetic biology. He developed the first methods for the first genome sequence & dramatic cost reductions since then (down from $3 billion to $600), contributing to nearly all “next generation sequencing” methods and companies. His team invented CRISPR for human stem cell genome editing and other synthetic biology technologies and applications – including new ways to create organs for transplantation, gene therapies for aging reversal, and gene drives to eliminate Lyme Disease and Malaria.  Church is director of IARPA & NIH BRAIN Projects and National Institutes of Health Center for Excellence in Genomic Science.  He has coauthored 450 papers, 105 patents, and one book, “Regenesis”. His honors include Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science, the Time 100, and election to the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

Dr. Scott Kahn most recently served as Vice President for Illumina's Enterprise Informatics group after serving as Illumina's Chief Information Officer for nine years. During his time at Illumina, Dr. Kahn has lead all scientific software, bioinformatics, and information technology for the company.

Prior to Illumina, Dr. Kahn served as Chief Science Officer and Senior Vice President, Research and Development of Accelrys (now Dassault Systémes BIOVIA) where he worked for a decade in computational chemistry and guided commercial development of some of the world's most widely used simulation products.

Dr. Kahn also spent four years as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Kahn earned his Ph.D. in Theoretical Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine and performed post-doctoral research at Cambridge University in England.

Grant Wood has been working in clinical genetics at Intermountain Healthcare for 13 years. He is responsible for creating computer systems that will support healthcare providers in delivering genetics-based clinical care, which include applications that collect family health history and genetic test result data to enable advanced clinical decision support. Grant is a member of the HL7 Clinical Genomics workgroup, and participates in activities with the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), a co-chair of the IT/Bioinformatics work group for the Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative (G2MC), a co-chair of the FHIR Foundation’s DIGITizE pilot to get coded pharmacogenetic data from the lab to the EHR, and a co-chair of the WEDI Genomics workgroup. He participates with many other groups, activities, and conferences that promote family health history and clinical genomics. He also serves on the board of directors for AlphaNet, an organization that provides free disease management services to people with the genetic disorder Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, a physician, surgeon, researcher, philanthropist and scientist, invented and developed the revolutionary drug Abraxane, which has received FDA approval for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, lung cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer. Abraxane is the only drug of its kind to be approved in first line therapies across this broad spectrum of tumors in both the U.S. and E.U. Over the course of Dr. Soon-Shiong’s career, he has pioneered novel therapies for both diabetes and cancer, published over 100 scientific papers, and has issued over 200 patents worldwide for groundbreaking advancements spanning myriad fields of technology and medicine. As a surgeon, Dr. Soon-Shiong performed the world’s first encapsulated human islet transplant, the first engineered islet cell transplant and the first pig to man islet cell transplant in diabetic patients.
In the early 1990’s, Dr. Soon-Shiong pursued the science of stem cell and nanotechnology at NASA, performing experiments as part of the Shuttle program. Dr. Soon-Shiong’s path to cancer research began while doing research for NASA that involved harnessing stem cells to make insulin. In 1991, he founded a biotechnology company to develop a novel nanoparticle anticancer drug with the concept of using “the tumors biology against itself”.
From 1997- 2010, Dr. Soon-Shiong served as founder, Chairman and CEO of two global pharmaceutical companies: American Pharmaceutical Partners and Abraxis BioScience. In 2008, Dr. Soon-Shiong sold American Pharmaceutical Partners (NASDAQ: APP) to Fresenius for approximately $4.6 billion and in 2010, sold Abraxis Bio Science to Celgene for approximately $3.8 billion.
In January 2016, Dr. Soon-Shiong announced the formation of Cancer MoonShot 2020, a comprehensive collaboration of researchers, insurers, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies that seeks to accelerate the potential of combination immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer. The initiative has a goal of initiating Phase 2 trials in 20,000 cancer patients within the next four years in addition to launching a revolutionary molecular diagnostic test. Known as GPS Cancer, the test enables analysis of the whole genome and target proteomics, transcending genomics to the era of clinic proteomics in cancer.
Dr. Soon-Shiong currently serves as Chairman and CEO of NantWorks, an ecosystem of companies aiming to create transformative global health information and next-generation pharma development network. Under the NantWorks umbrella, Dr. Soon-Shiong also currently serves as Chairman and CEO of NantKwest (NK), a Nasdaq listed immunotherapy company focusing on Natural Killer cells, and Chairman and CEO of NantHealth (NH), a Nasdaq listed transformational healthcare company converging biomolecular medicine and bioinformatics with technology services to empower physicians, patients, payers, pharma and researchers to transcend the traditional barriers of today’s healthcare system.
Dr. Soon-Shiong is Chairman of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and of the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine, a non-profit medical research organization. He co-chairs the CEO Council for Health and Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center, is the Executive Director of the UCLA Wireless Health Institute and is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Bank of America. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at UCLA, a visiting Professor at the Imperial College of London, and a Professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Professor of Bioengineering at the California NanoSystems Institute of UCLA. The Friends of the National Library of Medicine has honored him with their Distinguished Medical Science Award.
In April 2016, Dr. Soon-Shiong received the Franklin Institute Award for his visionary leadership and commitment to advancing medical and scientific research and bringing new treatment options to cancer patients. Dr. Soon-Shiong was also honored at the Vatican in April 2016 and received the 2016 Pontifical Key Visionary Award. The award recognizes “medical innovators who change the course of history and reduce suffering on a global scale by blending visionary thinking with real action”.
Born and raised during apartheid in South Africa, Dr. Soon-Shiong resides in Los Angles and is a citizen of the United States.

Gauri is a biotechnologist with an extensive commercial research and entrepreneurial background. She has extensive experience working in the genetics, cytology, microbiology, molecular biology, medical imaging and bioinformatics fields.

Before founding Optra Systems Inc., she was the founder and principal scientist at BioImagene Inc., a Silicon Valley based digital pathology company which was acquired by Roche Diagnostics.

Gauri was selected as a young scientist for various research programs in biotechnology and microbiology internationally. She has 11 U.S. patents published to her credit. She has published many research papers in international journals and has participated as a speaker in many international conferences. She is on the editorial and advisory boards of many prestigious journals and forums, including the Journal of Applied & Translational Genomics and the International Organization for Rare Genetic Disorders. Gauri was also awarded with the prestigious “Woman Entrepreneur Award" by the government of India.

At Optra, Gauri is responsible for enriching the domain knowledge of her companies, as well as involved in the strategic planning and business development activities.

Abhi is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai and Stanford University Graduate school of Business. He specializes in startups and product management. With over 4 successful startups to his credit as founder, investments in over 9 startups, 14 international patents and an active member of leading angel groups in Bay Area, Abhi handholds startups from ideas to commercialization. Abhi is TiE Silicon Valley charter member and medical advisory board member of Frost and Sullivan.

Over the years, Abhi and the companies he has founded, received a number of awards:

• 2017: Top 50 Indian Entrepreneurs in USA by Technology Headlines
• 2016: Inclusion into Cancer Moonshot program
• 2015: Entrepreneur of the Month recognition by SiliconIndia
• 2013: Indian Leadership Award for Industrial Development
• 2012: President’s Gold Lotus National award
• 2012: Maharashtra State Entrepreneurship Award
• 2011: RED Herring Asia Business Award
• 2010: DELOITTE Fast 50 Business Award
• 2009: Maharashtra State Government's R&D (Innovation) Award
• 2008: Rajiv Gandhi IT Award
• 2007: Rotary International Vocational Excellence Award

Abhi is also passionate about films and entertainment with National Gold Lotus award to his debut film project in India.

Ashwin Kotwaliwale MD, PhD, has more than 15 years of experience in the biomedical informatics field. Originally trained as a medical doctor and then transitioned into bioinformatics, Dr. Kotwaliwale has great passion for developing software solutions for the healthcare and life sciences industry. He is deeply involved in technology and the domain side to accurately identify business requirements and provide innovative solutions.

Dr. Kotwaliwale’s research experience has empowered him to look at a problem from a domain focus and then provide an engineering implementation across domain boundaries. He has worked in genomics from the early days of arrays to advanced technologies such as next gen sequencing.

Recently Dr. Kotwaliwale has been involved in cutting edge software applications such as Big Data analytics from both the technology and domain application focused sides. He enjoys coding as well and has experience managing development teams and frontend customer interactions.

Nitin is responsible for building and managing delivery teams while setting-up best practices to deliver quality and timely services. Being a certified technology specialist and management graduate, he works in technology as interest and management by habit. With his experience of over 13 years, he helps in making decision in Solution Architecture, Enterprise Engineering and project management with Data Analytics in the space of healthcare and life sciences. He comes with the experience awarded by British Council in the space of automation of curation.

He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science, along with Masters in Management.

Jennifer is the Director of Marketing at Optra Systems and responsible for management of all marketing functions including marcom, demand generation, branding and partner relations.

Jennifer has 13 years Marketing experience most recently working for life sciences and medical device companies in the Genomics and Digital Pathology sectors, where she managed lead generation and sales efforts, strategic marketing programs and industry marketing events.

Prior to Optra, Jennifer has worked for Illumina, Definiens and Aperio. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing, from San Diego State University.