We provide highly specialized genetic testing to clinicians and their patients.
DNA sequencing on its own is a solved problem. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) provides a readout of a patient’s entire DNA at a lower cost every year. The challenge today is how to accurately and economically make sense of the vast amounts of data that it generates - essentially finding the needle in the haystack.
We have assembled an interdisciplinary team of talented medical professionals, bioinformaticians, software engineers, information technology and operations professionals. Together we have developed a clinical platform built and optimized for WGS data analysis, interpretation and reporting. The platform uniquely identifies a wide range of difficult-to-detect sequence variants including small sequence changes, structural variants, mitochondrial variants and short tandem repeat expansions.
Our team of specially trained variant scientists and medical directors has solved hundreds of previously undiagnosed cases for rare disease patients as well as provided important information about disease predisposition risk and carrier status to healthy individuals. We are leading the way to routine, comprehensive genetic testing one patient at a time.
Daryl Spinner PhDVP Market Access and Reimbursement
As Variantyx’s Vice President of Market Access and Reimbursement, Daryl is responsible for working with payors to expand patient access to clinically relevant genetic testing. Prior to joining Variantyx, Daryl held positions as Managing Director of Strategy at Evidera and Senior Director of Managed Care and Reimbursement at Courtagen Life Sciences.
Daryl holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an MBA from Duke University.
Haim NeermanCEO
Haim’s career spans over 20 years of technology entrepreneurship. Prior to co-founding Variantyx, Haim co-founded Credorax Inc. – a global credit card acquiring bank, Fabrix systems (acquired by Ericson), Bandwiz Inc. and Actil Ltd.
Haim is a physics, math and computer science graduate of the Talpiot program / Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Muthu Meyyappan PhDCCO
Muthu serves as the Chief Commercial Officer and is responsible for the overall commercial strategy including sales, marketing and customer support. His primary focus is to drive market adoption of Variantyx’s products and services and to drive revenue growth. Prior to joining Variantyx, Muthu was the Vice President of Advanced Genomics Commercial Operations for QIAGEN where he was responsible for worldwide revenue for the bioinformatics franchise. He has more than 17+ years’ experience in customer facing environments within the pharmaceutical, biotech, academic research and clinical sectors where he represented Incyte Genomics and was the Chief Business Officer for BIOBASE Corporation.
Muthu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York and a PhD in Cancer Biology from the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Center, in Calgary, Canada.
Christine Stanley PhD, FACMGChief Director Clinical Genomics
As Variantyx’s Chief Director of Clinical Genomics, Christine is responsible for overseeing clinical genomic interpretations and regulatory compliance for the clinical laboratory. Prior to joining Variantyx, Christine held positions as Head of Clinical Laboratory at WuXi NextCODE, Chief Director of Clinical Genomics at Courtagen Life Sciences and Genetics Director at Athena Diagnostics. She maintains a part-time appointment as Clinical Laboratory Director of QnA Diagnostics.
Christine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Genetics from Texas A&M University and a PhD in Human Genetics from the Medical College of Virginia with fellowship training at Boston University in clinical molecular genetics. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.
Jennifer Hogan PhDVP of Marketing
Jennifer serves as the VP of Marketing and is responsible for content strategy and tactical execution driving awareness, education and lead generation for Variantyx’s products and services. Prior to joining Variantyx, Jennifer led product management and product marketing for the genetic disease portfolio within QIAGEN’s bioinformatics business area. She has many years of experience leading customer-focused product development of biological databases and software at QIAGEN, BIOBASE Corporation and Incyte Genomics.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Michigan, Flint and received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of New Hampshire.
Tomer JackmanCOO
Tomer serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Variantyx and is responsible for delivering services to customers. Prior to co-founding Variantyx, Tomer was responsible for hardware development operations in the Pivotal/Greenplum division of EMC2 where he helped develop server clusters for “Massive Parallel Processing” databases. This followed a decade with EMC2 in several hardware engineering roles and work in R&D with HP/Indigo.
Tomer holds a high-tech MBA from Northeastern University in Boston, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University.
Noam Shomron PhDCSO
Professor Noam Shomron heads the Genomic Intelligence Research Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. Professor Shomron leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists consisting of biologists, physicians, engineers, bioinformaticians and mathematicians. His team aims to deepen our understanding of disease etiology in order to generate a significant impact through translating ideas into clinical reality.
Professor Shomron is also the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Genetics Research’ (Cambridge University Press); Director of Rare Genomics Israel a non-profit organization that assists children and families with undiagnosed genetic disorders; Academic Director of ScienceAbroad; and co-founder of several Biotech companies.
Yaron RachmanyCIO
Yaron Rachmany oversees Variantyx’ IT systems and business processes. Prior to joining Variantyx, Yaron served as Director of Systems Operations and as a Director of IT Applications at Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ: SMTC). Prior to Semtech Yaron held the VP of Information Systems position with Credorax. Prior to Credorax, Yaron held senior Information Systems positions with Microsemi (NASDAQ: MSCC), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and ECI Telecom.
Yaron holds an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management (specialized in Information Systems) from Ben Gurion University in Israel.
Shira ModaiDir. Clinical Operations
Shira manages clinical operations for Variantyx. In this role she is responsible for communication with the clinical community (clinicians and hospitals) throughout the lifecycle of a test, providing a single point of contact. Prior to joining Variantyx, she managed the genomic center of Tel Aviv University.
Shira holds a B.Sc. in Biotechnology and Food Engineering, an M.Sc. in Medical Science specializing in Virology and a Ph.D. in Medical Science from Tel Aviv University focusing on miRNAs expressed from viral genomes and the interplay with host miRNAs and genes. Her Ph.D. thesis was based on the first Next Generation Sequencing runs done in TAU Genomic lab utilizing the Illumina Genome Analyzer IIX sequencer.
Ofer IsakovClinical Advisor
Ofer attended medical school at Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine and is completing his residency at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. He received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Tel Aviv University with a focus on development of genetic diagnostic decision-support algorithms based on NGS. Ofer serves as a Clinical Advisor.
David KleinDirector of Operations
David serves as Director of Operations and is responsible for wet bench operations. His role includes qualifying and working with CLIA sequencing companies as well as developing and streamlining new processes. David joined Variantyx with over a decade of experience in planning and executing cross-functional international projects, working with multidisciplinary multicultural teams on time-sensitive assignments. He holds an MBA from Babson’s F. W. Olin School of Business and a BA from the Interdisciplinary Center in International Business and Information Systems Management.
Nir Pillar MD, PhDClinical Advisor
Nir attended medical school and completed his residency in the Medical Oncology Department at Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer, Israel. His PhD research focused on exploring the deep mechanism of genetic based diseases and the combination of DNA and RNA changes that lead to their development. In his role as Variantyx’ Clinical Adviser, he plans and implements novel algorithms for understanding the genetic origin of genetic changes that lead to severe phenotypes. Using analysis and prioritization of genetic variants Nir is able to correlate these changes to specific diseases.
Alexander KaplunDir. Product Management
Alex is among the developers of the comprehensive pharmacogenomic database PGMD and other tools and databases aiming to satisfy the growing demand for clinical genomic analysis. He is an author of over 20 peer-reviewed publications.
Before joining Variantyx, Alex served as Senior Scientist and Associate Manager of Advanced Genomics at QIAGEN Bioinformatics. During his postdoctoral training he was involved in identification of novel regulatory mechanisms of signal transduction in cancer, factors affecting metastasis and in investigation of longevity mechanisms at Karmanos Cancer Institute. He received his PhD summa cum laude from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Allan J. FisherMedical Director
Allan graduated his professional studies at St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. He proceeded to complete his postgraduate work at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia, for his Gynecology and Obstetrics residency, Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship, and Medical Genetics Fellowship. He is board-certified for all three. Allan is currently a Professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine where he holds the positions of Director of Ultrasound, Director of Perinatal Genetics, and Co-Director of the Fetal Care Institute at Cardinal Glennon Hospital. His experience includes many years of academic and clinical medicine, mostly in the Northeast. He has held leadership roles including directorships for Maternal Fetal Medicine and Perinatal / Reproductive Genetics, medical director as well as chairs to multiple volunteer organizations. He has over 25 years experience teaching students, residents, and fellows and has published multiple articles and chapters. Allan is a member of many outside professional and medical organizations and boards, including two State Medical Boards. He has close to 20 years experience as an active volunteer member to the March of Dimes, New Jersey Chapter, and was presented the Franklin Award due to his activism in launching the preterm delivery campaign in New Jersey.
Allan’s primary medical interests include prenatal genetics and diagnosis, fetal dysmorphology, genetic screening, ultrasound (3D/4D, Fetal Echocardiography, detailed cranial sonography). His most recent publications include the uses of microarrays in prenatal diagnosis involving the largest cohort studied of over 5000 fetuses.
Naomi MeeksLab Director
Naomi attended medical school at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and completed a Pediatrics residency at Indiana University School of Medicine/Riley Hospital for Children. After residency, Naomi received training in Clinical Genetics and Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado and is board certified in Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics & Molecular Genetics. Naomi’s clinical practice has included Pediatric Genetics with specialty interests including 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome and Differences of Sexual Development. Naomi also serves as a medical director for the Children’s Hospital Colorado Molecular Genetics Laboratory and is involved in teaching and research.