Meet Our Biotechnological Experts
Dr. Furtado started his career as a protein biochemist and then trained as a molecular virologist. He was a faculty member and CLIA service laboratory director at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago.
He switched to the biotechnology industry, working for Applied Biosystems, and became adept at translating early ideas and concepts into revenue-generating product lines that delight customers and improve human health and safety.
In the process, he helped establish several business units in the Applied Sciences and Diagnostics areas, led global R&D teams for product development, managed collaborations globally with academic thought leaders, established partnerships with other companies, participated in acquisitions, published extensively in scientific journals, participated actively in professional organizations, helped write guidance documents for clinical diagnostics and presented for the company at numerous scientific meetings and to other companies.
Dr. Furtado was appointed by Secretary Sibelius to the National Biodefense Science Board and is responsible for policy decisions related to situational awareness, biosurveillance, and emergency medical countermeasures.
Recently, he started Biology for Global Good LLC as a consulting service company and is a consultant to several diagnostic companies that want to define clinically relevant applications for novel technologies. He is passionate about building applications that improve human health and safety.
Dr. Furtado is a highly energetic and motivated individual with a long-term vision and an established track record for creating a wide spectrum of products that improve the human condition. He is an experienced leader in research programs, product development, and customer interactions in the regulated and RUO markets.
He has launched multiple, innovative, revenue-generating product lines in the molecular diagnostics, genomic assays, and applied markets (human identification, bio-threat detection, public safety, food safety, animal health, and environmental testing) areas that generated over 500 M in revenue in 2012.
He helped establish productive long-term collaborations with a broad range of academic, government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and professional organizations leading to the generation of intellectual property, product ideas, publications, policy documents, and scientific presentations of company programs at meetings and to other business entities.
Work Experience and Core Competencies (Click to Expand)
- 12.5 years at Applied Biosystems/Celera Diagnostics/Life Technologies, actively leading highly talented global development teams, customer collaborations, and research investigations to ensure efficient manufacturing, commercialization, and support of cutting-edge products. Managed R&D budgets in the 6M range. Commercialized products that generated over USD 500M in revenue annually in 2012.
- 15+ years’ experience working in the life sciences domain in teaching, academic research, clinical research, managing biotechnology, and CLIA-certified clinical service laboratories.
- Proven ability to assemble and work with a diverse group of individuals in cross-functional teams to enable timely and cost-efficient product launches and regulatory clearance from the FDA, AOAC, AFNOR, USDA, SWGDAM, etc.
- Managed collaborations and interactions with KOLs, regulatory agencies, and organizations like the CDC, AMP, CLSI, USDA, HPA, VLA, AAFS, PDA, IDSA, ATCC, etc.
- Establishing a long-term strategic vision, portfolio management systems, organization development programs, talent retention /development programs, M&A activity, and acquisition of external intellectual property and capabilities.
- Helped implement and practice QSR, GLP, GMP, and GCP guidelines within Molecular Diagnostics. Chaired the Manufacturing Process Validation Committee at Celera Dx. Communicated with the FDA and participated in inspections
- Initiated and managed collaborations and interactions with KOLs, regulatory agencies, and organizations, resulting in peer-reviewed publications, public presentations, and co-authoring of policy documents.
- Established cutting-edge, funded research programs at NUMS that resulted in key findings related to HIV-1 transmission, latency, and expression in blood. Publications in Science & NEJM and press releases from the NIH. Thorough technical knowledge of molecular biology, microbiology, and cell culture methods, expression systems, genetic identification systems, sample preparation, automation, immunoassays, PCR, Sequencing, and NGS platforms.
- Thorough understanding of the customer needs gained through collaborations, interviews, and participation in Design Control, VOC, UCI, and DFSS activities.
- Excellent writing skills and ability to compile data for writing regulatory submissions.
- Subject matter expertise in areas of infectious diseases, cancer, genetics, microbial genomics, gene expression profiling, translational and transcriptional control of genes, human ID, and microbial ID, as evidenced by patent filings, over 90 publications, and 200 presentations (see attached list). Presented for the company at several national and international meetings ASM, AACR, PDA, AMP, AAVLD, ISFG, Keystone, IDSA, AAFS, ASHG, IAFS, CSH, etc.
- Experience working with pathologists, oncologists, infectious disease experts, health administration, as well as major diagnostic companies to define clinical utility and test implementation criteria at CLIA labs in major medical centers.
- Experience in building and managing global R&D teams (Foster City, Benicia, Austin, Singapore, and India), hiring, coaching, developing, and retaining key talent, managing workplace conflict, and ensuring a high level of productivity.
- Focus on developing complete solutions and working to integrate reagent, instrument, software systems and interpretation reports to provide customers with an easy-to-use system.
- Over 15 years in teaching, conducting externally funded basic and clinical research in academic settings.
Product Commercialization, R&D Management, Molecular Diagnostics, Companion Diagnostics, Microbiology, Infectious Diseases, Oncology, Applied Genetics, Public Health, Human Identification, Paternity, Cell Biology, and Service Lab Management.
Sanger Sequencing, Next Generation Sequencing, Fragment Analysis/Length Polymorphisms, Gene Expression Analysis, Microarrays, qPCR, Protein Chemistry, Cell Culture Methods, Protein Expression Strategies, Hybridization Methods, Immunoassays, Proximity Ligation Assays, Protein Binding Analysis.