Organization Profile

Leadership

Chonnettia Jones, PhD

Executive Director

As Executive Director, Chonnettia Jones brings more than two decades of experience working internationally in the nonprofit sector on science, health and research strategy, funding, and policy to enable world-class research and innovation.

Chonnettia has held leadership roles in mission-oriented foundations in Canada, UK/Europe, and the US. As Vice President, Research at Michael Smith Health Research BC, she directed the organization’s research strategy, funding initiatives, and partnerships to maximize British Columbia’s investments in health research. As a member of the executive leadership team at The Wellcome Trust in London, she provided strategic and organizational leadership to evaluate the impact of Wellcome's funding and initiatives in global health research. At the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she managed an international program that developed innovative tools for scientific research.

Chonnettia currently serves on a number of international boards, including open science, scholarly publishing, responsible research assessment, and anti-racism in research. A self-ascribed unapologetic positive disruptor, Chonnettia speaks publicly on issues central to research, including equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Chonnettia holds a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell, and Developmental Biology from Emory University.

Daniela Bourges-Waldegg, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Daniela is a computer scientist and technology leader with over 20 years of experience building software systems. Prior to joining Addgene, Daniela worked in various clinical, healthcare, and biomedical informatics ventures including as Director of Informatics Technology for the Harvard Clinical and Translational Sciences Center of the Harvard Medical School. Daniela holds MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the Université de Rennes, France, and a BS in electrical engineering from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.

Andy Baltus, PhD

Chief Operating Officer

Andy joined Addgene as an Outreach Scientist in 2011 after a post-doc studying cerebral cortex development at Harvard Medical School. He holds a BS in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a PhD in Biology from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additional information is available on Andy's LinkedIn profile.

Melina Fan, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Melina is a co-founder of Addgene. Melina received her PhD in Cell Biology from Harvard University, where she studied diabetes and metabolism. Melina has worked at Genetics Institute in Cambridge, MA and Sequana Therapeutics in San Diego, CA. She earned a BS in Biology from MIT.

Michael Lohnes, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Michael received his BS degree in Accounting from Boston College and his MBA and MA in Economics from Boston University. Prior to Addgene, Michael was the Financial Systems Manager at Partners In Health. Before that, he worked for 10 years in the Financial Services Industry at State Street, with much of his time spent working internationally.

Eric Perkins, PhD

Senior Director of Customer Experience

Eric joined Addgene as a Senior Scientist in 2008 after a post-doc at Harvard University studying DNA replication. He holds BS degrees in Biotechnology and English Literature from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology was completed in the Lineberger Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he studied DNA repair and V(D)J Recombination.

Marcy Patrick, PhD

Director of Production (Lab Operations)

Marcy joined Addgene in 2011 and has previously worked as a Senior Scientist and the Director of QC/QA for the organization. She holds a BA in Biology from Cornell University and a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan, where she studied the Type II Secretion ATPase in V. cholerae.

Tracy Kiernan

Senior Director of Human Resources

Tracy joined Addgene in 2014. She received her BS in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Arizona. After graduating, she discovered a passion for working with people and helping them reach their potential so she started her career in human resources. Tracy brings over 20 years of HR experience previously working in the consulting and legal industries.

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Board of Directors

• Khandan Baradaran, PhD

  Dr. Baradaran was Head of Quality at Dimension Therapeutics, which was acquired by Ultragenyx in 2017. Dr. Baradaran has extensive expertise in the areas of viral safety, gene therapy vector development, vaccine development, and assay technologies, and has held positions of increasing responsibility in regulatory affairs, quality control, and quality at Shire, Biogen, Dyax Corp., and Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. Khandan received her BA degree in molecular biology from Wellesley College and her PhD in virology from Harvard University.

• Joanna Brownstein, MBA, MSW

  Ms. Brownstein is the Principal of Brownstein Consulting specializing in operations and product management for companies in healthcare, technology, and education. She received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously she served as Director of Customer Operations and of Product Management at KYRUUS and was Associate Director of the eagle-i consortium at the Harvard Medical School Center for Biomedical Informatics.

• Julie Cicalese

  Ms. Cicalese served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Harvard Medical School where she brought leadership teams together to advance the mission of the school. She was also a member of the Northeast Human Resources Association, Association of American Medical Colleges and the Society for Human Resource Management and SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP). Julie currently serves on the advisory board for Art in Giving, a 501c3 public charity raising funds for childhood cancer through the sale of art. Past volunteer appointments included the Belmont Human Rights Commission and mediator for the Massachusetts small claims court summary process. Julie is dedicated to volunteerism and ran the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, for the Leukemia Society, the Boston Marathon for the MGH Pediatric Oncology, and the Chicago Marathon to benefit Neurofibromatosis, New England.

• Kenneth Fan, MA

  Mr. Fan is a co-founder of Addgene. Kenneth received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Tufts University and his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, with a focus on international technology management, from the Fletcher School at Tufts. From 2004 to 2015, Kenneth led business efforts at Addgene as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Addgene, Kenneth was an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse’s Technology Group in Palo Alto, CA.

• Karen Katz, JD, M.Ed

  Ms. Katz is the Deputy Director, Office of Behavioral Health, Executive Officer of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Karen graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and obtained her JD from Boston University School of Law, where she was on law review. She clerked for Juan R. Torruella, U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. Karen also is a mental health clinician. She served as in-house counsel at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and was associated with Hale & Dorr and Crowell & Morning.

• Michael Koeris, PhD

  Dr. Koeris co-founded Sample6 and has been its Vice President of Business Development since 2015. He helped invent the Sample6 technology while in Jim Collins' lab at Boston University. Mike previously worked at KPMG Consulting and McKinsey & Company in Germany, as well as Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA. He is a visiting scholar with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boston University as well as at MIT.

• Bart Newland, JD

  Bart is an attorney with extensive and diverse IP and corporate experience. He earned his B.S. degree in Microbiology from UMass Amherst and his JD degree from William and Mary Law School. Bart has been a partner and shareholder in a prominent Washington DC-based law firm, Vice President at Genzyme Corporation, Senior Vice President and Chief IP Counsel at Biogen, and now serves as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Atalanta Therapeutics.

• Carl Paratore, MBA, CPA

  Mr. Paratore serves as the General Auditor at Tufts Health Plan. In that capacity he leads the Internal Audit function and is responsible for bringing a systematic and disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of the Plan's risk management, control, and governance processes. Prior to Tufts Health Plan, Carl worked at both MetLife & Ernst & Young, LLP, auditing insurance, finance and high-tech industries. He has earned both an MBA in finance and a BS in accounting from Babson College. He is a certified public accountant (CPA), certified information systems auditor (CISA), and certified health insurance executive (CHIE). He is a member of both the Internal Institute of Auditors and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. Lastly, Carl also serves on the Board of Advisors and Audit Committee at the Greater Boston Food Bank and participates locally in Read To A Child's "Lunchtime Reading Program" in Cambridge, MA.

• David Root, PhD

  Dr. Root is the Director of the RNA Interference platform and project leader of The RNAi Consortium (TRC) at the Broad Institute. He oversees the development and production of RNAi libraries, the development of RNAi screening methodologies, and the execution of RNAi-based mammalian genetic screens. Dave received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University.

• Frank Stegmeier, PhD

  Dr. Stegmeier is the Chief Scientific Officer at KSQ Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that that has built an industry-leading CRISPRomics platform to discover and develop next generation cancer medicines. Prior to joining KSQ Therapeutics, Frank served as Head of Global Oncology Target Discovery at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR), where he was responsible for developing the early oncology drug discovery portfolio. Frank earned his PhD in biology from MIT and was a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.

• Luk H. Vandenberghe, PhD

  Dr. Vandenberghe is Associate Professor at Mass Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School. He is the Grousbeck Family Chair in Gene Therapy, Director of the Grousbeck Gene Therapy Center, Associate Director of the Ocular Genomics Institute, and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Luk received his training in molecular virology and engineering at the University of Leuven and University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on mechanistic studies, engineering, and translation of AAV gene therapies.

Board of Directors Alumni

Addgene would like to thank the alumni of its Board of Directors for their years of dedicated service.

• David Brook, JD (2007-2015)

• Judy Tsai Chuk, PhD (2007-2015)

• Connie Cepko, PhD (2007-2019)

• Darrell Kotton, PhD (2016-2019)

• Kristin Darby, MBA, CPA, CFE, CHCIO (2013-2019)

• Joanne Kamens, PhD (Executive Director 2011-2021)

• Benjie Chen, PhD (2004-2021)

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Advisory Board

• Craig Alexander, JD

  Mr. Alexander is Vice President and General Counsel of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). He served as HHMI's deputy general counsel starting in 1994 and was promoted to his current position in 2006. Craig joined HHMI as an associate general counsel in 1992 from the Indianapolis law firm of Sommer & Barnard, P.C. Before that, he handled many matters involving HHMI while an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. A magna cum laude graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was editor of the law journal, Craig received a bachelor's degree in accounting from Butler University in Indianapolis.

• Eric Campeau, PhD

  Dr. Campeau obtained his PhD from McGill University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an instructor in the Program in Gene Function and Expression at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is now Head of in vitro Oncology at Resverlogix Corp. One of his research interests is to use lentiviral and RNAi strategies to decipher the roles of histone modifications and their regulation in the control of gene expression and genome stability. Eric is a long time contributor to the Addgene library with dozens of vectors in the most-requested category.

• Constance Cepko, PhD

  Dr. Cepko is a Professor in the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Science. Connie received her PhD degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Phillip Sharp on the assembly of the adenovirus capsid. Dr. Cepko served on the Addgene Board of Directors from 2007 to 2019.

• Alejandro (Alex) Chavez, MD, PhD

  Dr. Chavez is an Assistant Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology at Columbia University. His laboratory is focused on advancing scientific discovery through the creation of innovative technologies. To date his group has develop several popular CRISPR-based tools for altering DNA sequence or regulating gene expression.

• John G. Doench, PhD

  Dr. Doench is the Associate Director of the Genetic Perturbation Platform at the Broad Institute. He develops and applies the latest approaches in functional genomics, including RNAi, ORF, and CRISPR technologies, to understand the function of genes and how gene dysfunction leads to disease. Prior to joining the Broad in 2009, John did his postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, received his PhD from the biology department at MIT, and majored in history at Hamilton College.

• Tom Ellis, PhD

  Dr. Ellis is a lead researcher at the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London and lectures synthetic biology for the Department of Bioengineering. He graduated from Oxford University and then obtained a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Cambridge before spending time in biotech screening direct interactions between drugs and promoters of oncogenes. He returned to academic research in 2005 to investigate synthetic biology at Boston University, working in one of the founding groups of the field under the supervision of Professor Jim Collins and specializing in engineering gene regulation in yeast. Dr. Ellis is now one of the world's leading yeast researchers in the growing field of synthetic biology and is the UK lead of the yeast synthetic genome project. His team also investigates bacteria and extremophiles for biotechnology and have been directly involved in supervising many successful iGEM undergraduate projects.

• Hodaka Fujii, MD, PhD

  Dr. Fujii is a Professor of Biochemistry and Genome Biology in Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine. His laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of genome functions including epigenetic regulation and chromatin biology by using the chromatin capture technologies consisting of insertional chromatin immunoprecipitation (iChIP) and engineered DNA-binding molecule-mediated chromatin immunoprecipitation (enChIP) developed in his lab. The enChIP technology utilizes CRISPR and other systems for locus tagging. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Tokyo and led his research group as a PI at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Assistant Professor at New York University, and Associate Professor at Osaka University.

• Darrell Kotton, MD

  Dr. Kotton is the David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University and Boston Medical Center. His laboratory research is focused on developing new treatments for lung diseases through an improved understanding of lung stem cell biology. Dr. Kotton’s laboratory and Center have pioneered approaches for deriving lung lineages in vitro from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and correcting disease-causing mutations through gene editing these patient-specific cells. His Center champions an Open Source Biology approach to sharing the large, NIH-sponsored national lung disease-specific iPSC repository housed in his Center. In addition to his research and Center Director roles, Dr. Kotton is also an attending physician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, the Pulmonary Consultation Service, the Alpha-1 Center, and the Pulmonary outpatient clinic, all at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Kotton served on the Addgene Board of Directors from 2016 to 2019.

• Ira Mellman, PhD

  Dr. Mellman is Vice President at Genentech and Founder at CGI Pharmaceuticals. He is a cell biologist-immunologist with a long standing interest in membrane traffic and signal transduction. His lab is responsible for key observations resulting in the initial discovery of endosomes, the mechanisms of epithelial cell polarity, and the cellular basis of dendritic cell function in the immune system. Until 2007, Ira was Chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Scientific Director of the Cancer Center at Yale University School of Medicine. Ira has been Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology and a member of the editorial boards of Cell, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, EMBO Journal, and the Annual Reviews.

• Bruce Spiegelman, PhD

  Dr. Spiegelman is a Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Bruce is best known for his studies of the regulation of adipose cells, the development of these cells and their role in diabetes and obesity. He has received numerous honors, and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization.

• Man-Sun Sy, PhD

  Dr. Sy is a Professor of Pathology and of Medical and Neurosciences at Case Western's School of Medicine. He received his BA from the University of Colorado in 1973, continuing on to earn an MA and a PhD in 1979. From 1979 until 1992, he was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, in the Department of Pathology, as an Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor.

• Robert Weinberg, PhD

  Dr. Weinberg is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an internationally recognized authority on the genetic basis of human cancer. Dr. Weinberg and his colleagues isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the ras oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, the retinoblastoma gene. Dr. Weinberg is the author or editor of six books and more than 350 articles. He is an elected Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous awards and honors.

• Siouxsie Wiles, PhD

  Dr. Wiles has made a career of combining her twin passions of bioluminescence (think fireflies) and infectious diseases. Siouxsie studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in microbiology at CEH Oxford and Napier University, Edinburgh. She spent her postdoctoral years at Imperial College London, and currently heads the Bioluminescent Superbugs Group at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Siouxsie is committed to engaging with the public to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of science to society, and recently collaborated with a graphic artist to produce a short animation explaining why fireflies glow, and how she uses their light in her research.

Advisory Board Alumni

Addgene would like to thank the alumni of its Advisory Board for their years of dedicated service.

• Joyce Brinton served on the Addgene advisory board from 2015-2016.