- Appointment of leading technology innovator supports continued commercial development and R&D expansion
- Previously Senior Executive at Illumina, Co-Founder and former CEO of Helixis and Luxtera
Cambridge, UK, 10th September 2024: Sphere Fluidics, a leading provider of innovative microfluidics-based solutions for single-cell analysis and isolation, announces the appointment of Dr. Alex Dickinson to its Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director (NED).
Alex is a seasoned executive bringing substantial experience from the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and information technology to Sphere Fluidics’ leadership team. He joins the Board as part of a series of significant senior appointments to drive forward the Company’s global commercial expansion strategy, leveraging Alex’s extensive entrepreneurial and technical expertise to augment increased R&D efforts in areas of cutting-edge technological advancement.
Dale Levitzke, CEO, Sphere Fluidics, commented: “It is exciting to be working with Alex again. His caliber within the industry and extensive connections are exceptional, not only bringing deep insights on life science tools in the growing cell and gene therapy space, but also how we can leverage new advances in AI to enhance our offerings. Alex’s proven success in steering companies with cutting-edge technology platforms will be invaluable to the Company’s continued growth, particularly as we focus on expansion in the US.”
From 2010 to 2017, Alex was Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Illumina, during which time revenues increased from £1 billion to £3 billion. In this position, he founded and led development of the cloud-based BaseSpace platform, which remains the Company’s core bioinformatics offering, and ran its global population sequencing healthcare programs. Alex joined Illumina through the acquisition of Helixis, which he co-founded with Nobel laureate David Baltimore and led as CEO. He was also the Founder and CEO of Luxtera, a leading supercomputer chip company acquired by Cisco Systems in 2019.
In addition to his new role at Sphere Fluidics, Alex is currently a Board Member of Gencove, pioneers of low-pass whole genome sequencing imputation and analysis, Co-Founder and Board Member of ChromaCode, innovators in genomics multiplexing technology, and Co-Founder and Chairman of Ryght.ai, healthcare technology developers leveraging generative AI and optimizing large language models (LLMs) to maximize productivity in biopharma discovery and clinical trials. Previously, he was a Board Member at NASDAQ-listed Clinical Research Organization, PRA Health Sciences, until its acquisition by ICON plc in 2021.
Dr. Alex Dickinson, Non-Executive Board Director, Sphere Fluidics, said: “What really excites me about joining Sphere Fluidics is the talent across the team and the capabilities of its microfluidic technology, with many cutting-edge developments already in the pipeline. Having worked closely with Dale at Illumina and Helixis, I am looking forward to joining him again to drive success at this pivotal stage in the Company’s development.”
He added: “There is a wealth of opportunities being created around the combination of life science technologies and emerging AI and machine-learning tools, such as LLMs. As one aspect of my new role, I am keen to explore how we can leverage these pioneering techniques alongside the platforms’ proven capabilities in data generation and analysis, opening new avenues for innovation and product development that are transformative for customers’ workflows.”
