John Thompson

John’s career has spanned pharmaceutical, next-gen sequencing, and genetic testing industries. Joining Claritas Genomics in 2014 as Chief Technology Officer, he has spearheaded novel genetic assays using NGS for diagnosing pediatric diseases and applying DNA sequencing to clinical problems. At Nabsys, he served as Head of Assay Development for three years and advanced the mapping and sequencing of DNAs hundreds of kilobases long using fully solid-state nanodetectors. Before that, he was Senior Director of Genomic Research at Helicos BioSciences for four years, helping to develop the first commercial single-molecule, next-generation sequencing platform and applying it to a range of DNA and RNA sequencing applications. These sequencing endeavors followed 20 years at Pfizer where he applied molecular biology and genetic approaches to identify novel therapeutic targets, to establish the genetic basis of drug response, and to characterize the genetics of drug-induced adverse events.

Prior to joining industry, he was a Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Brown University researching lambda site-specific DNA recombination, DNA bending, and protein-DNA interactions. This followed a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Chemistry, in which RNA and DNA structure and chemistry were studied. His BS in chemistry is from Yale University.