Donavan Cheng

Donavan Cheng has over a decade of experience in the field of bioinformatics and genomics. Donavan began their career at Roche Pharmaceuticals in 2009, where they worked as a Senior Scientist supporting projects in respiratory, autoimmune, and virology disease indications. Donavan utilized machine learning and classification methods to identify biomarkers for patient stratification and pharmacodynamic assessment. In 2012, they joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as an Assistant Attending Bioinformatician, leading efforts to clinically validate and obtain CLIA approval for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) based molecular diagnostic assays. Donavan also developed bioinformatics analysis and data management pipelines for NGS assays run in the clinic. At Roche Pharmaceuticals, they coordinated and managed analysis efforts for microarray gene expression profiling in preclinical disease models in mice and non-human primates. In 2015, they joined Illumina as the Director of Oncology Bioinformatics and Data Sciences, overseeing the development of NGS molecular diagnostic assays and leading a clinical bioinformatics group. In 2018, they transitioned to the role of Director of Product Management, responsible for Illumina's germline product portfolio and informatics partnership strategies. Most recently, Donavan has been working at Guardant Health as the Senior Director of Bioinformatics. Currently, they serve as the VP of Analytics - Omics at REALM IDx, Inc.

Donavan Cheng has a education history that includes a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Engineering Science/Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. This degree was earned during the years 2000 to 2004. After completing their undergraduate studies, they pursued a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 2004 to 2009.