Leadership
Shawn MacDonald brings over 25 years of experience in corporate finance. His background includes experience at companies in the Fortune 100, mid & small-cap companies as well as experience in startup companies. He brings a wealth of knowledge about industry best practices and processes to Araceli Biosciences. Much of his career has been in the semiconductor capital equipment industry in roles as finance director, investor relations and strategic finance. Previously, Mr. MacDonald was Senior Director of Finance at MKS Instruments. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Oregon. Mr. MacDonald is a native Oregonian who can be found spending time with his family and exploring the outdoors.
Dan earned his PhD in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine where he investigated transcription factors involved in skin development, disease, and oncology. With a distinguished career spanning nearly three decades, Dan brings a wealth of experience and expertise in collaborative drug discovery and development, particularly in the realms of commercial sales, marketing, and the scientific intricacies of drug discovery, which aligns with Araceli’s mission to accelerate discovery through innovation.
Don has over 20 years of experience in life science product development and marketing. His multifaceted background spans fields such as genome editing, live cell RNA detection, flow cytometry, and live cell imaging. Don’s focus has always centered around cell analysis and helping pharmaceutical and Biotech groups find insights faster through novel approaches, effectively removing bottlenecks in the discovery process. Beyond his professional endeavors, he cherishes family time with his wife and two daughters, culinary exploration, and leisurely walks with his faithful corgi, Watson.
Mr. Igl joined Phoseon in 2007, bringing over 20 years of experience in both established as well as start-up company environments with expertise in mechanical design. Mr. Igl has been awarded 14 patents covering fiber optic communications and high power lasers. Prior to joining Phoseon, Mr. Igl managed a multi-disciplinary, high-power laser diode product development team for nLight Corp. Previously, Mr. Igl worked for 3M Corporation where he managed fiber optic technology projects. Mr. Igl holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
Jonathan Day, with over 25 years of diverse executive commercial leadership experience in life sciences, previously made significant contributions at Fluidigm Corporation, Agena Bioscience, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, leading regional commercial teams impacting genomics, spatial biology, and clinical genetic testing sectors.
In his most recent role as the US General Manager at Nanolive Inc, he showcased his ability to enhance business operations and penetrate the cell imaging marketplace with AI-driven live-cell imaging solutions for pre-clinical drug discovery research in BioPharma and key academic centers.
Jonathan holds a Biology degree from San Diego State University and resides in Newburyport, MA, with his partner and 2 chocolate labradors.
In his personal time, he enjoys boating trips, tennis, Orange Theory Fitness, and evolving into a dangerous oenophile.
Sales
Martin earned his PhD in neuroscience from Heidelberg University focusing on imaging 2D and 3D neuronal cell cultures. After his PostDoc time he continued to apply his microscopy and experiment design expertise in the imaging and analysis capital equipment industry. Now, with 7 years of industry experience he supports customers across EMEAI and the in-house team at Araceli Bioscience as Field Application Scientist/Engineer. In his spare time he applies his scientific knowledge and Judo / HEMA molded determination to renovating an old house on a trajectory for zero emissions to make it a better place for his twin boys.
Fascinated by nature since very early days Michael studied Biology and Molecular Genetics with a focus on protein-DNA interactions but realized that his real talent lies in supporting other scientist to increase their success. Being in sales for more than 25 years since then he works with all kinds of researchers and sales teams to enable scientific organizations to focus on what they can do best: interpreting results to advance basic or clinical research and pharmaceutical progress. In his spare time Michael is dedicated to his family and enjoys tennis or golf.
Amanda Clement is an experienced research scientist and field applications scientist. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, developing 3D in vitro culture models to study the impact of microtopography on cellular function. She also holds a BS in Engineering from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering where she was part of the inaugural graduating class and learned how to build something new while developing her technical skills. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys running, spending time with family and friends and curling up with a good book and the family rescue cats.
Adam has a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois where he built laser spectrometers to perform precision high-resolution spectroscopy on plasmas. Prior to joining Araceli his interest in lasers and all things optics took him into the world of selling and servicing femtosecond fiber lasers. Since then he has been working in the life sciences field; where he first gained experience in servicing microscopes used to make optically-based mass measurements of single protein molecules. Nowadays with Araceli he enjoys broadening his knowledge of high-throughput optical microscopy while also learning about the fascinating field of high content analysis.
Marketing and Product Realization
With over a decade of seasoned expertise in the field of Life Sciences, Nasiema brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. Her career showcases a diverse background, spanning the entire product development life cycle. Nasiema's proficiency ranges from designing robust clinical trials to spearheading innovative product development, and she has played a pivotal role in advancing the fields of drug development, diagnostics, and drug discovery. Outside of her professional pursuits, Nasiema is an avid enthusiast of running, hiking and dragon boating.
With over 20 years’ experience in software product management and product marketing, Dan has worked with talented product teams to bring a range of emerging technologies to market. From developing and launching digital cameras during his time at Polaroid, to licensing video codecs and imaging and media streaming SDKs at Intel, his career fascination has been on imaging applications and technologies.
In his Product Management role at Digimarc, he led their development teams as they delivered products that realized the promise of digital watermarks, launching mobile scanning apps and SDKs, SaaS apps and APIs, and plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
When he’s not at work, you can find Dan cooking dinners for his family and friends, picking his guitar or hiking the trails of the Pacific Northwest.
With a passion for scientific research and communication, Cristina is enthusiastic about shaping messages that resonate with everyday scientists. With a proven record of driving campaigns to raise awareness of the urgently needed solutions in drug discovery, she loves bringing concepts from the benchtop to the corporate lobby. She has a BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and is pursuing an MSc in Business and Management. When she is not in the office, you can find her running, on the beach, or visiting new coffee shops.
Punctuated by a ceaseless curiosity for how things work, Jasmine Silver fits in wholeheartedly as the Senior Graphic Designer at Araceli Biosciences. With over 10 years of experience translating complex, technical products into clear, visual communication, Jasmine brings brands to life in the real world. Jasmine's breadth of skills include a specialty for taking projects full circle: from napkin sketch to finished piece, plus all the details in-between.
Scientific Applications
Theresa holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California focused on site-specific recombination. Her postdoc at Children’s Hosp in LA focused on oncogenes. She has since worked both as a consultant and in industry. Theresa has over thirty patents from her work in nucleotide design, drug development and delivery, spectral analysis, UV decontamination, and imaging. She is currently an Applications Scientist at Araceli biosciences. In her copious spare time Theresa gardens, writes, and practices Nijuitsu.
As an Application Scientist, Matt leverages extensive microscopy experience, ranging from quantifying gene expression on hundreds of slides to live imaging brain activity in an awake mouse, to bring Endeavor to life with imaging, analysis, and new assays. With a PhD in neuroscience from UC San Diego and postdoctoral training at Oregon Health and Science University, he helped elucidate how a particular cell type in the brain changes with age and modeled the effects of a family of immune proteins in aging glial cells. When not analyzing and acquiring data, Matt can be found outdoors, running across ridgeways and snowfields, floating through canyons and estuaries, or maybe just relaxing in a hammock with a good book.
Josh is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville. Over two decades, Josh has delved deep into the intricacies of Biological Research, in both Academic and Pharmaceutical environments. Among the milestones in his career, developing a high-throughput gene deletion method in A. fumigatus stands out as a testament to his innovative spirit.
Currently, Josh expertly manages the Araceli laboratory, with a primary focus on producing cell-based assays for High Content Analysis. Josh holds a firm belief in the collaborative spirit, valuing shared knowledge and teamwork. Looking ahead, he is keen on expanding the laboratory's capabilities, particularly in highlighting product functionality.
Currently, Josh expertly manages the Araceli laboratory, with a primary focus on producing cell-based assays for High Content Analysis. Josh holds a firm belief in the collaborative spirit, valuing shared knowledge and teamwork. Looking ahead, he is keen on expanding the laboratory's capabilities, particularly in highlighting product functionality.
Away from the microscope and petri dishes, Josh's passions lie in the culinary arts, gardening, the fascinating world of 3D printing, and the serene landscapes of the Oregon coast.
AI and Data Science
Kevin Ferguson brings decades of experience in innovative high tech development. Much of his career has been in the biotech, professional video and audio, AR/VR/holographic display and telecom industries. Some technical highlights include 44 issued patents with several more pending, designing one of the first commercially available polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification devices, a Technical Emmy Award winning video quality assessment device utilizing a human vision perception model with unprecedented accuracy in predicting subjective ratings, and several other industry awards for product innovation. He holds engineering degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology and Oregon Health Science University. He also enjoys foraging wild plants for phytochemistry formulated nutritarian meals and medicine, and creating music: 18 albums for debone.com and live performances including as the music director for Portland Oregon's Playback Theater.
Dr. Ternes is a Data Scientist of Computer Vision with extensive experience in multi-plex single cell and tissue image analysis. He earned his PhD from Oregon Health and Science University where he developed novel deep learning methods and architectures for extracting biological information from complex cancer imaging data. He has also done considerable amounts of work developing analysis methods for state-of-the-art retinal imaging devices and blood-borne pathogen testing chips. In his free time, he enjoys cosplaying, long distance backpacking, and writing novels.
Timm Derrickson is a data scientist with experience creating models in several fields from CPG replenishment to STR investment. At Araceli, he is focusing on the pragmatic application of neural networks and resource handling to our projects.
With over 10 years of technical and commercial experience in the life sciences industry, Will has developed a unique set of skills and perspectives that drives true innovation when developing products. He strives to fully understand customer needs and he has a passion for finding creative solutions that address core challenges and enable better research outcomes.
Prior to joining industry, Will spent 5 years at a research institute helping researchers adopt advanced techniques in light microscopy and leverage these technologies at scale through automation. He now focuses primarily on aspects of quantitative image analysis and software development with the goal of ensuring all researchers in drug discovery have access to the most powerful advancements in computer vision and machine learning.
Outside of work he also gravitates to things that are intellectually stimulating and challenging. Between salmon fishing, coaching kids sports, and home construction projects he always has access to new problems and enjoys tackling them as a way to continually discover new things and learn about the world.
Prior to joining industry, Will spent 5 years at a research institute helping researchers adopt advanced techniques in light microscopy and leverage these technologies at scale through automation. He now focuses primarily on aspects of quantitative image analysis and software development with the goal of ensuring all researchers in drug discovery have access to the most powerful advancements in computer vision and machine learning.
Outside of work he also gravitates to things that are intellectually stimulating and challenging. Between salmon fishing, coaching kids sports, and home construction projects he always has access to new problems and enjoys tackling them as a way to continually discover new things and learn about the world.
Engineering
Tyler Wilson is a Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer for Araceli Biosciences. Tyler specializes in development and product design of optical systems. His work has focused on creating innovative hardware solutions for biological imaging instruments.
After finishing his post-doc work in digital signal processing, numerical EM field modeling for wave propagation phenomena, Dr. Ja has been working on optical sensing based on imaging and non-imaging technology, and develop sensing algorithm and machine vision technology to enhance sensing performance from the visible to long-wave infrared wavelengths over two decades via funding from NSF, NIST, and US military. Since joining Phoseon Life Science in 2017, he has been working on LED and laser-based illumination optics from deep-UV to visible wavelengths for the microscopy applications. In addition to the optics design, Dr. Ja is also interested in computational photography for innovated imaging technologies, imaging processing algorithm for enhanced performance, and computer vision programming to facilitate the automation of imaging applications.
Joey Chakraborty is a product designer with over a decade of experience leading the design of elegant and meaningful solutions for complex and ambiguous problems. She is passionate about crafting user experiences for scientists and researchers that allow them to accelerate their discoveries. Joey holds a Master of Applied Science degree in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Toronto and Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. In her spare time, Joey enjoys making art, snowboarding, playing video games, and solving escape rooms.
Ron's engineering background spans over 30 years of new product development in precision electro-mechanical and opto-mechanical design. He brings his semiconductor equipment and consumer electronics background into the world of biological imaging. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Administration
Tori has over 3 years of experience working in human resources & accounting, specifically within the biotech industry. She has a passion for supporting company growth while being submersed in a scientific culture. From supporting staff members & finding creative solutions to assisting in financial processes, Tori is a great resource within Araceli. She has an AS in Psychology from Central Oregon Community College & Oregon State University. When she is away from the office, she is spending time with her family & dog or traveling.