Leadership Team
James S. Burns - President & CEO
Jim Burns has over 30 years of executive experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic fields. He has served in leadership roles ranging from commercialization, financial, business development, and general management within businesses ranging from early-stage companies to large multinational corporations, venture capital, and private equity. Prior to joining AssureRx Health, Jim served as President and CEO of EntreMed, a public clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing drugs for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases; as President, EVP and a founder of MedPointe Pharmaceuticals, a specialty branded pharmaceutical company; a founder and Managing Director of MedPointe Capital, a private equity firm; President, CEO and a founder of Osiris Therapeutics, a public biotech company specializing in stem cell therapy for the treatment of damaged or diseased tissues; a founding General Partner of HealthCare Ventures LP, a venture capital partnership specializing in forming new pharmaceutical and biotech companies; Group President at Becton Dickinson, a global diagnostic and medical device company; and Partner at Booz & Company, a global strategy and technology consultant.
Donald R. Wright - Executive Vice President & COO
Don Wright brings more than 20 years of information technology, product development, and operations experience to AssureRx Health. Don has served as vice president of global product development at Attachmate Corporation, leading a 450 person worldwide product development organization serving over 65,000 customers, with accounts in nearly all the Global 10,000 enterprises. Don has also served as vice president and CTO for Spotlight Solutions, a leading provider of retail pricing and revenue optimization products, which after merging with ProfitLogic was sold to Oracle. Don also served as vice president and CIO for Domin-8 Enterprise Solutions, overseeing web-based product offerings, helping grow the company to over six million units under management. Most recently, Don was co-founder and CTO of SaaS Capital, a specialty finance company serving the SaaS enterprise software application market.
John A. Bellano - Senior Vice President, Sales & Commercial Programs
John Bellano leads the AssureRx Health sales efforts to increase adoption of GeneSightRx, launch new products into the market, and lead the company's efforts with strategic partners. Bellano brings 20 years of experience to AssureRx, most recently as senior vice president of commercial operations for GenMark diagnostics, a molecular diagnostics company, and as vice president of sales for Hologic Inc., a developer and manufacturer of women's health care products and systems. Prior to Hologic, Bellano served as vice president of sales for Third Wave Technologies, a provider of DNA and RNA products for the clinical and research markets, where he played a key role in building market adoption that led to Third Wave's acquisition by Hologic. Prior to Third Wave, John held various sales leadership positions with Roche Diagnostics, Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Abbott Laboratories and Forest Laboratories.
C. Anthony Altar, Ph.D. - Chief Science Officer
Anthony Altar serves as the Chief Science Officer for AssureRx Health, Inc. Dr. Altar received his Ph.D. degree with honors in psychology from UC Santa Barbara. While a post-doctoral scientist and instructor at UC Irvine, he pioneered image analysis of receptor-drug binding in brain, including receptors labeled by antipsychotic drugs. As team leader at Ciba-Geigy, he identified the serotonin/dopamine receptor binding profile of atypical antipsychotics, known as the SDA concept. His research at Genentech and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals supported clinical trials for brain-derived neurotrophic factors including BDNF in diabetic neuropathy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His teams were first to discover BDNF effects on neuronal sprouting, metabolism, and behavior, including efficacy in depression models. As global director for neuroscience at Otsuka, he managed the USA and Japan neuroscience teams which, with Bristol Myers Squibb, resulted in FDA approval for Abilify. As CSO and president of Psychiatric Genomics, Inc., his teams discovered gene expression signatures of schizophrenia and validated drug targets for its control. Dr. Altar established the initial operation of The Biomarkers Consortium within the Foundation for NIH, and developed relationships with PhRMA, BIO, the NIH, FDA, and patient advocacy organizations. Most recently, in collaboration with Alere, Inc. and the Blanchette Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, he established the Alzheimer's Diagnostic Laboratory whose members developed diagnostic assays for the AD form of dementia, and initiated multi-site clinical trials to broaden their application. Dr. Altar has published 125 neuroscience and drug discovery articles in journals including Science and Nature. He has consulted for pharmaceutical, biotech, government, and private practice in psychiatry and neurodegenerative disease drug discovery.
Gerry Higgins, PhD - Vice President, Pharmacogenomic Science
Gerry Higgins serves as Vice President, Pharmacogenomic Science for AssureRx Health, Inc. Dr. Higgins received doctorates in neuroscience and anatomy from the University of Vermont, demonstrating that amygdaloid serotonergic pathways mediate autonomic components of conditioned fear and anxiety. While a postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at the Scripps Research Institute, he worked on the first cloning, characterization and mapping of several brain genes, including the amyloid precursor protein, myelin-associated glycoprotein, and SNAP-25. He collaborated with researchers at UCSD to demonstrate the ability of NGF to induce neuronal plasticity in the cholinergic basal forebrain that reversed cognitive deficits in an animal model of spatial memory impairment. While serving as a professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, he received the Mallinckrodt Scholar Award for Excellence in Science for his research on mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. Dr. Higgins has also served as Chief of Molecular Neurobiology at the NIH, Vice President of Hoffmann - LaRoche, Vice President of Laerdal Medical Corporation, and Chief Innovation Officer for the MedStar hospital network. Dr. Higgins was a co-founder of SimQuest LLC, which developed simulation products for training physicians and an innovative biomarker database product. Dr. Higgins has also received graduate degrees in business administration and bioinformatics. Most recently, he contributed as an author to the NIH Roadmap on Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology, worked for GenomeQuest, Inc. on whole genome analysis for healthcare applications, and served as an adjunct professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Higgins is the recipient of over $65 M in grants and contracts from the NIH, NSF, FDA, DARPA, DDR&E, OSD, TATRC, ONR and several private foundations. He has published over 300 research articles and monographs.
Karen E. Schellin - Vice President, Finance
Karen serves as Vice President, Finance at AssureRx Health, Inc. She is responsible for all finance, accounting, financial operations and human resource activities. Prior to joining AssureRx Health, Inc., Karen was the Associate Vice President of Operations for EyeMed Vision Care, a managed vision care company and division of Luxottica Retail. She was a member of the senior leadership team responsible for setting strategic direction and leadership of all healthcare operations including enrollment, claims operations, billing, payment processing, provider operations, customer care and systems planning. Prior to that, Karen was Associate Vice President, Finance for EyeMed Vision Care. She was a member of the senior leadership team, responsible for setting strategic direction and responsible for all accounting, finance and financial operations activities, including enrollment, claims operations, billing, payment processing and systems planning. Karen holds a Bachelor's of Science, Business Administration and is a non-practicing CPA.
Robert L. McDaniel - Vice President, Payer Market & Reimbursement
Bob McDaniel leads the AssureRx Health partnerships across all payer markets and reimbursement models including commercial, managed care and government segments. Bob brings over 20 years of experience to AssureRx Health with most recent experience in National Accounts with Roche Diagnostics, a diabetes medical device company and Vice President of WellCare Health Plans, a Medicare and Medicaid managed care organization. Bob has an extensive background in contracting, reimbursement, medical management programs and government relations within health plans, government payers, medical device diagnostic companies and pharmacy benefit administrators. Bob's in-depth knowledge of healthcare reform, strategic market pricing and medical cost containment initiatives will position AssureRx Health and the GeneSightRx technology solution in the future to enhance the overall health and quality of life for people for years to come. Bob will be responsible for expanding the payer markets, reimbursement pricing arrangements and health plan medical management program partnerships. Prior to Roche Diagnostics and WellCare Health Plans, Bob has had leadership roles in leading start up efforts and sales teams with Anthem BCBS, EDS Corporation and PacifiCare Health Systems.
Alex Burgess - Vice President, Marketing
Alex serves as the Vice President of Marketing at AssureRx Health, Inc. He is responsible for all corporate marketing activities including brand management, communications, advertising, demand generation, product marketing, design and intelligence. Prior to joining AssureRx Health, Alex was the Director of Corporate Marketing at MedAssurant, Inc., a leading healthcare data analytics company in Bowie, MD. He was responsible for establishing the company's first strategic integrated marketing programs incorporating social media into the lead generation mix resulting in tens of millions of dollars in new revenue. Prior to MedAssurant, Alex was the Vice President of Marketing at DocSite, LLC, a disease registry and connectivity company in Raleigh, NC. He was responsible all corporate marketing activities and launched an industry-leading online service focused on quality reporting and making it easy for providers to participate in CMS' Physician Quality Reporting Initiative bonus program. Prior to that, Alex was a Regional Vice President of Sales for ELM Exchange, Inc., a leading provider of online clinicolegal education services to physicians and malpractice insurance companies. Alex holds a Bachelor's of Art from the Military College of South Carolina, The Citadel.
Joel G. Winner, MD - Medical Director
Joel Winner is a researcher in the field of psycho-pharmacogenetics and a practicing clinical psychiatrist. Prior to joining AssureRx, Dr. Winner was part of the "Gene Team" at Mayo Clinic where he was a clinical and research fellow and conducted clinical trials with the AssureRx product, GeneSightRx. Joel received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and completed a general psychiatry residency at the University of Hawaii. He scored in the top 3% of psychiatry residents on the Psychiatric Resident In-Training Exam (PRITE). Dr. Winner's focus in both his research and clinical work has been in pharmacogenetics.
Nina King, MD, PhD, NYDOH Certified - Laboratory Director
Nina King is an expert in DNA identity and biological relationship testing. She has advanced technical expertise and extensive laboratory research experience in molecular biology, drug metabolism, and regulatory compliance. Nina has authored multiple biotech patents and scientific publications. She has worked at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Russia, and at the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research, where she studied drug-metabolizing enzymes. Most recently, she worked at Genetica DNA Laboratories as Assistant Laboratory Director, where she directed DNA testing and participated in obtaining multiple laboratory accreditations. Dr. King received a medical degree with specialization in Clinical Biochemistry from Tomsk Medical Institute in Russia and a PH.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Arkansas. She holds a Certificate of Qualification as a Technical Supervisor in Molecular Diagnostics from the American Board of Bioanalysis and a Certificate of Qualification as a Clinical Chemist from National Registry of Certified Chemists. She is also a holder of a Certificate of Qualification from the New York State Department of Health in Forensic Identity and Parentage/Identity Testing.