About ATUM
ATUM has been providing tools and solutions to Life Science researchers for over twenty years. Our products, services and most importantly our people enable scientists worldwide to achieve their goals.
ATUM founders from left to right:
Claes Gustafsson, Jeremy Minshull, Sridhar Govindarajan, and Jon Ness.
The Leadership Team
Jeremy Minshull, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Jeremy Minshull has served as President/CEO of ATUM since co-founding the company in 2003. Previously, he was Vice President of Core Technology at Maxygen Inc. Jeremy received his BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, England, and his Ph.D. from Tim Hunt’s lab, also in Cambridge. His post-doctoral work with Andrew Murray at UC San Francisco is what first brought him to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Claes Gustafsson, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
As ATUM’s Co-Founder, Dr. Claes Gustafsson oversees most of the company’s external communications. Prior to co-founding ATUM, Claes led, managed and collaborated with key strategic teams at Maxygen Inc. Before Maxygen, Claes worked as a scientist at Kosan Biosciences, a number of research, teaching, and post-doctoral positions at UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco, and at University of Umeå. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry from the University of Umeå, Sweden.
Sridhar Govindarajan, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
ATUM’s Co-founder and CTO, Dr. Sridhar Govindarajan leads Computational Biology, Protein Engineering and AI at ATUM. Prior to co-founding ATUM, Sridhar held positions at Maxygen and Eragen Biosciences. Sridhar received his PhD in Computational Chemistry/Biophysics from the University of Michigan and holds an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Jon Ness, Ph.D.
Co-Founder
Dr. Jon Ness is a co-founder of ATUM and has coordinated ATUM’s technology development since its inception. Prior to his tenure at ATUM, Jon was one of the first employees at Maxygen Inc., where he led Maxygen’s DNA Shuffling Technology Development Group. Jon received a Ph.D. in Bacterial Genetics and Physiology from UC Davis, and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota. He conducted his post-doctoral research at Affymax, Inc.
Elaina ten Bosch
Chief Operating Officer
Elaina ten Bosch joined ATUM in 2004. As Chief Operating Officer, Elaina is responsible for optimizing production workflows to increase manufacturing efficiency. Elaina collaborates with the laboratory production and software development teams to create and improve automation opportunities and ensure the highest quality product produced. Before her time at ATUM, Elaina worked for Operon Technologies, first as the Oligo Synthesis Manager and later as Gene Synthesis Manager. Elaina has a BS in Biology from St. Mary’s College and a Certificate in Business Administration from the UC Berkeley Extension.
Selena Larkin, Ph.D.
Chief Commercial Officer
Dr. Selena Larkin has more than twenty years of experience establishing and executing successful commercial and corporate strategies for life science tools and services organizations. She has served multinationals including Agilent, Danaher, and Waters, and held executive positions at several early-stage growth companies, helping build corporate value. With a passion for science and a strong network in the biopharmaceutical industry, Selena is keen to help drive the continued profitable growth of ATUM through superior customer acquisition and support.
Tanya Wei, J.D.
Head of Legal
Tanya Wei brings over twenty years of law firm and in-house legal experience specifically supporting the biotechnology industry. She joined ATUM from Exelixis, Inc., where she oversaw and managed its R&D Legal department. She held similar roles at Genentech, Inc. and the University of California, San Francisco, where she focused on transactional matters involving biotechnology. Prior to moving in-house, she worked as a law firm attorney for many years, providing guidance and assistance to various technology companies in the U.S. and worldwide. Her extensive legal experience, which includes intellectual property, business, transactional, litigation, compliance, privacy, and regulatory matters, gives her an extensive background and perspective on the key business and legal issues affecting customer-focused companies in the bioengineering space. Tanya graduated from The Johns Hopkins University where she studied English and Biology. She holds master’s degrees in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Nutrition from Tufts University and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.
Pedram Sattari
Vice President of Sales
As the Vice President of Sales, Pedram Sattari collaborates closely with internal teams to ensure the success of our clients. He firmly believes that ATUM’s value lies in fostering a culture of collaborative problem-solving and innovation, benefiting the broader scientific community. With a receptive ear and a focus on collective goals, he consistently advocates for our commitment to nurturing long-term relationships. Prior to joining ATUM in 2018, Pedram accumulated 12 years of experience in various commercial, technical, and leadership positions at GE Lifesciences (now Cytiva) and SpectrumLabs (now part of Repligen). In his most recent role at SpectrumLabs as Western Regional Manager, he oversaw both technical and commercial aspects of their bioprocess offerings. Pedram earned his BS in Biology from the University of California, Davis.
Frances Steingrimsson
Director, Finance and Culture
Frances Steingrimsson joined ATUM in early 2016. As the leader of ATUM’s financial department, she is responsible for maintaining the fiscal integrity of the company as well as supporting the executive, accounting and operations teams. As curator of the company culture, she supports and grows ATUM’s culture through thoughtful hiring and continuous improvements to the employee experience. Frances received a BS in Accounting from San Jose State University. She has been dedicated to the improvement of corporate financial discipline and culture for nearly 15 years across multiple industries, including Biotech, SaaS, Consulting, and Industrial Manufacturing.
Mark Welch, Ph.D.
VP, Research and Development
Dr. Mark Welch has been with ATUM since 2006. At ATUM, Dr. Welch developed the GeneGPS machine-learning technology for experiment-driven gene expression optimization. He currently oversees gene, protein, vector and strain engineering contracts for customers as well as new technology development. Prior to work at ATUM, Dr. Welch held positions at Applied Biosystems and at Maxygen, Inc. Dr. Welch received his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Jeff Johnson
Senior Scientific Director of Biologics
With more than 30 years of multidisciplinary biotherapeutics research and development experience, Johnson has established himself as a leader in protein expression, CHO cell line development, and protein sciences. Johnson’s previous tenures include three years at Bristol Myers Squibb , where he led the San Diego Department of Biotherapeutics (DBTx-SD) protein sciences team. Previously, he transformed Celgene’s protein expression platform and implemented a best-in-class platform for transposase-mediated stable cell line development. Committed to continuous improvement, Johnson has a proven track record of deploying disruptive technologies and spearheading initiatives that enhance data systems for biotherapeutics. His visionary approach and emphasis on integrating advanced platforms make him a key contributor to ATUM’s evolution of the biotherapeutics landscape.
Ferenc Boldog, Ph.D.
Director Emeritus, Cell Line Development
Dr. Ferenc Boldog joined ATUM in 2016 and has brought his expertise and creativity to the company’s molecular biology, cell biology and protein therapeutics development processes. Prior to ATUM, he was the Head of Cell Line Development at Shire. Throughout his 35-year academic and industrial career, Ferenc’s passion has been science and innovation.
Our History
Founded in 2003 as DNA2.0, ATUM has built on its DNA design and synthesis expertise to develop an integrated pipeline of solutions for the research community.
With a reverence for the interplay between science, technology and nature, ATUM’s unique and proprietary engineering platform is based on Design of Experiment (DoE), empirical testing and machine learning. The result is the precise engineering of commercially relevant properties in genes, vectors, proteins and cell lines.
ATUM emphasizes customer service as a critical measure of success. We aim to be a resource and research partner for scientists, to enable accurate and innovative delivery of specific, immediately useful solutions. Customers value the individual scientist-to-scientist support they receive from ATUM’s technical sales and support staff, as well as the speed, accuracy, and flexibility with which products and services are delivered. ATUM’s freely downloadable software tool Gene Designer and the online DNA ATLAS, give you the DNA sequence manipulation and management tools that we use in-house.
ATUM is based in the US, with a global customer base encompassing academia, government and the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and biotechnology industries. ATUM is by far the most published synthetic biology vendor, providing expert support to and collaboration with scientists. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Newark, California.
Patents
11,566,262 Tetracycline-inducible expression systems. Minshull 11,401,521 Integration of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic cells with a transposase from oryzias. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee
10,815,461 Recombinant uricase enzyme. Deshpande, Grujic, Govindarajan, and Welch
10,344,285 DNA vectors, transposons and transposases for eukaryotic genome modification. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan, Lee, Caves and Ness 10,287,590 Methods for generating libraries with co-varying regions of polynucleotides for genome modification. Minshull, Govindarajan and Patel 10,253,321 Methods, compositions and kits for a one-step DNA cloning system. Minshull and Ness 10,233,454 DNA vectors, transposons and transposases for eukaryotic genome modification. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan, Lee, Caves and Ness 9,771,402 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,580,697 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves 9,574,209 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves
9,493,521 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,428,767 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves 9,388,392 Ketol-acid reductoisomerase enzymes and methods of use. Govindarajan, Li, Liao, O’Keefe, Minshull, Rothman and Tobias 9,290,552 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,206,433 Methods, compositions and kits for a one-step DNA cloning system. Minshull, Ness and Theodorou 9,169,467 Ketol-acid reductoisomerase enzymes and methods of use. Govindarajan, Li, Liao, O’Keefe, Minshull, Rothman and Tobias 9,102,944 Methods, compositions and kits for one-step DNA cloning using DNA topoisomerase. Ness and Minshull 8,975,042 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 8,825,411 Design, synthesis and assembly of synthetic nucleic acids. Govindarajan, Minshull and Ness 8,635,029 Systems and methods for biopolymer engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull 8,412,461 Systems and methods for antibody engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull. 8,401,798 Systems and methods for constructing frequency lookup tables for expression systems. Welch and Gustafsson. 8,323,930 Methods, compositions and kits for one-step DNA cloning using DNA topoisomerase. Ness and Minshull. 8,158,391 Production of an α-carboxyl-ω-hydroxy fatty acid using a genetically modified Candida strain. Gross, Lu, Ness and Minshull. 8,126,653 Synthetic nucleic acids for expression of encoded proteins. Welch and Gustafsson. 8,005,620 Systems and methods for biopolymer engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull. 7,805,252 Systems and methods for designing and ordering polynucleotides. Gustafsson, Govindarajan, Ness, Villalobos and Minshull. 7,561,973 Methods for determining properties that affect an expression property value of polynucleotides in an expression system. Welch and
Gustafsson. 7,561,972 Synthetic nucleic acids for expression of encoded proteins. Welch and Gustafsson.
Founded in 2003 as DNA2.0, ATUM has built on its DNA design and synthesis expertise to develop an integrated pipeline of solutions for the research community.
With a reverence for the interplay between science, technology and nature, ATUM’s unique and proprietary engineering platform is based on Design of Experiment (DoE), empirical testing and machine learning. The result is the precise engineering of commercially relevant properties in genes, vectors, proteins and cell lines.
ATUM emphasizes customer service as a critical measure of success. We aim to be a resource and research partner for scientists, to enable accurate and innovative delivery of specific, immediately useful solutions. Customers value the individual scientist-to-scientist support they receive from ATUM’s technical sales and support staff, as well as the speed, accuracy, and flexibility with which products and services are delivered. ATUM’s freely downloadable software tool Gene Designer and the online DNA ATLAS, give you the DNA sequence manipulation and management tools that we use in-house.
ATUM is based in the US, with a global customer base encompassing academia, government and the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and biotechnology industries. ATUM is by far the most published synthetic biology vendor, providing expert support to and collaboration with scientists. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Newark, California.
11,566,262 Tetracycline-inducible expression systems. Minshull 11,401,521 Integration of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic cells with a transposase from oryzias. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee
10,815,461 Recombinant uricase enzyme. Deshpande, Grujic, Govindarajan, and Welch
10,344,285 DNA vectors, transposons and transposases for eukaryotic genome modification. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan, Lee, Caves and Ness 10,287,590 Methods for generating libraries with co-varying regions of polynucleotides for genome modification. Minshull, Govindarajan and Patel 10,253,321 Methods, compositions and kits for a one-step DNA cloning system. Minshull and Ness 10,233,454 DNA vectors, transposons and transposases for eukaryotic genome modification. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan, Lee, Caves and Ness 9,771,402 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,580,697 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves 9,574,209 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves
9,493,521 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,428,767 Enhanced nucleic acid constructs for eukaryotic gene expression. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan and Caves 9,388,392 Ketol-acid reductoisomerase enzymes and methods of use. Govindarajan, Li, Liao, O’Keefe, Minshull, Rothman and Tobias 9,290,552 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 9,206,433 Methods, compositions and kits for a one-step DNA cloning system. Minshull, Ness and Theodorou 9,169,467 Ketol-acid reductoisomerase enzymes and methods of use. Govindarajan, Li, Liao, O’Keefe, Minshull, Rothman and Tobias 9,102,944 Methods, compositions and kits for one-step DNA cloning using DNA topoisomerase. Ness and Minshull 8,975,042 Fluorescent and colored proteins and methods for using them. Minshull and Theodorou 8,825,411 Design, synthesis and assembly of synthetic nucleic acids. Govindarajan, Minshull and Ness 8,635,029 Systems and methods for biopolymer engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull 8,412,461 Systems and methods for antibody engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull. 8,401,798 Systems and methods for constructing frequency lookup tables for expression systems. Welch and Gustafsson. 8,323,930 Methods, compositions and kits for one-step DNA cloning using DNA topoisomerase. Ness and Minshull. 8,158,391 Production of an α-carboxyl-ω-hydroxy fatty acid using a genetically modified Candida strain. Gross, Lu, Ness and Minshull. 8,126,653 Synthetic nucleic acids for expression of encoded proteins. Welch and Gustafsson. 8,005,620 Systems and methods for biopolymer engineering. Gustafsson, Govindarajan and Minshull. 7,805,252 Systems and methods for designing and ordering polynucleotides. Gustafsson, Govindarajan, Ness, Villalobos and Minshull. 7,561,973 Methods for determining properties that affect an expression property value of polynucleotides in an expression system. Welch and
Gustafsson. 7,561,972 Synthetic nucleic acids for expression of encoded proteins. Welch and Gustafsson.