About Us
PathogenDx is a biotechnology innovator based in Tucson, Arizona. We’ve reinvented DNA-based testing to identify pathogens faster and easier, driving greater safety and business optimization in fields ranging from cannabis to agriculture to dairy farming. With our products and support, growers, regulators and consumers get the vital results needed to save money and lives—with results in as little as six hours—driving us all towards the future of safe.
Executive Team
Milan Patel
Co-Founder and CEO
Mr. Patel leads the strategic vision, financial health and global growth of PathogenDx, a Scottsdale, AZ based company which provides disruptive DNA-based pathogen testing technology and solutions for the cannabis, botanical, food and agricultural industries.
Previously, Mr. Patel spent over 25 years working with large public, small private and entrepreneurial companies in numerous fields from the life sciences, to biotechnology, to government services and the automotive industry. Milan served as COO/CFO of GMSbiotech.
He also was CFO of 2020 Company, LLC, a leading premier professional services firm that delivered business and technology solutions to the government, in the areas of health, education and science.
Mr. Patel also worked at Intel Corporation in Sales & Marketing, Finance and Manufacturing. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, business strategy and planning, infrastructure and organizational development, and controls, compliance and audit.
Previously, Mr. Patel spent over 25 years working with large public, small private and entrepreneurial companies in numerous fields from the life sciences, to biotechnology, to government services and the automotive industry. Milan served as COO/CFO of GMSbiotech. He also was CFO of 2020
Michael Hogan Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Michael Hogan’s expertise is in the area of physical chemistry, biosample processing and genetic testing. He is leading multiple programs in technology development at PDx, with special emphasis on building its proprietary DNA microarray technology into the cannabis, food safety and agricultural markets.
Dr. Hogan has 30 years of experience in translational science, with special emphasis on the application of physical biochemistry to commerce.
Hogan has invented, developed & commercialized multiple technologies for medical devices, therapeutics, in vitro diagnostics, genomic testing and biological sample preservation and has been awarded more than 50 patents and has more than 90 peer reviewed publications in those several areas. His team’s work in the area of biological sample stabilization was awarded a Frost & Sullivan Award in 2014.
Dr. Hogan obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology from Dartmouth in 1973; his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from Yale in 1978; and as a post-doc in 1979, was awarded a Damon Runyon Cancer Fellowship at Stanford, where he worked in the Stanford Magnetic Resonance Laboratory.
In academia, Hogan first served as Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton (1979-1988) and then Professor of Biotechnology & Molecular Physiology at Baylor College of Medicine (1989-2001) where he also served as the Founding Director of the Graduate Program in Biotechnology.
Five companies have been formed from his technology over the past 20 years, all in the area of DNA biotechnology, therapeutics and diagnostics. For each, he served as a Founder and CSO, having worked closely with the equity funding community and directly with multiple academic and commercial partners and customers.
Eric Lachance
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer
Eric Lachance has 25+ years leading programs and companies. Recently, Eric served as COO for Metris LLC, a startup, and as a leadership/contracts consultant for multiple organizations serving both corporations and Federal and Local governments. Eric served in the US Army for 20 years, culminating in managing advanced research and development programs in US Special Operations Command. Eric has extensive experience in organizational structure, contracts, negotiations, business strategy, business development, and supply chain management. Eric has an MBA from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and MS in Structural Engineering and Construction Engineering from Stanford University.
Carl Yamashiro, Ph.D.
VP Product Development
Dr. Yamashiro leads the technical development of assays and provides conceptualization and implementation of a product pipeline for PathogenDx, a Scottsdale, AZ based company which provides disruptive pathogen testing technology and solutions for the cannabis, botanical, food and agricultural industries.
Previously, Dr. Yamashiro spent over 25 years working with large and small public private companies, as well as entrepreneurial companies in biotechnology and biomedical diagnostics fields with a strong emphasis on molecular diagnostics.
This includes PCR-based food and environmental assay development at Applied Biosystems (now Thermo Fisher) and managed systems development for microarray-based diagnostic systems for both Roche Molecular Systems and Motorola.
Dr. Yamashiro is also on the faculty at Arizona State University as part of the Biomedical Diagnostics program within the College of Health Solutions. He has be at ASU for 14 years and has been the Principal Investigator or co-PI for grant/contract funded projects totaling over $70M.
His academic background includes a BS in Biochemistry from UCLA, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Oregon, and an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.
Jeff Ryskamp
Chief Financial Officer
Jeff has held Finance, Operations, and Accounting roles at various companies. A senior executive with more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Ryskamp has worked in the manufacturing, technology, aerospace, and transportation industries with companies including Intel, American Airlines, and The Triumph Group. His responsibilities have ranged from full P&L ownership of a $440M operating unit to head of Finance for a $10M technology startup. Mr. Ryskamp holds degrees in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mary Myers
DIRECTOR OF SALES FOR WESTERN REGION
For over 25 years, Mary Myers has excelled in several sales and marketing positions in multiple industries from biotechnology, clinical, diagnostic, food and agriculture. Most recently, Mary was Western Area Sales Manager for Romer Labs, where her sales were concentrated in food and agricultural safety. Mary was instrumental in Romer Labs’ success in the cannabis market. Prior to Romer Labs, she was also a Business Development Manager for Dynex Technologies, manufacturers of automated clinical diagnostics equipment; and the National Sales Manager and National Sales Trainer for Diamedix Corporation, a subsidiary of Erber Diagnostics serving clinical diagnostics in the areas of Autoimmune and Infectious Disease testing.
Mary began her career in marketing as a U.S. Commercial Product Manager at Behring Diagnostic, a Worldwide Plastics Product Manager at Dynex Technologies and a Sr. Marketing Product Manager at Beckman Coulter. Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from University of Phoenix while also working full time.
Byron Taylor
Director of Sales, South and Southeast Regions
Byron Taylor has over 30 years of experience working in the analytical instrument industry, focusing on industrial, food and agricultural accounts, including placement of various instruments in the cannabis and hemp industries. His experience ranges from service and service management to sales and sales management. Most recently, he was the Regional Sales Manager, Gulf Coast and Eastern Ohio Valley for PerkinElmer covering a wide range of markets and instrumentation. Mr. Taylor has an MBA, and a B.S. in Business Administration, with a minor in Chemistry. He also had the privilege of serving in the U.S. Navy.
Nathan Libbey
DIRECTOR OF SALES FOR CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST REGION
Prior to leading business development at PathogenDx, a pathogen detection startup, Nathan spent 8 years in operations leadership with CERTUS Food Safety and Nestlé USA. Nathan has a Master’s in Regulatory Affairs of Food from Northeastern University and is currently in the University of Minnesota Integrated Food Systems Leadership Program. Nathan has presented research at multiple conferences on topics ranging from Pathogen Environmental Monitoring to Traceability. In his free time, Nathan is a school board member for a 2500 student Blue Ribbon district in the metro Chicago area.
Benjamin A Katchman, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist Government Relations
Dr. Katchman leads the research and development of sample preparation and assay development at PathogenDx, a Scottsdale, AZ based company which provides disruptive DNA-based pathogen testing technology and solutions for the cannabis, botanical, food and agricultural industries.
Previously, Dr. Katchman spent 20 years working with various universities and small companies developing novel nucleic acid and proteomic approaches for biomarker discovery and molecular diagnostics.
This includes the development of plate-based and microarray-based diagnostic systems for use in clinical laboratories and point-of-care diagnostics for Arizona State University, FlexBioTech, Inc., and Eccrine Systems, Inc.
Prior to joining PathogenDx, Dr. Katchman was a Principle Investigator at Eccrine Systems, Inc. where he led all clinical research, regulatory pathway implementation, assay development, and biomarker studies. He was the co-founder of FlexBioTech, Inc., where he led the development of novel OLED-based molecular diagnostic assay platforms.
Dr. Katchman received a B.S. in Microbiology, from Indiana University in 2005, then carried out graduate research with Prof. Douglas F Lake at Arizona State University where he was the first to identify QSOX1 as a proto-oncogene and novel tumor biomarker resulting in over $2M in funding and multiple patents. He performed his postdoctoral research with Prof. Karen S Anderson and Prof. Joshua LaBaer where he designed novel high-density protein microarrays and novel clinical and point of care diagnostics utilizing flexible OLED based electronics resulting in over $15M in funding, multiple patents and high-impact publications.
