| Dietrich Stephan | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 25, 1969 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Human Geneticist |
| Known for | Co-founder of Navigenics, Amnestix, and Aueon; Founder of Ignite Institute for Individualized Health |
Dr. Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D. (born August 25, 1969) is an American human geneticist and co-founder of Navigenics,[1] a personal genetics company. He is also the President and CEO of the Ignite Institute for Individualized Health.
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Dietrich Stephan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in Biology/Biochemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Human Molecular Genetics in 1996 from the University of Pittsburgh. Stephan completed a fellowship in 1999 at the National Human Genome Research Institute.[2]
Stephan’s career spans research and academia to entrepreneurship. He has held faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, the National Human Genome Research Institute of the NIH and the Children’s National Medical Center.
During his time at the NIH, Stephan researched and published extensive information on the genetic components of common cancers such as prostate cancer and breast cancer.[2]
In 2003, Stephan was an early recruit to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona as a Senior Investigator and founding Chairman of the Department of Neurogenomics. He later served as the Deputy Director of Discovery Research at TGen, where he oversaw the research program. During his time at TGen, Stephan and his colleagues were some of the first to use the Affymetrix gene chip platform to identify genetic links for a number of neurological disorders including autism, ALS, Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and Alzheimer’s disease.[3]
Stephan has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the primary literature and he served as the Chairman of the NIH Neuroscience Microarray Consortium for seven years. He sits on the Board of Directors of Sage BioNetworks as well as the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
Stephan began his career as an entrepreneur in November 2006 when he co-founded Navigenics with noted oncologist Dr. David Agus. Navigenics is a personal genetic testing company that offers genetic scans and analysis to individuals to help them determine their individual risk for a variety of common health conditions. Navigenics’ extensive genetic counseling program focuses on the potential health benefits that can be gained from being aware of personal genetic information.[4]
In January 2007, Stephan founded Amnestix with Dr. Matthew Huentelman. Amnestix is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as age-related memory impairment, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amnestix was acquired by SYGNIS in June, 2009.[5]
Stephan has recently co-founded Aueon, Inc. with Vern Norviel which is a biopharmaceutical company focused on providing early cancer diagnostic tests to appropriately select the most effective chemotherapeutic agents to maximize long-term survival. The company is based in Menlo Park, CA.[6]
Most recently, Stephan has founded a large personalized medicine institute in the National Capital region that has the goal of reducing preventable suffering from common human diseases such as cancers, cardiac disease, pediatric diseases such as autism, metabolic diseases such as diabetes and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. The institute is meant to be the tactical solution to effect true health care reform by changing the medical paradigm from reactive and generalized to proactive and personalized. The institute’s goal is also to be a commercialization engine for the region.[7]