Multi-omics Startup Pleno Inc. Continues to Strengthen its Board of Directors

Mark Gardner, long-time Thermo Fisher veteran and Senior Vice President of Molecular Genomics and Oncology at Quest Diagnostics, has joined Pleno’s Board

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#biotech--Pleno Inc., a multi-omic instrument platform company revolutionizing biological target detection for clinical testing and biomedical research, announced that Mark Gardner has joined its Board of Directors. Gardner joins Chairman, Gregory T. Lucier, Kim Kamdar, Andrew ElBardissi, Vik Barjaj, and Pieter van Rooyen, Pleno’s CEO. In October, Pleno announced a $40 million Series A funding round, led by Deerfield Management with participation by Foresite Capital.

Gardner brings more than 30 years of senior management experience to Pleno. He is a proven business leader, with successful endeavors in globally renowned early stage and well-established businesses. He is currently Senior Vice President of Molecular Genomics and Oncology at Quest Diagnostics, where he is responsible for driving growth for Quest’s Advanced Diagnostics offerings by providing genetic sequencing services and cancer diagnostics, working closely with all clinical franchises. Previously, Gardner served as Senior Vice President at Corza Health and as the Chief Executive Officer of OmniSeq. Prior to that, he spent more than 12 years in various executive roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific (previously Life Technologies), including the Vice President and General Manager of the Ion Torrent business unit.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have someone of Mark’s caliber and experience join our Board at Pleno,” said Pieter van Rooyen, Founder and CEO of Pleno. “His deep industry understanding, combined with his ability to translate strategy into exceptional execution, will bring immense value to us as we continue to push the boundaries of what can be done with biological target detection.”

Pleno’s Hypercoding^TM technology enables a wide array of multi-omic, known-content applications, such as early cancer screening, non-invasive prenatal testing, newborn screening, large-scale infectious disease panels, proteomics, agrigenomics and more, to be democratized and scaled at a rate required to support a global population approaching 8 billion. Developers of these applications can utilize Pleno’s technology to rapidly deploy low-cost, high throughput and multiplexed assays at a scale, which was previously unachievable. RAPTOR^TM, Pleno’s Hypercoding instrument platform, will be available for early customer access in 2023, with commercial availability in 2024.

“Pleno’s potential to directly address the significant unmet need in the proliferating multi-omics space is truly impressive,” said Mark Gardner, member of Pleno’s Board of Directors. “I look forward to supporting this all-star team in executing on their vision, as well as guiding the future direction and growth of the company.”

Pleno is based in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa innovation hub proximate to a robust talent pool of experienced scientists, telecommunication engineers, and biotechnology innovators. The company currently employs 28 full-time employees and plans to continue to grow its team rapidly in the coming months.

About Pleno Inc.

Pleno Inc. is a multi-omic instrument platform company democratizing biological target detection for clinical testing and biomedical research. The company’s proprietary Hypercoding™ technology leverages signal processing techniques from the telecommunications industry to deliver targeted biological information at unprecedented scale, precision, and performance. For more information, visit www.plenoinc.com.

Rachel Ford Hutman
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Rachel@fordhutmanmedia.com