Park News
10 August 2006
SOLEXA APPOINTS FRANK OAKS VICE PRESIDENT, DNA SEQUENCING SERVICES
HAYWARD, Calif. and Cambridge, U.K. (August 10, 2006) – Solexa, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLXA) today announced the appointment of Dr. Frank Oaks as Vice President, DNA Sequencing Services. Dr. Oaks will assume responsibility for Solexa’s genomics services operation, which offers a full menu of genetic analyses based on the Solexa Genome Analysis System.
We expect the genomics services business to play a strategically important role in building adoption of the Solexa Genome Analysis System,” said John West, chief executive officer of Solexa. “Frank’s wealth of experience managing effective scientific organizations is key as we transition our genomics services business onto Solexa’s next-generation platform. Frank’s understanding of applications run on DNA sequencers will be important to growing this business.”
Dr. Oaks, 45, joins Solexa from Applied Biosystems (ABI), where he served since 1992 in roles of increasing responsibility in ABI’s Genetic Analysis Group. Dr. Oaks was recently Director of Scientific Operations; in this capacity he oversaw the development of DNA sequencing instrumentation and consumables for ABI, including the 3730 and 3730xl Genetic Analyzers.
Solexa’s genomics services business can make our technology accessible to a broader range of life scientists,” said Dr. Oaks. “We have been taking orders for genomics services and have a backlog including DNA sequencing, expression profiling and small RNA discovery samples. I am excited to lead this strategic business for Solexa and to ramp commercial operations between now and year end.”
Prior to joining Applied Biosystems, Dr. Oaks was a research scientist with Dow Chemical. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, a BS in chemistry from UCLA and an MBA from Santa Clara University.