CAMBRIDGE, MA – Knome Inc., the human genome interpretation company, today announced that it has continued to strengthen its executive management team, adding Charles Abdalian as Chief Financial Officer, Adam Rosenberg as Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Development, and Jay Therrien, PhD. as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Sales.

“We are very pleased to bring on several outstanding, seasoned life sciences executives as we prepare Knome for rapid growth,” said Martin Tolar, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Knome. “These exceptional individuals will help us further extend our leadership in the interpretation of whole genomes as we capitalize on expanding commercial opportunities.”

Chuck Abdalian

As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Abdalian is responsible for all financial aspects of the company. He is a seasoned life sciences executive with more than 30 years of experience in both large public and early-stage private companies. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals. Before Molecular Insight, Mr. Abdalian served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc., where he raised $135 million in equity, directed the company’s IPO, and ultimately led its negotiations to be acquired by Pfizer in 2008. Prior to joining Coley, Mr. Abdalian served as CEO of Pelias Technologies, Inc., a venture-backed early-stage drug development company. and CFO of Emisphere Technologies, Inc., a development-stage drug delivery firm. Mr. Abdalian holds a BS from Norwich University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

“I am delighted to join Knome as we accelerate the expansion of the company’s business. With leading technology and world-class genome interpretation capabilities, Knome is clearly well positioned to grow rapidly to meet the vast opportunities that are emerging in the genomics marketplace,” said Mr. Abdalian.

Adam Rosenberg

As Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Development, Mr. Rosenberg is responsible for all transactional aspects of the company, in addition to developing Knome’s intellectual property strategy and playing a leadership role in establishing Knome’s partnerships in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. He is an experienced life sciences executive who has played a key role in founding and building a number of successful companies. Over the last three years, he has been advising emerging companies as a director and consultant and also co-founded Clean Membranes, Inc., a start-up developing materials technology licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2005 through 2009, Mr. Rosenberg was CEO of Link Medicine Corporation, a company focused on discovering and developing disease-modifying neurodegenerative therapies. Under his leadership, Link grew to a clinical-stage company, secured more than $50 million in equity financing, in-licensed a compound initially developed by a major pharmaceutical company, and built a scientific team to accelerate a novel neuroscience R&D platform.

Mr. Rosenberg is also an experienced transactional lawyer. He helped launch and build Faber Daeufer & Rosenberg PC, a successful boutique business law firm focused on representing leading investors, companies, and research institutes in the life sciences. Previously, he was a member of the corporate finance and private equity practice groups at prominent law firms in Boston, Seattle, and New York. He also helped launch Ovation Capital Partners, an early-stage technology venture capital fund. Mr. Rosenberg holds a BA from Whittier College and a JD from University of Virginia School of Law.

“Knome is well situated to play a fundamental role in leading the impending revolution in personalized medicine and genomics, and I’m excited to join the team,” said Mr. Rosenberg.

Jay Therrien, PhD

As Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Dr. Therrien is responsible for Knome’s global sales effort. He is an accomplished sales executive with extensive experience in the commercialization and sale of genomic products and services. He has built high performing sales teams and sales channels in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe across a range of customer segments, including academic, government, clinical, and pharmaceutical. Most recently, Dr. Therrien was Vice President, Commercial Operations, Sequencing at Life Technologies, directing sales and support activities for capillary electrophoresis, SOLiD, and Ion Torrent sequencing instruments. From 2004 to 2009, Dr. Therrien worked for Illumina, Inc., in various sales leadership roles, including Director of Sales for Asia Pacific and Japan. Earlier in his career, Dr. Therrien held technical and senior scientist roles at companies with products and services in sequencing and microarray applications. He holds a BS from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD from the University of Kansas.

“This is an amazing time to join Knome. As the cost of sequencing rapidly declines, the next big commercial opportunity will be helping researchers and clinics manage and interpret the abundance of data being generated. I look forward to expanding the sales of Knome’s interpretation products to new markets and new geographies,” said Dr. Therrien.