About ATUM

ATUM has been providing tools and solutions to Life Science researchers for over twenty years. Our products, services and most importantly our people enable scientists worldwide to achieve their goals.

ATUM founders from left to right: Claes Gustafsson, Ph.D., Jeremy Minshull, Ph.D., Sridhar Govindarajan, Ph.D., and Jon Ness, Ph.D.

The Leadership Team

Jeremy Minshull, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jeremy Minshull has served as President/CEO of ATUM since co-founding the company in 2003. Previously, he was Vice President of Core Technology at Maxygen Inc. Dr. Minshull has received his degree in Natural Sciences and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, England, and performed post-doctoral work at UC San Francisco.

Claes Gustafsson, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Commercial Officer

As ATUM’s Co-Founder and CCO, Dr. Gustafsson oversees most of the company’s external communications. Prior to co-founding ATUM, Dr. Gustafsson led, managed and collaborated with key strategic teams at Maxygen Inc. Before Maxygen, Dr. Gustafsson worked as a scientist at Kosan Biosciences, a number of research, teaching, and post-doctoral positions at UCs Santa Cruz and San Francisco, and at University of Umeå. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry from the University of Umeå, Sweden.

Sridhar Govindarajan, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Information Officer

ATUM’s Co-founder and CIO, Dr. Sridhar Govindarajan leads computataional, engineering, security and automation efforts – including developing AI methods for Antibody Engineering. Prior to founding ATUM, Dr. Govindarajan held positions at Maxygen and Eragen Biosciences. His thesis on protein folding and evolution laid the groundwork for ATUM’s GPS technologies. Dr. Govindarajan received his PhD in Computational Chemistry/Biophysics from the University of Michigan and holds an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of technology, Bombay.

Jon Ness Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jon Ness is a co-founder of ATUM and has coordinated ATUM’s technology development since its inception. Prior to his tenure at ATUM, Dr. Ness was one of the first employees at Maxygen Inc., where he led Maxygen’s DNA Shuffling Technology Development Group. Dr. Ness received a Ph.D. in Bacterial Genetics and Physiology from UC Davis, and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota. He conducted his post-doctoral research at Affymax, Inc.

Elaina ten Bosch

Chief Operating Officer

Elaina ten Bosch joined ATUM in 2004. As Chief Operating Officer, Elaina is responsible for optimizing production workflows to increase manufacturing efficiency. Elaina collaborates with the laboratory production and software development teams to create and improve automation opportunities and ensure the highest quality product produced.

Oren Beske, Ph.D.

Amalgamator of Business and Biology

Dr. Oren Beske joined ATUM in 2019 and brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to the team. Notably, Dr. Beske was President of Aragen Biosciences, Inc. where he led a multidisciplinary team to bring value added services to the biologics industry. Most recently, he served as the CEO of Alloy Therapeutics, Inc. a start up antibody discovery platform company. Dr. Beske received a BS in Physiology and Biochemistry from CSULB and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from UC San Francisco.

Megan Chen

VP, Commercial Licensing and Transaction Strategy

Megan Chen joined ATUM in early 2017. She manages and supports various business operations at ATUM, including business development in APAC, technology licensing, compliance and marketing. Megan also assists ATUM’s executive team with strategic and tactical decision-making. Prior to joining ATUM, she worked at a full-service law firm in Hong Kong. Megan holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Hong Kong and a Master of Laws degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law.

Pedram Sattari

Vice President of Sales

As the Vice President of Sales, Pedram Sattari collaborates closely with internal teams to ensure the success of our clients. He firmly believes that ATUM’s value lies in fostering a culture of collaborative problem-solving and innovation, benefiting the broader scientific community. With a receptive ear and a focus on collective goals, he consistently advocates for our commitment to nurturing long-term relationships. Prior to joining ATUM in 2018, Pedram accumulated 12 years of experience in various commercial, technical, and leadership positions at GE Lifesciences (now Cytiva) and SpectrumLabs (now part of Repligen). In his most recent role at SpectrumLabs as Western Regional Manager, he oversaw both technical and commercial aspects of their bioprocess offerings. Pedram earned his BS in Biology from the University of California, Davis.

Frances Steingrimsson

Director, Finance and Culture

Frances Steingrimsson joined ATUM in early 2016. As the leader of ATUM’s financial department, she is responsible for maintaining the fiscal integrity of the company as well as supporting the executive, accounting and operations teams. As curator of the company culture, she supports and grows ATUM’s culture through thoughtful hiring and continuous improvements to the employee experience. Frances received a BS in Accounting from San Jose State University. She has been dedicated to the improvement of corporate financial discipline and culture for nearly 15 years across multiple industries, including Biotech, SaaS, Consulting, and Industrial Manufacturing.

Mark Welch, Ph.D.

VP, Research and Development

Dr. Mark Welch has been with ATUM since 2006. At ATUM, Dr. Welch developed the GeneGPS machine-learning technology for experiment-driven gene expression optimization. He currently oversees gene, protein, vector and strain engineering contracts for customers as well as new technology development. Prior to work at ATUM, Dr. Welch held positions at Applied Biosystems and at Maxygen, Inc. Dr. Welch received his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Our History

Founded in 2003 as DNA2.0, ATUM has built on its DNA design and synthesis expertise to develop an integrated pipeline of solutions for the research community.

With a reverence for the interplay between science, technology and nature, ATUM’s unique and proprietary engineering platform is based on Design of Experiment (DoE), empirical testing and machine learning. The result is the precise engineering of commercially relevant properties in genes, vectors, proteins and cell lines.

ATUM emphasizes customer service as a critical measure of success. We aim to be a resource and research partner for scientists, to enable accurate and innovative delivery of specific, immediately useful solutions. Customers value the individual scientist-to-scientist support they receive from ATUM’s technical sales and support staff, as well as the speed, accuracy, and flexibility with which products and services are delivered. ATUM’s freely downloadable software tool Gene Designer and the online DNA ATLAS, give you the DNA sequence manipulation and management tools that we use in-house.

ATUM is based in the US, with a global customer base encompassing academia, government and the pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and biotechnology industries. ATUM is by far the most published synthetic biology vendor, providing expert support to and collaboration with scientists. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Newark, California.

Patents

11,566,262 Tetracycline-inducible expression systems. Minshull

11,401,521 Integration of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic cells with a transposase from oryzias. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee

11,396,662 Transposition of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic genomes with a transposase from amyelois. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee

11,162,102 Modifications of mammalian cells using artificial micro-RNA to alter their properties and the compositions of their products. Minshull, Lee, Sitaraman and Boldog

11,060,109 Transposition of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic genomes with a transposase from amyelois. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee

11,060,098 Integration of nucleic acid constructs into eukaryotic cells with a transposase from oryzias. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee

11,060,086 Transposition of nucleic acids into eukaryotic genomes with a transposase from heliothis. Minshull, Govindarajan and Lee

11,041,159 Nucleic acids and vectors for regulated target gene expression in methanotrophic bacteria. Saville, Silverman, Minshull, Ness, Leonard, Stumpe, and Welch

10,927,384 DNA vectors, transposons and transposases for eukaryotic genome modification. Minshull, Welch, Govindarajan, Lee, Caves and Ness

10,815,461 Recombinant uricase enzyme. Deshpande, Grujic, Govindarajan, and Welch

10,480,018 Genus of epimerase enzymes for conversion of fructose to allulose at high temperature and low pH. Venkitasubramanian, Schroeder, Welch, and Govindarajan