Akonni Biosystems, Inc., announced that it has appointed Jan Smilek as its Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Akonni, founded in 2003, is developing and commercializing novel nucleic acid extraction and microarray-based testing systems designed to rapidly and economically analyze biological samples. These systems will be used in clinical laboratory and research settings, and also have industrial manufacturing, biothreat detection, and forensics applications.
The Company’s core technology is based on work developed at Argonne National Laboratory and the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and utilizes gel-drop array technologies optimized for medical applications. Supported by a series of government grants and contracts from NIH, CDC, DOE, DOD, NIJ, and NSF, the Company has significantly advanced the original technology by improving the system’s capabilities from sample preparation to final result. Commercial products and products in its near-term pipeline include rapid sample preparation methodologies for nucleic acid extraction (TruTip) and multiplex panel assays for detecting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), upper respiratory infections, viral encephalitis, and hospital-acquired infections (MRSA).