Who We Are

Dr. Cauley brings over 13 years of industry experience in integrated systems, including two years of entrepreneurial experience in starting and operating start-up biomedical device businesses. Prior to joining Iridia, he served in roles of increasing responsibility with Talis Biomedical Corporation with the most recent positions of VP of Engineering and VP of Research. Previously Dr. Cauley served as Senior Systems Engineer at Bio-Rad Laboratories where he led the development of the Automated Droplet Generator under ISO13485 design. Prior to Bio-Rad, he served in entrepreneurial / engineering roles with Triaxis Medical Devices and AgLinx. Early in his career, he held research positions with Sandia National Laboratories, Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies (CSET) and NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. Dr. Cauley is the inventor on over 15 patents (provisional and non-provisional included). He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University as well as, a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering both from the University of California Berkeley.

Dr. Paul Predki served as Vice President for Molecular & Protein Biology R&D at Life Technologies where he joined as part of the acquisition of Protometrix in 2004, a protein microarray company he helped start in 2001 as a spin-out from Yale University.  Prior to that he served as Associate Director at the DOE Joint Genome Institute, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the Institute’s high-throughput production sequencing and genomics programs. Dr. Predki also spent four years at CuraGen Corporation. Dr. Predki did his post-doctoral training at Yale University, where he investigated protein engineering and protein biochemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto. Dr. Predki has published in a variety of high-profile journals, including Science, Nature and Cell.

Amy brings over 15 years of experience working with emerging new companies in evaluating and overcoming scientific and implementation challenges with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments. She is currently a General Partner of Prime Movers Lab where she leads their life sciences investments. Dr. Amy Kruse is a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab where she leads their life sciences investments. As a neuroscientist and biologist, she supports portfolio companies in evaluating and overcoming scientific and implementation challenges, with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments. In addition to Iridia, she serves on the boards of portfolio companies, Cognixion, Paradromics, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, and Attune Neurosciences. Amy brings 15+ years of experience to the board, spanning a broad array of companies and positions. She is formerly the Chief Scientific Officer at Optios, an applied neuroscience company. Amy also served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cubic Global Defense overseeing innovation and the R&D portfolio across the entire defense enterprise. Early in her career, she served as a government civilian program manager at DARPA where she created and oversaw the Agency’s first performance-oriented neuroscience programs, with a combined budget of over $300M. Amy is Founding Member of the Loomis Innovation Council and a Guest Lecturer for Singularity University. She earned a BS in Cell and Structural Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, where she was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.

Paul has over 25 years of healthcare investment and finance experience and in 2017 founded LifeSci Venture Partners where he serves as CIO and Portfolio Manager. LifeSci Venture Partners is the private investment affiliate of LifeSci Partners, a leading healthcare consultancy headquartered in NYC with more than 350 employees. In 2014, Paul launched the BioShares biotechnology ETFs (NYSE: BBC & BBP) which utilize innovative and sector-specific passive index strategies. He previously worked at Galleon Management, as a research analyst and healthcare hedge fund portfolio manager, and in the healthcare investment banking groups of Goldman Sachs and UBS. Paul earned a B.S.E in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Biochemistry from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Barnard contributed significantly to the founding and growth of Illumina and is currently the Vice-President of Research and Development and Global Head of Advanced Science. He is responsible for all phases of research and technology development where his team delivers market-leading innovations in array technology for genotyping and next-generation DNA sequencing. He has over twenty-five years of experience in the biotechnology industry and leads a department of over 475 scientists, engineers, and associates in the U.S., UK and Singapore.
Before joining Illumina he worked at Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) in Basel, Switzerland and Ciba-Corning Diagnostics located in Medfield, Massachusetts where he was the Project Leader and Senior Staff Scientist respectively, responsible for developing and managing optical sensors with novel chemistry and materials.
Dr. Barnard received his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the mentorship of Professor David R. Walt (currently the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School) at the University of Tufts in Massachusetts. He holds over 90 issued patents globally, more than 20 pending patents as well as 2 trade secrets.

Dr. Linton co-founded Iridia in 2016 and led the company as CEO and President through Q4 2019. During that time he oversaw the assembly of the company’s Board, Advisory Board, operating team, and financial management team. He was responsible for raising the Company’s $8M Series A capital, a team member in the recent $24M Series A-3/A-4 financing, and continues to serve as an executive advisor to the CEO. Dr. Linton has over twenty-five years of entrepreneurial and executive experience in the biotechnology space, co-founding five previous companies, as well as leading the fund raising and business development efforts in several companies. He has successfully raised over $350M in capital, negotiated over $400M in deals, and has had multiple successful exits including Protometrix, Axiom Biotechnologies and Owl Biomedical. Early in his career, Dr. Linton was a post-doctoral fellow at Merck Research Laboratories working on molecular cloning of genes responsible for FK-506-induced immunosuppression. He obtained his M.B.A. from the University of California at Davis and his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Emory University.

Dr. Prahalad brings over eighteen years of executive and entrepreneurial experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Iridia, he served as President and CEO of Epic Sciences, Inc. (EPIC), a venture backed company that builds predictive, blood-based tests of drug response in cancer. While at Epic, Dr. Prahalad helped advance the company’s functional cell profiling technology platform, develop, launch and obtain Medicare reimbursement for its leading test in metastatic prostate cancer and raise over $128M in venture financing. Prior to Epic, Dr. Prahalad also held various roles at Life Technologies Corporation, a global leader in reagents and instruments for biomedical research.  His final role at Life Technologies was VP, Corporate Strategy which culminated in the strategic sale of Life Technologies to ThermoFisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) in 2013 for $15.5B – the largest non-pharmaceutical acquisition in the biotechnology space. Prior to Life Technologies, Dr. Prahalad was VP of Business Development for Sequenom, Inc., a pioneer in blood-based, pre-natal diagnostics. Dr. Prahalad received his B.Sc. with Honors from the University of Michigan and Doctorate in Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology from Harvard University.