Research Team

Jonathan Knowles, Ph.D.

Vice Chairman

Jonathan Knowles, PhD, joined the Caris Life Sciences™ (Caris) Board of Directors on September 1, 2009 and accepted the position of vice chairman starting on January 1, 2010. In these capacities, Dr. Knowles provides scientific and strategic guidance, supports the identification and expansion of R&D opportunities, and assists with the development of Caris’ international presence. Dr. Knowles' appointments to these positions continues a distinguished career that has spanned decades in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, including most recently his role as president of group research at Roche, a position he held since 2007, and member of that organization's Corporate Executive Committee since 1998.

Dr. Knowles was a member of the Genentech Board for the last 12 years and a member of the Chugai Board for seven years.

Dr. Knowles was also the chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee of Genentech. He was for five years the chairman of the Research Directors' Group of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations) and was the first chairman of the Board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a unique public-private partnership between 28 Pharmaceutical companies and the European Commission with a budget of more than 2 Billion Euros over five years. Dr. Knowles focused the company on key disease biology areas of high medical need and in-depth understanding of molecular pathology of disease. Under his leadership, the company developed and implemented a strategy of highly effective therapies based on personalized healthcare and built one of the best pharmaceutical pipelines in the sector.

Dr. Knowles attended Magdalen College School in Oxford and received a first class honours degree in molecular genetics from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He received his Ph.D. in genetics of mitochondria with Professor G. H. Beale F.R.S. from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Jonathan Knowles has been recently appointed a professor of translational medicine at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, has been awarded a distinguished professorship in personalized health care at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine at the University of Helsinki, and has been appointed as a visiting chair at the University of Oxford. In addition, he is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and a William Pitt Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge.

George Poste, D.V.M., Ph.D, D.Sc., F.R.S.

Vice-Chairman

Dr. Poste is the vice-chairman of Caris Life Sciences™  and chief scientific advisor. In addition, he is chief scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at Arizona State University. He assumed this post in February 2009. This program links expertise across the university in research on synthetic biology, ubiquitous sensing and healthcare informatics for personalized medicine.

From 2003 to 2008 he founded the Biodesign Institute at ASU (www.biodesign.asu.edu/). In creating this Institute, Dr. Poste designed and built 400,000 sq. ft. of new facilities, achieved cumulative research funding of $225 million and recruited over 60 faculty, including three members of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.

In addition to his academic post he serves as chief executive of a consulting company, Health Technology Networks, which specializes in the application of genomic technologies and computing in healthcare. He is chairman of Orchid Biosciences, the leading company in DNA forensic analysis, and serves on the board of directors of Monsanto, Exelixis and Caris. From 1992 to 1999 he was chief science and technology officer and president, R&D of SmithKline Beecham (SB). During his tenure at SB he was associated with the successful registration of 31 drug, vaccine and diagnostic products. In 2004 he was named as ‘R&D Scientist of the Year’ by R&D Magazine and in 2006 he received the Einstein award from the Global Business Leadership Council.

He has published over 350 research papers and edited 14 books on pharmaceutical technologies and oncology. He has received honorary degrees in science, law and medicine for his research contributions and was honored in 1999 by HM Queen Elizabeth II as a Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to international security. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal College of Pathologists and the UK Academy of Medicine, a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and a member of the Council for Foreign Relations. He is a member of the Defense Science Board and Health Board of the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Institute of Medicine Board on Global Health. He is chair of the DOD Task Force on Bioterrorism and the newly launched DOD Task Force on Synthetic Biology.

Click here to view video clips from Dr. Poste.

Christine D. Kuslich, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Group Head, Research & Molecular Diagnostics

Dr. Kuslich joined the Caris Life Sciences™ scientific team in May of 2006 (formerly MPI), where she currently leads the Research and Development division of Caris as well as oversees the Molecular Diagnostic laboratory. Her division is focused on the development of noninvasive biomarker capture technologies to identify and predict diseases, like cancer, earlier in development. In addition, she and her team develop new molecular assays for Caris and the company's pharmaceutical partners. Prior to her position at Caris, Dr. Kuslich led efforts to develop prognostic bioinformatic algorithms to predict deleterious de novo mutations as well as directing a development team focused on a therapeutic breast cancer vaccine at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.

Dr. Kuslich served in leadership roles in clinical molecular diagnostic laboratories in Washington and Hawaii where she was responsible for developing and overseeing numerous proprietary clinical assays. Over the years her research has focused on a diverse array of disease-related issues including: epigenetic modification, imprinting, and the development of novel fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques in Hawaii. At the University of Washington her research concentrated on complex mRNA splicing mechanics including describing the process of ordered intron removal and its influence on disease severity.

David Spetzler, MS, MBA, Ph.D

Bioinformatics Scientist

Dr. Spetzler joined the Caris Dx scientific team in August of 2009, where he currently leads the protein biomarker discovery group in the Research and Development division of Caris Dx. His team is focused on the development of noninvasive biomarker capture technologies to identify and predict early stage cancer. In addition, he and his team develop new molecular assays for Caris Dx and our pharmaceutical partners.

Prior to his position at Caris Dx, Dr. Spetzler was a post-doctoral fellow at Arizona State University where he developed multiplexed nanotechnologies for single molecule detection of nucleic acid and protein targets. He also developed novel methods of using DNA to create biological computers to solve NP-complete optimization problems, and built a novel optical detection system capable of measuring single molecule protein conformational changes with microsecond time resolution.

He earned a master of science from the math department in Computational Bioscience, a PhD in Molecular Biology, and a MBA from Arizona State University. He has published numerous research articles, been a scientific and commercial reviewer for SBIR/STTR grants for NSF, and holds 3 provisional patents.

Michael Klass, Ph.D.

VP, Research and Development
Michael Klass is a PhD Molecular Biologist with 25 years experience in successfully directing and leading teams for the successful development and commercialization of diagnostic and therapeutic products. After a successful academic career Dr. Klass joined Abbott Labs where he led the Corporate Molecular Biology department and the Molecular Diagnostics Department in the development of infectious disease and cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. After 18 years at Abbott he was recruited by Gen-Probe in San Diego to create an Oncology Diagnostic Business for them. Having successfully initiated that program he joined Ventana Medical Systems in Tucson where as the Sr. Director of Molecular Diagnostics he lead the efforts to develop in situ molecular diagnostic tests for cancer. Currently, Dr. Klass is Vice President for Research and Development at CARIS/DX where he is leading efforts to expand molecular diagnostics for patient testing based on molecular profiling of cancer tissue. He has been involved in business ventures to open new markets by identifying business opportunities and markets in emerging state technologies. Dr. Klass has published numerous research articles and holds 15 issued US patents.

Traci Pawlowski, PhD

Senior Scientist
Dr. Pawlowski joined the Caris Dx scientific team in July 2009, where she currently leads the RNA lab of the Research and Development division of Caris Dx. Her laboratory is focused on the development of noninvasive biomarker RNA signatures to characterize and identify diseases for earlier intervention. In addition, she and her team develop new molecular assays for Caris Dx and our pharmaceutical partners. Prior to her position at Caris Dx, Dr. Pawlowski was a postdoctoral fellow in the Neurogenomics Division of TGen in Phoenix, AZ, where she researched potential protein biomarkers for autism and gene expression in age-related memory decline. She earned her PhD in Genetics from Clemson University focusing on the functional genomics of brain development and has expertise in DNA sequencing, protein and RNA expression, microarrays, array CGH and molecular diagnostic assays.

Unnati Jariwala, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Unnati has been with Caris Dx since July 2008. She has supported the company’s R&D efforts and the company’s tumor molecular profiling test called Target Now through literature mining. She comprehensively mines, reviews and analyzes the clinical and basic science literature relating to various areas of interest to the company. In her time with Caris, she has contributed to Target Now evidence, writing patents, generating landscapes of key thought leaders, competitive diagnostic tests and technologies and helped identify biomarker-related business opportunities. Before joining Caris Dx, Unnati did a postdoc and earned her doctorate at the University of Southern California where she studied androgen receptor signaling in prostate cancer with the goal of understanding disease progression and identifying novel target genes using human cell lines and clinical samples.

Rob Hahn-Lowry

VP R&D Business Operations
Mr. Hahn-Lowry joined Caris Diagnostics in April of 2008. He is responsible for the administrative management of the company’s R&D and molecular diagnostics operations. Prior to joining Caris, Mr. Hahn-Lowry worked spent 12 years at AdvancePCS and Caremark in Scottsdale AZ. He held a variety positions including Director of Market Research, Assistant Vice President of Industry Relations, and Assistant Vice President of Consumer Programs. Mr. Hahn-Lowry earned his BS in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Todd Maney, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Vice President, Clinical Programs

Dr. Maney was involved in the early development of The Molecular Profiling Institute's Target Now program and has a depth of experience in business and scientific research.

Dr. Maney received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has published several research articles in the field of cell division, an area with direct ties to cancer biology.

Dr. Maney received a B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from Arizona State University.