Illumina Helped the World Fight COVID-19. Now, CEO Francis deSouza Has Monkeypox in His Sights

As chief executive of San Diego-based genomic sequencing company Illumina, Francis deSouza feels well-placed to witness the world’s next great scientific transformation. “I really believe that just like the 20th century was the era of the bit and the digital revolution, the 21st century is likely to be remembered as the era of the genome,” he says. “We’re seeing that play out in terms of genomic-based screening and diagnostics emerging, like Illumina’s offerings, but we’re also seeing the emergence of genomic-based medicine.” DeSouza’s excitement is understandable. Well over a billion doses of mRNA vaccines—developed in record-time with the help of gene sequencing—have been safely deployed around the world to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. mRNA treatments are also under development for other infectious diseases like malaria, Ebola and HIV, as well as for cancer. “We’re really seeing a huge expansion in the number of personalized therapies, gene therapies, and those are likely to have a huge impact in the coming years,” deSouza says. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] DeSouza, 51, is a veteran of the digital revolution, having spent the bulk of his career in the tech sector. At the age of 16, he entered MIT, where he studied computer science and electrical engineering. Later, he co-founded two companies that made collaborative software for large corporate clients. Symantec acquired...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized biztech2030 The Leadership Brief Source Type: news