Marc Stapley Assumes Role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Helix; President and Co-founder James Lu Appointed President and Chief Executive Officer
SAN MATEO, Calif.,--May 6, 2021 -- Helix today announced that Marc Stapley, chairman and chief executive officer, will assume the role of executive chairman of the Helix Board of Directors on June 1, 2021 and James Lu, president and co-founder, will be appointed president and chief executive officer, and join the Helix Board of Directors, on the same date.
Marc joined Helix as CEO in April 2019. He helped steer the company through its transition to a leading clinical population genomics business, now one of the largest COVID-19 testing labs in the United States and a leader in viral surveillance.
"James has been instrumental in driving every stage of Helix's journey" said Marc Stapley. "With his clear vision and proven success, I can think of no better leader for Helix as we begin our next chapter of scaling our population genomics platform, while continuing to serve in the fight against the coronavirus. Helix is in a position of strength and I'm excited to see James take the helm."
James co-founded Helix in 2015 and over the last six years has served as chief scientific officer and, more recently, president, which includes leadership of the company's commercial organization. James led the development of Helix's Exome+® assay and pipeline, the establishment of the company's CLIA/CAP lab in San Diego, and the creation of the Helix Research Platform. In January of this year, under James' leadership, Helix was awarded the first and only FDA authorization for its whole exome sequencing platform. James also led the pivot to leverage Helix's large-scale platform to offer COVID-19 testing and viral surveillance, securing crucial Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a number of national testing contracts.
"We founded Helix because we believe that broad access to actionable genomic information will revolutionize our ability to transform lives and improve healthcare. I am grateful to Marc for the leadership he brought to Helix during a pivotal time in our company's and nation's history," said James Lu. "With the entire Helix team, I couldn't be more excited and confident about our ability to achieve our mission."
To date, Helix has developed partnerships with several health systems across the United States. Key relationships include Renown Health with its Healthy Nevada Project and Mayo Clinic and their Tapestry Program. Helix's population genomics platform provides an end-to-end solution for population scale clinical genomics and data analytics. Since the company's founding, Helix has empowered hundreds of thousands of individuals to improve their lives with their DNA.
About Helix
Helix is the leading population genomics company operating at the intersection of clinical care, research, and genomics. Its end-to-end platform enables health systems, life sciences companies, and payers to advance genomic research and accelerate the integration of genomic data into clinical care. Powered by one of the world's largest CLIA / CAP next-generation sequencing labs and the first and only FDA authorized whole exome sequencing platform, Helix supports all aspects of population genomics including recruitment and engagement, clinically actionable disease screening, return of results, and basic and translational research. In response to the COVID-19 public health crisis, Helix has launched a sensitive and scalable end-to-end COVID-19 test system to meet the needs of health systems, employers, governments, and other organizations across the country. Learn more at www.helix.com.