Advisory Board
Paul R. Billings, M.D., Ph.D. serves as Precision BioSciences' Senior Advisor to the CEO and is the Vice President of Biotechnology and Healthcare Strategy at LabCorp. Dr. Billings is an internationally recognized authority on genetic testing and diagnostics and has published more than 130 scholarly articles. His expertise has been called upon in testimony before the United States Congress on human genetics ethics issues. Prior to joining LabCorp, Dr. Billings was a Vice President for Life Sciences and Clinical Affairs for WIPRO, Ltd. He was also the co-founder of Genesage, Inc and Editor-in-Chief of GeneLetter.
Esmail Zirakparvar, Ph.D. has recently retired from Bayer Corporation as President & CEO of Bayer CropScience LP, USA plus Head of Region Americas (Canada and all countries of Mid and South Americas). Previously, as Board member and COO of Bayer CropScience AG, Dr. Zirakparvar played a key role in the formation of Bayer CropScience following the merger of the agricultural businesses of Aventis and Bayer in 2004. Dr. Zirakparvar is a Scientist by education, (Postdoctoral, Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Plant Pathology) and has extensive leadership experiences in General Business Administration, New Business Development, Regulatory Affairs, New Product and Project Management. During his 25 year career in the agricultural industry, Dr. Zirakparvar led and managed agro businesses for Union Carbide, Rhone-Poulenc Agro, Aventis CropScience, and Bayer CropScience in North and South Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific countries.
Scott Uknes, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Business Development at Athenix and the former President of CropSolution, both agbio focused companies. Dr. Uknes was a co- founder and Vice-President of Business Strategy at Paradigm Genetics. Prior to Paradigm Genetics, he managed the scientific effort aimed at understanding the mode-of-action of “plant activators” at Novartis. Dr. Uknes has authored more than 40 scholarly works, is an inventor on more than 20 patents, helped negotiate $200 million in R and D deals and has helped raise more than $70 million in public and private equity capital.
Ralph Dewey, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Crop Science at North Carolina State University. Dr. Dewey is an expert in the field of Plant Molecular Biology and has been extensively published in this focus area. In addition, Dr. Dewey holds several patents concerning plant genetics and plant transformations.
June Medford, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biology in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University. Dr. Medford has received numerous recognitions for her work in the advancement of plant biology and is regularly asked to present her findings at seminars nationally. In addition, Dr. Medford holds several issued and pending patents for her discoveries in gene expression in plants.