Baylor Genetics has hired Shashikant Kulkarni Ph.D., FACMG, as Senior Vice President of Lab Operations and its Chief Science Officer, announced Baylor Genetics CEO, Gary Huff. In addition to his role at Baylor Genetics, Kulkarni also has been named Vice Chairman for Research and a tenured professor in the department of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine.
“We are excited to bring someone of Dr. Kulkarni’s stature and experience aboard our growing team,” said Huff. “He has been at the forefront of genetic research, education and application, and will be a tremendous asset to Baylor Genetics as we expand our laboratory and menu of services, especially in the areas of cancer. His academic mindset and ability to blend research interests with a keen insight on precision medicine is a perfect fit for us as we continue in our mission to be the gold standard in genetics testing.”
A Refreshed Visual System
The Baylor Genetics Idiogram speaks to Baylor’s long history in genetics, as the laboratory was among the first to introduce karyotyping. It also serves as a graphic representation of the business; multiple strips and gradients highlight the multitude of tests it performs, and its color palette conveys a sense of energy and approach-ability. Bolder photography and iconography will also be incorporated into websites, social platforms, and collateral.
An Operational Opportunity
The value proposition will be deployed operationally, too. The company is undergoing improvements that reflect the Ready With Answers theme, including improved turnaround times, customer service support, user-friendly billing, and innovative genetic counseling services.
“As an organization, we remain steadfastly committed to our institutional and private-practice clients, as has been the case for over three decades. Yet, this new representation of Baylor Genetics clearly shows that we are evolving by expanding new test offerings, forging into new markets, and differentiates our leadership position in the genetics and genomic industry,” added Huff. “Miraca Holdings, our majority shareholder, will continue to guide us in executing operational improvements and running a stronger, more efficient business.
The value proposition – founded in academics and driven by discovery, Baylor Genetics delivers the most comprehensive and accurate answers to genetic challenges – extends to all customer channels.
Dr. Kulkarni has research interests in cancer genomics, specifically clinical application of next-generation sequencing to characterize cancer genomes, transcriptomes and epigenomes to drive precision medicine. Dr. Kulkarni is leading efforts to defining standards for next generation sequencing in clinical diagnostics through his collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the Clinical Next-Generation-Sequencing Quality Standards National Working Group and as a co-chairman of Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) for microarray-based clinical genomic diagnostics. He served on the Scientific Advisory Board of NIH Institute – National Institute of General Medical Science’s Coriell Institute, Bina Technologies, Swift Biosciences, Roche Diagnostics, Cancer Genomics Program at Princess Margaret Hospital-Toronto, Horizon Discovery and Transgenomics.
Dr. Kulkarni is considered an expert and key opinion leader in the field of Clinical Genomics and Next Generation Sequencing technology and he has given numerous invited presentations both nationally and internationally. He is on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals and is editor-in-chief of Cancer Genetics journal and has co-edited the book “Clinical Genomics – A guide to clinical next-generation sequencing.”
Dr. Kulkarni is frequently featured in news media for his thoughts and opinions in key publications such as ABC news, CAP today, Nature Medicine, and Nature Biotechnology, to name a few. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Cell, Cell Systems, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Biotechnology, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
With his role as the co-chairman of Somatic Cancer Workgroup in ClinGen, Dr Kulkarni is enthusiastically involved and is funded by the multi-institutional, National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported $25 million ClinGen grant awarded to develop authoritative information on the millions of genomic variant relevant to human disease and the hundreds that are expected to be useful for clinical practice.
