Management & Staff
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Our leadership team, in aggregate, has greater than 80 years of experience in cellular analysis, particle analysis, flow cytometry, instrument development, and leadership of technology companies in these areas. Our technical experience in the area of cellular and particle analysis instrumentation is derived from active research by Graves (25 years), Woods (17 years), and Freyer (40 years) in the field of flow cytometry, which is the leading technology platform for high throughput cellular and particle analysis.
Steven Graves
CEO & PRESIDENT
Steve’s research programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were influential in the development of acoustic flow cytometer. His programs at UNM are the basis of our parallel acoustic flow cytometry. He has experience in running large scientific programs responsible for the scientific execution and financial management of over $10M of scientific funding for the past years. He has 20 years of experience in the field of flow cytometry and has had significant experience working with many leaders of the flow cytometry field. This includes leaders at most of the major instrumentation manufacturers.
Travis Woods
CTO
Travis has 17 years of flow cytometry experience, beginning with running the user facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the NIH National Flow Cytometry Resource and then transitioning to the University of New Mexico’s Shared Resource. Working at these institutions he also developed skills in cell biology, assay development, and various other biological techniques. His skills at repairing and modifying instrumentation lead him to help develop and advance numerous flow cytometry-based research projects centered around acoustics, optics, and assay technologies. This wealth of knowledge will be directly beneficial to our current and future aims.
James Freyer
CSO
James is the former director of the NIH National Flow Cytometry Resource and leader of the flow cytometry team at LANL, with over 40 years of experience in flow cytometry. He is in charge of instrument benchmarking, application testing and new instrument development. He is also the lead for non-dilutive funding through SBIR grants for expanded instruments and new applications. Jim’s 40 years of experience in the field of multicellular spheroids will be of particular interest as we develop our spheroid screening and large particle analysis systems.
Terry Dunlay
SENIOR ADVISOR
Stephen McKernan
CFO ADVISOR
Ben Alderete
SENIOR DIRECTOR COMMERCIAL STRATEGY & OPERATIONS
Ben has decades of research and assay development in flow cytometry and cell analysis. He has contributed publications on virology, oncology and genetics while at Texas Primate Center, MD Anderson and Mayo Clinic. He helped launch first sales of disruptive, cell analysis platforms in both large corporations and early start ups, Guava Technologies and Amnis for over twenty years. He will lead the sales, marketing and customer service.
STAFF TEAM
Susan Blumenthal
TECHNICAL WRITER
Susan Blumenthal is a technical writer and scientific video developer. As a freelancer her clients have included Sandia National Laboratories, the FDA, Cray, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as well as multiple tech start-ups. She has written about topics ranging from nanotechnology, high performance computing and robotics to wind and solar energy and bio-prospecting. Videos she developed have won multiple national and international awards. Susan is the author of three books, and multiple articles on subjects ranging from medical to literary to quirky.
Benjamin Brown
MACHINIST
Benjamin has been a tradesman for nearly fifteen years. He has extensive experience taking ideas from thought to reality. He is dedicated to function, form and providing the very best in design and fabrication to BennuBio and its clientele. His free time is spent creating mathematical works of art such as fractals and this passion informs his professional life.
Bruce S. Edwards, PhD
DATA SYSTEMS CONSULTANT
Bruce is an inventor and developer of novel high throughput flow cytometry technologies that have bolstered nationally sponsored biopharmaceutical research and drug discovery programs at the University of New Mexico Center for Molecular Discovery. He cofounded IntelliCyt Corporation, a company based on these technologies that was recently acquired by the international biotech company, Sartorius. He is a consultant responsible for the creation and continuing development of software tools to support parallel acoustic flow cytometry analysis. His more than 30-year experience in cell biology, immunology and cancer research is also a source of support for development of biological applications.
Jose Lopez
TECHNICIAN
Jose will be finishing his Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico in May 2020. He has been working with BennuBio since it was founded.
Gian Maestas
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Gian excels at mechanical design and fabrication, including high performance medical instrumentation and garage-built performance vehicles. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergrad he assisted in the design and fabrication of acoustic flow cells, this work ultimately led to 2 publications in the American Chemical Society journal Analytical Chemistry. Gian has been with BennuBio since it was founded. He is committed to designing the highest quality products, with emphases on robustness and reliability in an elegant package. Other interests include mountain biking, skiing, backpacking, and restoring old cars.
Andrew P. Shreve, PhD
MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS CONSULTANT
Andy has 30+ years of experience in developing optical-based measurement systems for spectroscopy, imaging and sensing, most recently as a Professor Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico where he worked closely with Dr. Graves on development of parallel acoustic flow cytometry. Prior to his work at UNM, he was a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was part of the team that founded the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, jointly operated by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. He consults with BennuBio on continued development and implementation of all aspects of the measurement and analysis components of cytometry platforms.
August Swanson
SOFTWARE CONSULTANT
August has been a software developer and entrepreneur for 30+ years. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. August has extensive experience testing mainframe computers and developing data acquisition systems. This drove him to start his own company, which focuses on creating commercial computer graphics products. He loves digging into difficult problems and delivering practical solutions. Other interests include working on his classic cars, running an Aikido dojo, and mountain biking.
Jason Urvanejo
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
Jason is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of New Mexico. As an undergrad he participated in everything from basic audio amplifiers to an in-situ temperature monitoring system for Molecular Beam Epitaxy. He is currently focused on the development of the control systems for BennuBio devices, designing custom boards and assisting in the software development for implementing functionality.
Sergio Valora
SALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT
Sergio is graduating with a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico Summer 2021. He has managed and worked on different STEM educational programs from public and private grants on behalf the UNM School of Engineering. During his undergrad he led the Hispanic Engineering & Science Organization treasury and developed multiple fundraising campaigns. Sergio hopes to combine his passion for science and administration to assist developing a business marketing platform for the company.
Diane Yost
BIOLOGY TECHNOLOGIST
Diane’s background is rooted in biology, with an undergraduate degree in ecology and a master’s degree in microbiology. She has experience in ecological field work, environmental education, animal husbandry, microbial ecology, and lab research. Her thesis in graduate school revolved around researching the potential use of phage therapy as a viable treatment for Apis mellifera hives infected with American Foulbrood. Following a year of teaching at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the College of Southern Nevada, she spent nearly four years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, gaining research experience in the Bioscience division and the Nuclear and Radiochemistry division. Diane joined BennuBio in the fall of 2019.
Ayomide Oloyede
Biomedical Technologist
She is a young lady from Ogun State, Nigeria. She is graduating with a BS in Biochemistry and a minor in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico in May, 2020. Her future goals are to obtain a PhD in Immunology and Infectious diseases to aid better vaccine development and infectious disease diagnosis. She hopes to make use of her skills learned in her current position for the betterment of the company’s research and also the biomedical industry at large.