Nautilus Biotechnology Appoints Eric Spence as Vice President of Instrument Engineering and Ken Kuhn, Ph.D., as Vice President of Reagent and Platform Development
Leaders each bring 20+ years of proteomics and genomics industry experience from Genapsys, Agilent, Illumina, Affymetrix, and Encodia to company developing platform for comprehensively quantifying the proteome
SEATTLE, Aug. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nautilus Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAUT; or “Nautilus”), a company pioneering a single-molecule protein analysis platform for quantifying the proteome, today announced further expansion of its management team with the appointments of Eric Spence as Vice President of Instrument Engineering and Ken Kuhn, Ph.D., as Vice President of Reagent and Platform Development. Both executives join the company’s product development team.
Eric Spence, Vice President of Instrument Engineering: Instrument engineering veteran Eric Spence comes to Nautilus from Genapsys, where he advanced through several positions of increasing responsibility leading the instrument development team to hold his most recent role as Senior Director. Mr. Spence’s range of experience at Genapsys spanned the design, development, manufacture, and service of DNA sequencers and related automated workflow instrumentation and consumables. Previously, at Agilent Technologies, he led several research and development (R&D) groups responsible for advancing automated liquid handling, tissue staining, and NGS sequencing instrumentation technologies.
Mr. Spence began his nearly 30-year career in instrument development at Affymetrix, where he enabled the manufacture of the company’s microarrays, and Illumina, where he developed next-generation sequencing (NGS) instruments and sequencing flow cells. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ken Kuhn, Ph.D., Vice President of Reagent and Platform Development: Ken Kuhn, Ph.D., joins Nautilus after a combined 20 years at sequencing companies Encodia and Illumina. An experienced R&D, product development, and operations executive, Dr. Kuhn mobilized matrixed teams of scientists and engineers to manage complex biological initiatives as Vice President of Systems Integration, Product Development and Operations, at Encodia. As Senior Director of Product Development at Illumina, he played a significant early role in developing and commercializing a range of NGS, genotyping, gene expression, and qPCR systems and applications that resulted in a suite of leading life sciences products and multi-billion-dollar revenue streams.
Dr. Kuhn holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Stanford University and a B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Drexel University.
“Eric and Ken are industry veterans who have successfully led teams that built and shipped groundbreaking, market-leading products,” said Parag Mallick, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientist of Nautilus. “We are thrilled to welcome these leaders of scientific research and product development, whose combined executive leadership in platform and process science innovation – including Ken’s expertise in next-generation proteomics and Eric’s track record of bringing instruments to market – will be fundamental to our ongoing work democratizing access to the proteome for the good of human health.”
About Nautilus Biotechnology, Inc.
With its corporate headquarters in Seattle and its research and development headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nautilus is a development stage life sciences company creating a platform technology for quantifying and unlocking the complexity of the proteome. Nautilus’ mission is to transform the field of proteomics by democratizing access to the proteome and enabling fundamental advancements across human health and medicine. To learn more about Nautilus, visit .
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Nautilus’ expectations regarding the company’s business operations, financial performance and results of operations; expectations with respect to the suitability of the Nautilus product platform to investigate proteins and proteoforms; and expectations with respect to the functionality and performance of Nautilus’ product platform, its potential impact on pharmaceutical development and drug discovery. These statements are based on numerous assumptions concerning the development of Nautilus’ products and target markets and involve substantial risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could materially affect the accuracy of Nautilus’ assumptions and its ability to achieve the forward-looking statements set forth in this press release include (without limitation) the following: Nautilus’ product platform is not yet commercially available and remains subject to significant scientific and technical development, which is inherently challenging and difficult to predict, particularly with respect to highly novel and complex products such as those being developed by Nautilus. Even if our development efforts are successful, our product platform will require substantial validation of its functionality and utility in life science research. In the course of Nautilus’ scientific and technical development and associated product validation and commercialization, we may experience material delays as a result of unanticipated events. We cannot provide any guarantee or assurance with respect to the outcome of our development, collaboration, and commercialization initiatives or with respect to their associated timelines. For a more detailed description of additional risks and uncertainties facing Nautilus and its development efforts, investors should refer to the information under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC as well as in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed for the year ended December 31, 2021. The forward-looking statements in this press release are as of the date of this press release. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, Nautilus disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
Media Contact
Investor Contact
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
