David Persing, MD, PhD
Biography
David (Dave) Persing, MD, Ph.D., is Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid, and in 2017 was appointed Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for the Danaher Diagnostics Platform. He has spent most of his 25-year career in biomarker discovery, translational medicine and innovation in the diagnostics space. As CSO, Danaher Diagnostics Platform, he has the responsibility for providing scientific, medical and strategic input to the Diagnostics' Operating Companies and Platform leadership. He also has the responsibility for development of new clinical processes, technologies or products that advance patient care, innovation and competitive position of the Danaher Diagnostics group of operating companies. Dave joined Cepheid in 2005 and has focused on the enablement of molecular diagnostic technology to meet global needs in infectious diseases and oncology. He conducted his scientific and medical training with Don Ganem and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus at the University of California, San Francisco. Since completing his residency training in clinical pathology at Yale University, he has held leadership roles in academia and industry starting in the early 1990s with the design, implementation, and operation of the first PCR reference laboratory at the Mayo Clinic. His interest in the democratization of molecular diagnostic methods has been longstanding, starting in 1993 with his publication of the first widely adopted textbook to include PCR protocols and guidelines for laboratory operations. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and reviews, including multiple articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and PNAS, and has served as Editor in Chief for five highly regarded textbooks, the most recent of which was published in 2016. To maintain a connection with the latest trends in translational medicine, Dave also serves as Consulting Professor of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He obtained his MD and PhD degrees from UCSF in 1988.