Phil Paik

Phil Paik, Ph.D., has more than 16 years of experience in technology innovation and platform development and joined Molecular Assemblies in 2020 as Vice President of Platform Development after serving as an Associate Director of Engineering at Illumina.

He spent more than eight years at the company and was responsible for the fluidics architecture and development for both instrument and integrated cartridge-based platforms, including the NextSeq 500 and NextSeq 1000/2000 sequencing systems, and played key roles in automated library prep platforms such as the NeoPrep library system. Phil also managed the fluidics group within product development, a specialized team with responsibilities to the entire sequencing platform portfolio.

Phil began his career in 2004 as a founding member of Advanced Liquid Logic, a Duke University start-up. As the company’s fourth employee, he was responsible for the development of key functionalities and manufacturability of a novel digital microfluidic platform for lab-on-a-chip applications. These breakthroughs, along with his 18 issued patents, paved the way for the technology’s successful commercialization, and the company was subsequently acquired by Illumina in 2013.

In 2007, Phil joined La Jolla based ICx Technologies, under a division focused on the platform integration of high-performance assays for biodefense applications. He built and led an engineering team to develop various government-funded platforms, including a highly sensitive biothreat detection system that could detect aerosolized pathogens in under 30 minutes. ICx Technologies was acquired in 2010 by FLIR Systems as part of its Chem-Bio Detection group.

Phil received his M.S. and Ph.D. at Duke University, under the advisement of Dr. Richard Fair and Dr. Krishnendu Chakrabarty on novel applications using digital microfluidics.