Agencourt Bioscience Corporation provides products and services for the Genomics and Proteomics Industries. Agencourt currently offers an array of competitively priced Genomic services and template purification solutions. Our leading edge and patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI™) technology has enabled the public Human Genome consortium to sequence over 1/3 of the Human Genome. Our team has over 30 years of combined Genomics and research experience.

Our patented SPRI™ technology is the latest and best technology for DNA sequencing. It works by utilizing binding reagents and buffers to bind paramagnetic beads to nucleic acids and proteins. The affinity and binding characteristics can be altered using optimized concentrations of salts and binding reagents. These reagents can force nucleic acids and proteins out of solution and binds them onto the surface of the magnetic beads. The paramagnetic beads are coated with a non-silica based functional group to maximize surface area and binding ability.

Agencourt Bioscience Corporation Team

• Management Team

  • • R. Brian McKernan   /   President and Chief Executive Officer 

    • Brendan L. McKernan   /   Vice President Manufacturing & Operations 

    • Paul J. McEwan   /   Vice President and Co-Chief Scientist 

    • Kevin J. McKernan   /   Vice President and Co-Chief Scientist 

    • Steve D. Shannon   /   Chief Technology Officer 

    • Erick J. Suh   /   Sales Manager 

    • Joel A. Malek   /   Product Manager, Genomic Services 

    • J. Olaf Stelling   /   Technical Director Lab Automation 

• Board of Directors (Outside Members) 

  • • Richard T. McKernan   /   Chairman 

    • Emery G. Olcott   /   Director 

    • Stephen M. McLean   /   Director   

• Scientific Advisors 

  • • Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.

    • David Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D.

    • Monty Krieger, Ph.D.

    • John Quackenbush, Ph.D.

Management Team

• R. Brian McKernan   /   President and Chief Executive Officer 
  • • Prior to joining Agencourt, Brian was a co-founder and the EVP of Business Development of StructuredMarkets, Inc., an online financial exchange. Prior to his work at StructuredMarkets, Brian worked at General Re where he helped to design and implement the business plan for the Enterprise Risk and Capital Management Consulting practice of its wholly owned subsidiary New England Asset Management. Brian also worked closely with General Re's CFO and CEO on corporate finance, M&A and Board related matters. In addition, Brian spent time at General Re Financial Products marketing complex derivative instruments to financial services companies. Prior to his work at General Re, Brian was a Manager at Deloitte Consulting Group where he managed and worked on strategic and reengineering projects for the life sciences, food distribution, petro-chemical, insurance and health-care industries. Brian holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from Bucknell University with a concentration in Computer Science and Business Management.
• Brendan L. McKernan   /   Vice-President Manufacturing and Operations 
  • • Brendan worked as a marketing consultant for Applied Biophysics where he co-authored a marketing and business plan for a disruptive biotechnology product. Prior to his work with Applied Biophysics, Brendan worked at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research where he helped transform the Human Genome Project into a high speed production process. In addition to his work at Whitehead, Brendan also worked at Packard BioScience Company on streamlining and reengineering their production, technical service shop and manufacturing engineering departments. Brendan was also responsible for integrating new product lines and business acquisitions. Brendan holds an M.B.A. in Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he was presented with the Delmar Karger award for outstanding academic and leadership achievements and a B.S. in Management Science from Muhlenberg College.
• Paul J. McEwan   /   Vice-President and Co-Chief Scientist 
  • • Paul has worked as a scientist at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research since 1997. During his tenure at Whitehead, Paul has worked as the Process Development Coordinator of the Automation and Development group where he has integrated the systems and instrumentation for the DNA purification and sequencing lab. Paul played a key role in the development and implementation of industrial-scale automation of biochemical procedures for the Human Genome Project. In 1998, Whitehead filed a patent in which Paul and Kevin McKernan were the co-inventors of magnetic particle based DNA isolation technology. Paul's other development efforts at Whitehead include work on a novel photolithographed microchannel DNA sequencer. In addition, Paul worked with PE Biosystems on late stage development of their 3700 capillary sequencer. Paul also played a key role in developing a core facility for DNA microarray expression analysis at the Whitehead. Prior to joining Whitehead, Paul worked in the Recombinant Protein Pilot Plant for Novo Nordisk A/S in Denmark. At Novo Nordisk Paul developed procedures and manufacturing equipment for the scale-up of purification of the diabetic drug Glucagon. Paul has a B.S. degree in Molecular Biology from Emory University.
• Kevin J. McKernan   /   Vice-President and Co-Chief Scientist
  • • Kevin joined Whitehead in 1996, at the start of the pilot phase for the sequencing of the Human Genome Project, as part of the R&D staff. In 1997, Kevin was appointed head of the Automation and Development Team of the Whitehead/MIT Genome Project where he invented novel biochemical procedures for DNA purification and automation. The early stage automation was published in the June 1997 issue of Science Magazine. In 1998, Kevin and Paul McEwan and Whitehead filed for a patent related to Magnetic Particle Based Purification of DNA. In 1998, to keep pace with the accelerated Genome Project Plan, Kevin deferred his Ph.D. opportunities with Leroy Hood, Ph.D. of University Washington, Seattle, in order to accelerate and automate the Whitehead Genome Center. The patented process was automated and implemented at the Whitehead Institute. Over 1 billion base pairs of the Human Genome were purified and sequenced using this method. Throughout 1999 and 2000, Kevin continued to manage a multi-million dollar automation project at Whitehead and has played an integral role in the accelerated pace of many aspects of the Human Genome Project. In the Spring of 2000, Kevin was nominated for the Aventis "Innovative Investigator Award" and is focusing his future work on building genomic scale automation to unravel Protein Interaction Maps. Kevin has a B.S. in Medicinal Biology from Emory University with a concentration in cloning human NorEpinephrine Transporters.
• Steve D. Shannon   /   Chief Technology Officer
  • • Mr. Shannon is an expert in the field of information and internet technology development and has extensive experience in designing cutting-edge technology solutions for industry leaders. In addition to his work at Agencourt, he has consulted for AT&T, A.T.Kearney, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, EDS, Microsoft, Time Warner, and others. Prior to Agencourt, Mr. Shannon founded Content Advisor, Inc., an internet related software company that developed patented technology for monitoring and controlling web-site content. In 1998, Mr. Shannon helped design and implement the RSACi (Recreational Advisory Council) worldwide standard for content control which is a supported in products including Microsoft Internet Explorer and IBM's Internet Connection Server. Mr. Shannon has a B.A. from Central Missouri State University in Business Management with a minor in Computer Science.
• Erick J. Suh   /   Sales Manager
  • • Prior to joining Agencourt, Erick was employed by MJ Research, Inc. as the Associate Product and Technical Sales Manager for DNA Sequencers. He was hired by MJR in 1998 for developing an automated DNA sequencer. After 6-8 months of research, Erick made the transition to sales and marketing to assist in launching a new product and also to implement a sales strategy. In addition to coordinating sales activities, Erick was the leading sales representative for MJ's sequencing product line between 1999 and 2000. Prior to joining MJR, Erick was a Team leader at "The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR)", during the pilot phase of the Human Genome Project. Erick managed a project funded by The Dept. of Energy, to sequence portions of DNA fragments called bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC's), in which to provide key pieces of information for mapping the Human Genome. Erick played an integral part in developing the first protocols for high volume sequencing and purification of BAC's at The Institute for Genomic Research. Erick received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Siena College and has completed one year of M.S. coursework at John's Hopkins University.
• Joel A. Malek   /   Product Manger, Genomic Services
  • • Prior to joining Agencourt, Mr. Malek worked at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in 1997 and was part of the Microbial Sequencing and Finishing Team. He developed methods to speed the finishing of microbial genomes. In 1998, he moved to lead the BAC End Sequencing Team which went into a rapid scale-up for the Human Genome Project. Upon completion of the Human BAC Ends project in 1999, Joel directed the development of protocols for BAC Ends Sequencing using Capillary Electrophoresis Sequencers, in preparation for the Mouse Genome Project. The new protocols were used for the NIH funded Mouse BAC Ends Sequencing Project with improvements in success rates and clone tracking. In 2000, he was assigned additional responsibilities of leading the finishing of three microbial genomes, confirmatory sequencing of microarry clones, the canine disease homology sequencing project and the coordination of developing an automated BAC DNA prep. Joel holds a B.S. from UCLA with his senior research in regulation of the ATP Operon. He is presently enrolled in the M.S. in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University. 
• J. Olaf Stelling   /   Technical Director Lab Automation
  • • Olaf is an expert in the automation of complex laboratory routines, a field he has worked in for the past nine years. In 1995, Olaf joined Packard Bioscience Co. as a Liquid Handling Specialist in their subsidiary office near Frankfurt Germany. Between 1996 an 1997, he was part of the late stage development process of the MultiProbe II pipetting system. The first two of these instruments worldwide were installed at a site in Germany under his leadership in 1997 for a highly specialized application. Later that year, Olaf moved to Packard's headquarters in Downers Grove, IL, to work as a Senior Systems Engineer in the Liquid Handling Applications team where he developed software to automate Solid Phase Extraction and filtration-based DNA purification assays on the MPII platform. In 1999, Olaf took a position as a Technical Manager at Packard's newly acquired subsidiary CCS Packard in torrance, CA where he spearheaded the software applications development for the PlateTrak, a high throughput microplate processing system, which is used in HTS labs throughout the world. Olaf was the project leader in the installation of eleven PlateTraks at the Whitehead Institute, an effort which allowed a 20 fold increase of the DNA purification and sequencing throughput which helped to win the race for the Human Genome in early 2000. Olaf holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany.

Board of Directors (Outside Members)

• Richard T. McKernan   /   Chairman
  • • Mr. McKernan is Senior Vice President and Director of Packard BioScience Company and formally President of Packard Instrument Company. During his tenure at Packard, Mr. McKernan has been responsible for the development and execution of the strategic plan and the performance of Packard Instrument Company, CCS Packard, Packard BioScience B.V., BioSignal and ten Packard Instrument international sales subsidiaries. Mr. McKernan graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1959 with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and from the University of Connecticut in 1964 with a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the Boards of Analytical & Life Science Systems Association (ALSSA), New Britain General Hospital and Connecticut United for Research Excellence.
• Emery G. Olcott   /   Director
  • • Mr. Olcott is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Packard BioScience Company. Mr. Olcott co-founded Packard BioScience Company in 1965. Mr. Olcott was the Chairman of the Board of Directors Yankee Energy System, Inc., a gas distribution company which was acquired by Northeast Utilities, and has been elected to the Board of Directors of Northeast Utilities. In addition, he is Vice Chairman and Trustee of The Loomis Chaffee School, and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Olcott graduated from Yale University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree, and from MIT in 1963 with a Master of Science degree.
• Stephen M. McLean   /   Director
  • • Mr. McLean is a Managing Director of Arena Capital Partners, a private equity firm located in New York City. Prior to joining Arena, he was a General Partner and a Director of Stonington Partners, Inc., a $1 billion private equity firm he helped found in 1994. Prior to Stonington, Mr. McLean had been a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch & Co. having started in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department in 1980. At Merrill, he helped create the Leveraged Buyout Department, which began private equity investing activities in the early 1980s. In 1984, Mr. McLean was a founding partner of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Inc., a $402 million private equity fund, the first such fund sponsored by an investment bank. Mr. McLean has served on numerous boards of directors including CNM Networks, Obagi Medical Products, Packard BioScience, Pathmark Stores, Ithaca Industries and RS Medical Products. Mr. McLean also serves on the advisory board of the Facilitator Fund, an SBIC private equity fund. Mr. McLean holds an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School (1980) and a B.S. in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania (1980).

Scientific Advisors

• Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.
  • • Dr. Lander is a geneticist, molecular biologist and a mathematician, with research interests in human genetics, mouse genetics, population genetics, and computational and mathematical methods in biology. He and his research group have developed many of the tools of modern genome research -- including genomic maps of the human mouse and rat genomes in connection with the Human Genome project and techniques for the genetic analyses of complex, multigenic traits. He has applied these techniques to the understanding of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, renal failure and dwarfism. Dr. Lander is a Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research. Dr. Lander earned his A.B. in mathematics from Princeton in 1978, and his D. Phil. in mathematics from Oxford University in 1981. In addition to his work in biology, he was also assistant and associate professor of managerial economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration during the period 1981-1990.
    • Dr. Lander was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1978, received the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship in 1987 for his work in genetics. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990, in recognition of "research on the application of mathematical and statistical approaches to molecular genetics." He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 1998. Dr. Lander serves on and chairs numerous committees for various government agencies and scientific societies.
• David Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D.
  • • Dr. Sabatini was appointed a Whitehead Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA after completing the M.D./Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During his graduate studies Dr. Sabatini became intrigued with the mechanism of action of rapamycin, which was then in clinical trials as an immunosuppressant for renal transplant patients. He showed that rapamycin blocks the activity of the protein RAFT1 (now also known as mTOR - the mammalian target of rapamycin), which is part of a pathway responsible for controlling cell growth. One of Dr. Sabatini's primary goals for the future is to determine why some cells are more sensitive to the growth-inhibiting effects of rapamycin than others. Dr. Sabatini has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, and his honors and awards include the Medical Scientist Training Program award and the Michael A Shanoff Award for Thesis Research at Johns Hopkins.
• Monty Krieger, Ph.D.,   /   Professor Molecular Genetics, MIT
  • • Dr. Krieger is a cell and molecular biologist in the Biology Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently holds the Thomas D. & Virginia W. Cabot Professorship and is the Charles F. Hopewell Faculty Fellow in the MacVicar Teaching Fellows Program. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Tulane University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1976. Prior to joining the faculty at MIT in 1981, he was a postdoctoral trainee with Drs. J. Goldstein and M. Brown at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. His research is focused is three areas. He uses genetic and biochemical methods to study basic mechanisms in mammalian cell biology, especially the analysis of membrane receptors, intracellular membrane traffic and the Golgi apparatus. He is also exploring the molecular basis of pathogen recognition in innate immunity (how the body recognizes and protects itself against pathogens before specific antibodies are generated). He is also studying cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism and the mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. His research team recently discovered and characterized the receptor for the "good cholesterol", HDL.
• John Quackenbush, Ph.D.
  • • Bio coming soon.

Agencourt Products  [ Note - each of the hyperlinks below go to the corresponding page on Archive.org, as of Feb 12 2024]

• MCPrep™ : Plasmid Purification System

•  AMPure™ : PCR Purification System

•  CleanSEQ™ : Dye Terminator Removal Sy`stem

•  Magnetic Beads : Sera-Mag™ Magnetic Particles

•  Accessories : Magnetic Plates and Liquid Handling Supplies

Agencourt is teaming up with experienced partners in the life sciences industry to accelerate our entry into key market segments. We're also forming strategic alliances to gain access to specific technologies that can help optimize the inherent benefits of our purification chemistry and our genomic services.

• Packard BioScience Company

  • • In October of 2000, we formed a strategic alliance with Packard BioScience Company to market our chemistry on Packard's high-throughput, integrated liquid handling systems. Packard manufactures state-of-the-art liquid handling equipment and other instruments for the life sciences industry.

• Seradyn, Inc.

  • • In September of 2001, we formed a strategic alliance with Seradyn, Inc. to exclusively distribute Seradyn's Sera-MagTM microparticle technology for use with all SPRI applications. Seradyn, a member of the Apogent Technologies family, is a leading manufacturer of world-class microparticle technology.

Agencourt Bioscience Corporation, a provider of genomic services and products such as DNA Sequencing, SNP Genotyping and DNA Purification to the life sciences industry, today announced that it has signed a three-year distribution agreement with PerkinElmer Life Sciences, a leading provider of drug discovery, life science research and genetic disease screening solutions. Under terms of the agreement, PerkinElmer will use its worldwide sales network to distribute Agencourt's MCPrep™, AMPure™ and CleanSEQ™ nucleic acid purification kits for use on its Packard DNATrak™, as well as other robotic sample preparation and liquid handling systems.
Each purification kit consists of the patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI™) technology developed by Agencourt and used at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research to purify more than 10 billion base pairs of DNA for the Human Genome Project. The MCPrep™ Plasmid purification kit is designed for the isolation of high-quality plasmid DNA for any molecular biology application and can process one plate every four to six minutes. The AMPure™ PCR purification kit can be used to purify amplicons as small as 100 bp, producing a yield of 90 percent or greater; the purified products can be used in a variety of applications, including microarray, sequencing and primer walking. CleanSEQ™ is a dye-terminator removal kit that binds sequencing products while washing away excess dyes, primers and salts; the purified products can be used for any sequencing application.

"This distribution agreement is a natural progression of the co-marketing arrangement announced last year," said John J. Engel, president of PerkinElmer Life Sciences. "It demonstrates our continued commitment to offer effective solutions that work with our DNATrak and other automated sample preparation and liquid handling systems to empower functional genomics and molecular biology applications."
The DNATrak is a robotic liquid handling system designed for high throughput automation of DNA purification and sequencing reaction setup and assembly. When coupled with Agencourt's SPRI chemistry, the system is capable of running more than 4,000 purification nucleic acid preparations per hour, a magnitude of nearly 10 times current industry average. The DNATrak automated microplate processors and DNATrak automated sample preparation systems are currently being used in conjunction with Agencourt's SPRI technology at numerous key genome centers throughout the United States.
"We are excited to have PerkinElmer Life Sciences as a strategic partner and distributor of our purification product line," said Brian McKernan, president and CEO of Agencourt. "PerkinElmer's significant marketing and distribution strength in the life sciences market, coupled with their full line of liquid handling automation equipment, will provide Agencourt with immediate market presence and customer service capabilities. It will help us streamline the drug discovery pipeline of our customers." 

• About PerkinElmer Life Sciences :   PerkinElmer Life Sciences, Inc. is a global provider of drug discovery, research, and clinical screening products, services and technologies for the life science industry. Incorporating Packard BioScience®, NEN®, Wallac™, and Receptor Biology™ product brands, PerkinElmer Life Sciences offers a complete line of instrumentation, reagents and consumables, as well as assay development, sample preparation and biochip technologies for high throughput screening, and other areas involved in target validation for drug discovery. 
• About Agencourt Bioscience Corporation :   Agencourt Bioscience Corporation is a provider of genomic services and products such as DNA Sequencing, SNP Genotyping and DNA Purification to the life sciences industry. Agencourt solutions help biotech and pharmaceutical companies improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their drug development pipelines. The Company's proven and patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI™) technology has been used to sequence over 10 billion base pairs of high-quality DNA or more than one-third of the human genome. Several of Agencourt's founders worked at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research, and have significant experience in marrying the chemistries and instrumentation for high-throughput genomics. Agencourt is located in Beverly, Mass. and is available on the Web at www.agencourt.com.

Agencourt Bioscience Corporation, a provider of genomic services and products for DNA Sequencing, SNP Genotyping and DNA Purification, today announced that it has been selected to provide genomic services to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project through a federally funded contract. Agencourt will use its proven and patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI™) technology, which uses microscopic magnetic particles and binding reagents to isolate nucleic acids from biomolecular contaminants, to sequence tag mammalian cDNAs as part of the MGC goal to identify and accurately sequence full-length cDNAs. All the resources generated by the MGC project are publicly accessible and are intended to speed biomedical research.

The goal of the MGC project is to identify and sequence a representative full open reading frame (ORF) clone for each human and mouse gene. These cDNAs can be used as a reference to genotyping and haplotyping efforts to search for clinically relevant variation. Ultimately, these complete DNA sequences will be used to construct a complete, publicly accessible library, which will serve as a valuable resource for screening new drugs and targets, and developing new protein-based therapeutics. Previous methods have been unable to obtain low frequency cDNAs that faithfully represent the entire coding sequence of a gene in a single cDNA copy. Some researchers have been using partial cDNA sequences, but the full coding sequence and a complete set of these full-length cDNAs are becoming critical for biomedical research.

"The Mammalian Gene Collection project has emerged as an important tool to explore the molecular causes of cancer by providing a comprehensive set of full-length sequences and cDNA clones for expressed genes. Until now, the genomics and biomedical research communities have not had a centralized, sequence validated, full-length cDNA collection in mammalian or shuttle expression vectors. We hope to help change that," said Joel Malek, product manager for Genomic Services for Agencourt. "We are enthusiastic about contributing to such a large and crucial research initiative. We're also confident that our contribution will help illustrate Agencourt's ability to execute large sequencing and genotyping efforts in a timely and highly cost-efficient manner."

About National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Begun as a one-room Laboratory of Hygiene in 1887, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the U.S. Under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH's mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better public health. NIH works toward that mission by conducting research in its own laboratories; supporting the research of non-Federal scientists in universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions throughout the country and abroad; helping in the training of research investigators; and, fostering communication of medical information. Comprised of 27 separate components, mainly Institutes and Centers focused on specific areas of medical research, NIH has 75 buildings on more than 300 acres in Bethesda, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.nih.gov. 

• About National Cancer Institute (NCI) :   The National Cancer Institute is the nation's principal federal agency for cancer research. Its mission is to stimulate and support scientific discovery and its application to achieve a future when all cancers are uncommon and easily treated. For more information, please visit www.cancer.gov.
• About Agencourt Bioscience Corporation :  Agencourt Bioscience Corporation is a provider of genomic services and products such as DNA Sequencing, SNP Genotyping and DNA Purification to the life sciences industry. Agencourt solutions help biotech and pharmaceutical companies improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their drug development pipelines. The company's proven and patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI™) technology has been used to sequence over 20 billion base pairs of high-quality DNA or more than one-third of the human genome. Several of Agencourt's founders worked at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research, and have significant experience in marrying the chemistries and instrumentation for high-throughput genomics. Agencourt is located in Beverly, Mass. and is available on the Web at www.agencourt.com.
• Contacts:
  • • Brian McKernan  /   Agencourt Bioscience  
    • Erik Clausen  /   Schwartz Communications, Inc.