Michael J. Heller

 Michael J. Heller received his PhD in Biochemistry from Colorado State University in 1973. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University from 1973 to 1976. From 1976 to 1984 he was supervisor of the DNA Technology Group at Amoco Corporation (Standard Oil Company Indiana). At SOC he conducted bioengineering and recombinant DNA work on plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria for energy and chemical production. He developed the first fluorescent resonant energy transfer (FRET) and chemiluminescent oligonucleotide probes for DNA hybridization analysis. He also oversaw Amoco’s sponsored energy and chemical research work at Cetus Corporation, which included the cloning of thermophilic enzymes. Dr. Heller was the Director of Molecular Biology at Molecular Biosystems, Inc., from 1984 to 1987. He was a co-founder of Integrated DNA Technologies and served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 1987 to 1989. He was co-founder of Nanogen (San Diego, CA) and served as the Chief Technical Officer from 1993 to 2001. Nanogen developed and commercialized electronic DNA microarray technology for clinical diagnostic genotyping applications. 

Dr. Heller was a Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego from 2001 to 2017. He was also a Distinguished Scientist at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Center for Cancer Early Detection and Research (CEDAR), in Portland, Oregon from 2017-2021. He also co-founded Biological Dynamics, which developed a new sample to answer cancer diagnostics technology based on the novel dielectrophoretic (DEP) technology developed at his UCSD lab. 

Now as Professor Emeritus on a Recall appointment, Dr Heller continues to do research work in the Departments of Bioengineering and Nanoengineering at the University California San Diego (2017 to present). His present efforts are directed at developing protease biomarker liquid biopsy technology for early cancer detection. Dr. Heller has extensive industrial experience in biotechnology, biomedical and molecular diagnostic devices, and nanotechnology; with expertise in the areas of cancer and other disease related diagnostics, genomic and exosome biomarkers, DNA synthesis, DNA FRET/fluorescent-based detection technologies, electrokinetic lab-on-a-chip devices and electric field assisted self-assembly of DNA nanostructures. Dr. Heller has over one hundred publications and 56 issued US patents. (mheller@ucsd.edu & CP 760-415-1962) 

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