Team

Click on the thumbnails to see bios!

Core Team

Kunal Ghosh
Founder & CEO

Kunal Ghosh is founder and CEO of Inscopix, Inc. Prior to founding Inscopix, Kunal was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Biology at Stanford. Kunal received his M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford in 2006 and 2010, respectively. It was during his Doctoral and Postdoctoral work that the disruptive miniature, integrated microscope technology was developed and demonstrated for usage in various biomedical imaging applications. Kunal has previously worked at Agere Systems (now LSI) and McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy. He graduated summa cum laude from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. from the Wharton School. When he used to have free time, a concept he is less and less familiar with these days, he’d enjoy an afternoon out on the golf course or sailing the waters of the beautiful San Francisco Bay.
Eric Cocker
Founding Principal Engineer

Eric is a member of the Founding team at Inscopix. As an undergraduate at Stanford University, Eric developed a passion for melding mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science into the design of intelligent systems. A summer project in Mark Schnitzer’s neuroscience lab aroused Eric’s interest in researching the mechanisms underlying naturally occurring intelligent systems. This early project bloomed into a PhD thesis during which Eric pioneered the development of miniature microscopes for in-vivo neural imaging in freely moving mice. At Inscopix, Eric continues the pursuit of bleeding edge technological innovations.
Laurie Burns
Founding Scientist

Laurie Burns is the Founding Scientist at Inscopix. Prior to joining Inscopix, Laurie worked on the development and application of the miniature, integrated microscope technology during her graduate research at Stanford. She has many years of experience in in vivo fluorescence imaging in awake, freely behaving rodents and in data analysis. Laurie received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 2012 and her bachelor's degree in Physics from MIT. In 2012, she attended Stanford Ignite (formerly known as Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. During her free time, Laurie enjoys running, biking, and bowling.
Mel Yamamoto
Senior Director of Engineering Operations

Mel Yamamoto joined Inscopix to lead development of the operations and product development organization. Prior to Inscopix, Mel was with Affymetrix for 18 years leading instrument & product development, micro-array manufacturing and research engineering. In addition he has expertise and an accomplished record across a broad range of technologies within the semiconductor, aerospace and consumer product industries. Mel has a BSME and an MBA.
Travis Nelson
Lead UX Designer

As Lead UX Designer, Travis Nelson is in charge of making the software as user-friendly as possible. He also works on the website, package design, product photography, and anything else that needs a designer's touch. Before Inscopix, Travis built websites for Nestle and Virgin Oceanic and designed interfaces for Desmos and Academic Earth. Though his work has little to do with his math degree from Yale, Travis is enjoying making neuroscience a little bit more chic.
Scott Norviel
Director of Product Marketing

Scott leads our marketing efforts at Inscopix. With a passion for helping scientists advance their technologies from lab to market, Scott has extensive experience in sales, marketing, and business development for life science companies. After serving the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Colorado, Scott returned to the Bay Area to immerse in the Valley’s bustling biotech scene. Outside the office, he enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and fishing. Scott holds a B.A. Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Board of Directors

Kunal Ghosh
Founder & CEO

Kunal Ghosh is founder and CEO of Inscopix, Inc. Prior to founding Inscopix, Kunal was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Biology at Stanford. Kunal received his M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford in 2006 and 2010, respectively. It was during his Doctoral and Postdoctoral work that the disruptive miniature, integrated microscope technology was developed and demonstrated for usage in various biomedical imaging applications. Kunal has previously worked at Agere Systems (now LSI) and McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy. He graduated summa cum laude from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. from the Wharton School. When he used to have free time, a concept he is less and less familiar with these days, he’d enjoy an afternoon out on the golf course or sailing the waters of the beautiful San Francisco Bay.
Abbas El Gamal
Co-Founder

Abbas El Gamal is a co-founder of Inscopix, Inc. He has been on the Stanford University faculty since 1981, where he is currently the Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research contributions have spanned several areas, including network information theory, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, and digital imaging devices and systems. Abbas received his M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1977 and 1978, respectively. He graduated with Honors from Cairo University in 1972 with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. Abbas is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received several honors and awards for his research contributions, including the 2012 Claude E. Shannon Award. Abbas has also played key roles in several Silicon Valley companies, including previously being on the founding teams of LSI [NYSE: LSI], Actel [now Microsemi, NASDAQ: MSCC], and Silicon Architects [acquired by Synopsys]. He has also served and continues to serve on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several other semiconductor, EDA, and Life Sciences startups.
Ann Miura-Ko

Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding partner at FLOODGATE where her investment interests include the innovations in e-commerce, security, and big data. She currently sits on the boards of Modcloth, Refinery29, Chloe and Isabel, Wanelo, Zimride, Ayasdi, Inscopix, and CSS. She was previously a board member of TaskRabbit.

In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she got her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. She teaches High Tech Entrepreneurship with Steve Blank and is a frequent lecturer in courses such as Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program.

Prior to joining FLOODGATE and her stint at Stanford, Ann worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company. Ann grew up in Palo Alto, California (her father is a rocket scientist at NASA) and, as a result, was exposed at an early age to the world of startups, technology and venture capital. She developed an early passion for robotics and went on to major in electrical engineering at Yale University where she received her BS degree. For her senior project, she was part of a five person team that designed four robots to autonomously play soccer which competed at the Robocup competition in Paris, France.
Stacie Weninger

Stacie Weninger is the Executive Director of the Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative. Prior to this position, she was the Senior Director of Science Programs for the Fidelity Foundations. In 2005, Dr. Weninger served as the Project Manager and Senior Analyst for the Task Force on Women in Science at Harvard University. From 2001-2005, Dr. Weninger was a Senior Scientist at Cell Press for the journal Neuron. Before joining Cell Press, Dr. Weninger was a postdoctoral research fellow at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Bruce Yankner. She was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow in the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard University. While a graduate student and postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Weninger was actively involved in undergraduate teaching, winning six teaching awards. Dr. Weninger received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, and a B.S. degree in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Rugen Therapeutics, Inc., and a member of the Board of Directors for Aratome LLC, Inscopix Inc., and Annexon Inc.

Mark Schnitzer
Co-Founder & Board Observer

Mark Schnitzer is a co-founder of Inscopix, Inc. and its Chief Scientist. He is an Associate Professor of Biology and Applied Physics at Stanford University and is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research concerns the innovation of novel optical imaging technologies and their use in the pursuit of understanding neural circuits. Mark received his M.A. and Ph.D., both in Physics, from Princeton University in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1992 with an A.B. in Physics. Mark is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the 2010 Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, and the 2007 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award.
Vern Norviel
Secretary & Counsel

Vern Norviel is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the patents and innovation counseling practice. Vern has more than two decades of experience in formulating successful strategies for life science companies and the development of their IP programs. He represents a wide variety of companies, as well as venture capital firms, in areas such as therapeutics, diagnostics, nanotechnology, genomics, proteomics, and personalized medicine. In fact, Vern's interest in the field of personalized medicine prompted him to become one of the first attorneys ever to have had his or her entire genome sequenced and made available in a public database. In addition, Vern recently served as a patent expert for Brigham Young University in connection with the school's settlement of a long-running, multibillion-dollar lawsuit with Pfizer involving the drug Celebrex.

Before joining WSGR in 2003, Vern was the general counsel and corporate secretary of Perlegen Sciences, Inc., a start-up biotechnology company that scans the entire human genome for important therapeutic and diagnostic products. Previously, as senior vice president and general counsel, he was an early employee of Affymetrix, the biotechnology company that pioneered and developed DNA chip technology. He also had been a partner at Townsend and Townsend and Crew in Palo Alto.

During his career, Vern has authored or prosecuted more than 15 patents that have been litigated in the United States and abroad, and has overseen intellectual property lawsuits throughout the world.

Advisors

William R Brody

Dr. William R. Brody, President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, an acclaimed physician-scientist, entrepreneur, and university leader, joined the Salk Institute on March 2, 2009 after 12 years as president of The Johns Hopkins University. He is a national figure in efforts to encourage innovation and strengthen the U.S. economy through investments in basic research and education. Most recently, he has written and spoken extensively around the country to promote a fuller discussion of health care reform.

Renowned for his achievements in biomedical engineering, Dr. Brody has over 100 publications and two U.S. patents in the field of medical imaging, and has made contributions in medical acoustics, computed tomography, digital radiography, and magnetic resonance imaging. These contributions have led to his recognition by numerous national and international organizations. Dr. Brody is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American College of Radiology, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the American Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Radiological Society of North America for his contributions to medical imaging science.

A native of Stockton, California, Dr. Brody received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his M.D. and Ph.D., also in electrical engineering, from Stanford University. Following post-graduate training in cardiovascular surgery and radiology at Stanford, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Brody was associate professor and then professor of radiology and electrical engineering at Stanford University (1977-1986). He has been a co-founder of three medical device companies, and served as the president and chief executive officer of Resonex Inc. from 1984 to 1987.

Dr. Brody serves as a member of the Scientific Management Review Board of the National Institutes of Health and on the board of directors of IBM and Novartis. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University. He formerly served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the Science Board of the Food and Drug Administration, on the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a trustee of the Commonwealth Fund, the Whitaker Foundation, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Dr. Brody is a private pilot holding airline transport pilot and flight instructor ratings. He and his wife, Wendy, have two grown children.
Guoping Feng

Dr. Guoping Feng is the Poitras Professor of Neuroscience in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Feng’s research is devoted to understanding the development and function of synapses in the brain and how synaptic dysfunction may cause or contribute to brain disorders. Using genetically engineered animal models, Dr. Feng combines cutting-edge technology and multidisciplinary approaches to unravel the neural mechanisms of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders such as OCD, autism and bipolar disorder.

In addition, Dr. Feng has developed many genetic tools for probing synaptic and circuitry function and dysfunction. These include transgenic mice that express GFP in single neurons in the brain for long-term in vivo imaging, the SLICK transgenic mice for combined genetic manipulation and imaging of single neurons in the brain, and optogenetic mice for light-induced activation and inhibition of neural circuit activity in vivo.

Dr. Feng studied medicine at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in the beautiful city of Hangzhou, China. He came to the United States as a PhD student to pursue his dream of becoming a neuroscientist. He did his PhD thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Linda Hall at the State University of New York at Buffalo and postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Joshua Sanes at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2000, he joined faculty in the Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center. In 2010, he moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Steve Fodor

Dr. Stephen Fodor is the Founder and Chairman of Affymetrix and CEO of Cellular Research. He and his colleagues invented and produced the world’s first massively parallel system for measuring the genetics of an organism. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Dr. Fodor led the development of the DNA chip, or microarray, at the Affymetrix Research Institute in Palo Alto, California and founded Affymetrix in 1993 to commercialize the technology. The scientific methods and products have played a pivotal role in understanding the functioning of the genome in basic and clinical research, discovery and mapping of human variation, and are currently being developed into diagnostic devices. Results using the technology are now reported in over 27,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He is currently involved in assisting early stage life science companies. Dr. Fodor has received numerous honors and awards including the Newcomb-Cleveland Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, The Takada Foundation Award, The Economist Award in Nanotechnology and The Association for Laboratory Automation Achievement Award. He is an author of 58 scientific articles, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Science.
Eric Nestler

Dr. Nestler is the Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where he serves as Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute. He received his B.A., Ph.D., and M.D. degrees, and psychiatry residency training, from Yale University. He served on the Yale faculty from 1987-2000, where he was the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, and Director of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry. He moved to Dallas in 2000 where he served as the Lou and Ellen McGinley Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center until moving to New York in 2008. Dr. Nestler is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The goal of Dr. Nestler’s research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms of addiction and depression based on work in animal models, and to use this information to develop improved treatments of these disorders.
Lee Rubin

Dr. Rubin received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The Rockefeller University and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Pharmacology from Harvard Medical School and in Neurobiology from Stanford University School of Medicine. He has worked both in academia and in industry. Notably, at Athena Neurosciences (now Elan Pharmaceuticals), he initiated a project that lead to the discovery of an antibody that blocks lymphocyte trafficking across the BBB. This work culminated in the development of an anti-integrin antibody, now known as Tysabri, which has been approved for treatment of multiple sclerosis. Subsequently, he became Chief Scientific Officer of Ontogeny, Inc (now Curis, Inc), a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA, founded by Dr. Douglas Melton. Dr. Rubin's work there centered on the hedgehog (Hh) pathway and its involvement in cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Potent small molecule Hh antagonists were identified and partnered with Genentech where they were modified chemically, and, one, Erivedge, was recently approved as an oral treatment for invasive basal cell carcinoma. Numerous other phase II solid tumor studies are currently underway.

Dr. Rubin is currently Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and Director of Translational Medicine at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Much of his effort is devoted to identifying therapeutics for orphan neural disorders such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, using new kinds of stem cell-based screens. His lab also explores different chemical biology approaches for manipulating cell fate. Some of this work has been published recently in Cell, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Chemical Biology, Developmental Biology and Science.