Tom Slezak

Biography

Mr. Slezak is a computer scientist who has been supporting biological research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) since 1978. Tom is currently the Associate Program Leader for Informatics at LLNL. In 2012, he was the first member of the Computations Directorate to be named a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. He was part of the Human Genome Program for 14 years, and was a developer of nation-wide BioWatch system. Tom has chaired major NIAID sequencing center and infectious disease center proposal reviews and has served on three National Academy panels on biodefense topics and for 3 years on the NAS DoD Standing Committee on Biodefense programs. Tom also co-chaired a Blue Ribbon Panel on bioinformatics for the CDC in 2011 that resulted in subsequent major new funding for Advanced Molecular Diagnostics and bioinformatics. Tom has run a Pathogen Bioinformatics team at LLNL since 2000 that has developed PCR assays, pan-microbial microarrays, and DNA sequence analysis software to support a broad range of pathogen detection and forensic programs in biodefense and human/animal health. Software developed by the team is in regular use world-wide. 

Research Interest

LexaGene is a biotechnology company developing a fully automated pathogen detection platform for use at the site of sample collection, which offers unprecedented ease-of-use, sensitivity, and breadth of pathogen detection. LexaGene’s technology aims to transform the way organizations prevent and diagnose disease in multi-billion dollar markets such as food safety, veterinary diagnostics, water quality monitoring, aquaculture pathogen surveillance