Prior to his current position, Dr. Bernasconi was the Director of Biochemistry
for Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., in Research Triangle Park, NC. He received his
educational training and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Lausanne,
Switzerland. Following graduation, he was a post-doctoral fellow with the Swiss
National Research Foundation at the University of California in Santa Cruz,
under the direction of Professor Lincoln Taiz. In 1990, he joined Sandoz as a
Research Scientist at their research facility in Palo Alto, CA. He occupied
positions of increasing responsibility and was named Manager of Fungicide
Biochemistry for the Palo Alto site when Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged to form
Novartis in 1996. In 1998, he moved to the Novartis Agribusiness and
Biotechnology Research Institute in Research Triangle Park, where he built the
High Throughput Screening Department, responsible for the design and
implementation of in vitro HTS. He then assumed responsibility for the in vitro
HTS assay design department when Syngenta was formed in 2000 from the merger of
the agrochemical divisions of Novartis and Astra-Zeneca. He joined Amphora
Discovery in March 2002. Dr. Bernasconi was granted five patents and has
authored or co-authored over thirty scientific publications.