Han Cao, PhD, is a serial technology entrepreneur with more than 22 years of experience across IP creation and management, technology assessment and transfer, product and application development, commercialization, corporate leadership, marketing, sales, and global customer and distributor engagement. His background spans all stages of business development, from early technical innovation to venture financing and IPO.

 

Han co‑founded Dimension Genomics Inc., a post‑seed life-science and medical diagnostic platform company dedicated to addressing key bottlenecks in the emerging field of genomics‑driven, clinical‑grade analysis of heterogeneous somatic dynamic genomes such as cancer genomes. This work represents a significant advancement beyond traditional static bulk ensemble germline genome analysis.

 

The founder and former CEO and CSO of Bionano Genomics Inc. (BNGO; 2003–18), Han’s experience includes guiding technologies from initial concept through IPO. Using nanotechnology developed from a Princeton University DARPA project, Han was the main inventor and an early visionary in resolving long‑range genomic information with structural variations and contributed to numerous landmark technology and genomics publications.

 

Bionano technology was recognized as an MIT Tech Review Top Ten Technology of the Year (2009) and a Scientist Top Ten Product Innovation of the Year (2014). Today, the field of genomic structural variation has become a major, billion‑dollar driver of biodiscovery and biomedical research, advancing understanding of genome function and disease origins.