Christopher B. Shumate, Ph.D.

Dr. Shumate has extensive experience designing and implementing high throughput screening systems for drug discovery with industry-leading companies. As one of the first employees and the Director of Technology Development at Cytokinetics, he implemented a 'best practices' screening operation from scratch, including informatics, compound library, screen development, and automation. As one of the first employees and Associate Director of Automated Systems at Aurora Biosciences he was responsible for specifying, designing, and implementing Aurora's ultra high throughput screening system. As Associate Director, Technology Assessment and Application at Aurora, he was responsible for investigated and evaluated technology, intellectual property, and company positions for acquisition, collaboration, and licensing. Prior to this, Dr. Shumate performed business development for Sagian, a pioneer in HTS automation. The systems Dr. Shumate developed for both Aurora and Cytokinetics are performing cellular assays. The Cytokinetics automated screening system is performing high content screening; collecting images of cells for assay response. Dr. Shumate is one of the few people in the world with experience implementing and operating high throughput, high content screening systems.