Sherlock Biosciences Appoints Maurice Exner as Chief Scientific Officer

Sherlock Biosciences, a company engineering biology to bring next-generation diagnostics to the point-of-need, today announced that veteran research and development executive Maurice Exner has been appointed as the company’s first Chief Scientific Officer. In his new role, Exner will serve as a member of the company’s executive leadership team and be responsible for driving the company’s scientific research strategy.

“Maurice’s expertise in clinical diagnostics R&D will be invaluable as we ramp up development of our affordable, accurate and accessible point-of-need tests,” said Sherlock Chief Executive Officer Bryan Dechairo. “With deep experience in infectious diseases and molecular diagnostics, Maurice will help us further expand our suite of novel proprietary technologies and enable breakthroughs in decentralized sample prep. Our recent acquisition of Sense Biodetection has accelerated our time to market, and Maurice will play a key role in ensuring further innovations in CRISPR, isothermal amplification and AI drive rapid assay design and development for our platform.”

Exner joins Sherlock with more than 20 years’ experience in global research and development leadership and strategy, honed at leading biotech and diagnostic organizations including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Hologic, Abbott Point of Care and Quest Diagnostics. Most recently, as Vice President of Global R&D at Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Genetic Sciences organization, Exner led development teams who launched numerous life science and diagnostic products, including multiple COVID-19 molecular tests. At Hologic, he was Vice President of R&D, Assay Development, and Clinical Affairs, leading the development, clinical studies, and launch of multiple products across categories including women’s health, virology, and respiratory diseases, in addition to a variety of molecular diagnostic test offerings to diagnose COVID-19. Across these and his prior R&D leadership roles, Exner has demonstrated a track record of excelling in innovating scientific growth by leveraging deep knowledge of clinical laboratory processes, the diagnostics industry, and molecular diagnostic technologies, which has culminated in more than 40 FDA approvals or cleared product launches to date.

“Sherlock has innovated a truly novel suite of chemistries and platforms, leveraging the power of CRISPR, synthetic biology and AI to transform the future of diagnostics,” Exner said. “I am extremely excited about applying my experience to help lead this very talented scientific research team to seize the opportunity to do something no one has been able to do – bring together speed, accuracy and accessibility to deliver the future of point-of-need diagnostics.”