About Alex Aravanis

Alex is Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D, and a Co-Founder of GRAIL. He is responsible for all aspects of R&D, including early research through late stage development.

At GRAIL, Alex leads the teams developing its multi-cancer early detection test by combining high-intensity sequencing of unprecedented breadth and depth with the techniques of modern data science. Through what is believed to be one of the largest clinical study programs ever pursued in genomic medicine, GRAIL is creating vast data sets to develop evidence supporting its products. It is deploying, at scale, the latest tools of data science, including powerful approaches from machine learning such as neural networks.

Prior to GRAIL, Alex served as Senior Director of R&D for Illumina, Inc., where he developed multiple technologies, including clinical assays for the analysis of RNA and DNA from fixed tissues, whole exome analysis, massively parallel single cell transcriptomics and liquid biopsy using cell-free nucleic acids. Alex holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics Minor from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering, and an MD from Stanford University.