Genomics/DNA and Single Cell/Spatial Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Dr. Kevin L. Gunderson is a biotechnology expert and consultant specializing in genomics, proteomics, single cell/spatial biology, and the underlying assay chemistries used in modern sequencing and molecular measurement platforms. He brings 30+ years of hands-on technology development experience, 50+ peer-reviewed publications, and 70+ patents/patent applications spanning genomic and proteomic assays, DNA sequencing, methylation, single cell analysis, surface chemistry, and nanofabrication. He was a founding scientist at Illumina and later served as Senior Director of Advanced Research, leading teams and programs that produced foundational innovations in genotyping and sequencing—including the Infinium platform (Illumina’s first billion-dollar product line), methylation and FFPE methods, targeted NGS enrichment, linked-read approaches, single-cell combinatorial indexing, and NGS-based patterned flowcell/ExAmp advances. Dr. Gunderson also co-founded Encodia and served as CTO, where he led R&D formation and IP strategy for next-generation proteomics sequencing technology. In litigation support, he provides patent infringement/validity analysis, prior-art evaluation, expert reports, technical tutorials/demonstratives, and deposition testimony in complex biotech matters. He holds a PhD in Biophysics and an MS in Physics from Stanford University, and a BA in Math and Physics(magna cum laude). Work Experience: August 2021 – Present President & Principal Consultant– BlueBarn Bio LLC - Provide technical, IP-related, and litigation consulting services to various clients. July 2021 – July 2025 Cofounder and Scientific Advisor– Encodia, Inc - Provide technical and IP-related consulting services. April 2016 – July 2021 Cofounder, VP and CTO – Encodia, Inc - Oversaw corporate and R&D formation, IP strategy, and overall development and growth of Encodia. June 2015 – 2020 BOD Member, StemoniX, Inc. - Member of Board of Directors for StemoniX, Inc., a biotech company focused on high-volume printing of iPSCs for custom drug discovery and personalized medicine. June. 2014 - 2017 Evonexus Committee Member - Participate in selecting and mentoring companies for Evonexus incubator. March 2008 – March 2016 Senior Director – Advanced Research, Illumina, Inc Projects- Methylation Assays, Targeted Enrichment Assays, NGS Technology, Synthetic Long Read Technologies, and Nanotechnology - Managed teams that developed the Infinium Methylation/FFPE Methylation assays, TruSeq Exome and Custom Amplicon enrichment assay. - Developing long range haplotyping technologies. - Developed single cell split-pool combinatorial indexing technology. - Led research team developing patterned flow cell technology for improving NGS sequencing throughput. - Leading research into novel approaches to nanotechnology-based DNA sequencing. Sept. 2002- March 2008 Principal Scientist – Advanced Research, Illumina, Inc. Projects- Infinium Genotyping, Methylation, and FFPE analysis. - Conceived and co-developed Infinium Genotyping Assay. - Conceived and co-developed multi-sample gasket approach for BeadChip product line. - Developed Infinium-based copy number, LOH, and methylation analysis. - Developed Restoration kit for FFPE samples for analysis on Infinium platform. Dec. 2000 – Sept. 2002 Associate Director – Assay Tech Dev, Illumina, Inc. Projects- BeadChip array decoding, GoldenGate Genotyping, and whole genome genotyping strategies - Led early R&D on BeadChip decoding using hybridization with pools of combinatorial fluorescently-labeled oligonucleotides. - Applied information theory and error correction to greatly improve robustness of array decoding. Was co-awarded Illumina’s innovation award for effort. - Developed solid-phase immobilization for GoldenGate assay. - Conceived and developed initial components for whole genome genotyping assay.