I SOLVE PROBLEMS
AND MAKE TOOLS
FOR SCIENTISTS
John McNeil’s life work has been creating tools that help people use their creative powers to positively affect the real world. He has been passionate about scientific information systems since his time in the biophysics lab at Harvey Mudd College. John has over 25 years of experience in biophysics, opto-electronics, instrumentation, detection and prediction algorithms, bioinformatics, pathogen detection systems, LIMS, validated data management systems, and IT. When he’s not programming a new tool or having lunch with friends, John enjoys building and flying RC helicopters and sailplanes. He also loves spending time with his family and taking long walks with his two cats.
Synopsis
Senior Technology and Business Officer with strong creative, and business skills.
Strong leadership capabilities which result in breakthrough solutions.
Excellent multi-disciplinary technology development and integration skills.
Driven to solve challenging technical and business problems in emerging science and technology.
BS Physics, Harvey Mudd College.
HIstory
BIOVA WW Define Lead & Materials Science Software Development
2019 - Present
Current:
Responsible for BIOVIA product management, as well as strategy of the following BIOVIA portfolios: Life Science Research, Materials Science and Formulations, Drug Development Lab, and Data Science. Software development leader for Materials Science molecular modeling and simulation software.
2020: BIOVIA WW Cloud Architect, Life and Materials Science Software Development
Software development leader for Materials and Life Sciences molecular modeling and simulation software, Pipeline Pilot data flow system, ScienceCloud, cheminformatics, and other research enabling software.
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Life Science Informatics consultant
2018 - 2019
For BIOVIA brand of Dassault Systèmes - WW Cloud Architect. Projects include overseeing deployment of QUMAS and ONE Lab application suites to BIOVIOA ScienceCloud SaaS.
Design instrumentation, automation, and software to address novel experimental requirements.
Design and implementation of intra and inter-company data processing, registration and reporting workflows
Strategic IT and informatics systems and staff planning for new or changing scientific organizations.
Isolate issues then propose and implement workable solutions whether the issues are technical, procedural, human, or a mixture.
Extend and integrate hard-to-extend software systems.
Hands-on full-stack developer in a variety of technology platforms.
Support customers using ACAS.
Designed and co-developed a structure, lot, and assay data ingestion system for a biotech. This enabled their CRO network to load data with self-serve validation, curation, and resubmission.
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John McNeil & Co., Inc., La Jolla, CA, President
2005 - 2018
With the JM&Co team, created the Assay Capture and Analysis System and Compound Registration which are used by small and medium sized research laboratories as their primary data platform. Designed and developed custom registration and data analysis modules to support a wide variety of novel science.
Developed information systems strategies for several start-up drug development companies and helped these clients implement them. Worked with some clients through due-diligence and acquisition.
Worked with a new mid-sized biotech to develop their IT and informatics architecture and organization. Helped hire and train staff. Oversaw the development and installation of primary systems. They are now fully self-sufficient.
Selected and coordinated implementation of hosted document management and SAS systems for clients.
Worked with a client to design and implement a cognitive test apparatus. Designed the software and control electronics architecture. Supervised and performed mechanical design. Helped supervise construction, and deployment.
Designed, developed, and launched LabSynch for experiment recording, analysis, and discussion. LabSynch was used by protein therapeutic research laboratories. One client's internal study shows LabSynch has provided time savings sufficient to offset the entire cost of deployment.
Served as interim CIO of a biotech company. Was retained to rebuild research informatics group; integrate IT and informatics; improve internal customer support; and improve data analysis, mining, and presentation systems. These objectives were all met.
Took over IT management of a biotech during close-out operations. Virtualized a full server room of equipment onto two small servers that preserved fully operational research database and tools. These systems enabled the sale of the data and IP. Roles included technical and project management, as well as hands-on windows systems administration.
Hobbies
Builds and flies remote control sailplanes and helicopters.
Holder of two world records for remote control electric helicopter distance.
Building composing music on a modular synthesizer
Also learning to enjoy running on hills.
NEWS + Blog Posts
Soteria Retains Industry Expert John McNeil as its Head Bioinformatics and Machine Learning Advisor
Today SOTERIA Precision Medicine Advisory, Inc., is proud to announce that John McNeil, President of John McNeil & Co., Inc., will architect data capture, machine learning, workflow, and reporting solutions to support the effective handling and interpretation of large-scale precision-medicine information.
New ACAS Documentation
We’ve been hard at work making improvements and adding to our documentation for ACAS! This week we added a number of new docs, including an FAQ for some of our standard modules: Experiment Loader, Compound Reg, and Dose Response. Check out the rest of our docs here, and keep an eye out as we continue to add more every week.
Fast User Switching for a LIMS Web App
Most laboratories have computers attached to various instruments where scientists can operate them and review the data they produce. Scientists are focused on processing samples which they move from instrument to instrument as they do their work. When more than one scientist works in a lab we find we have to trade convenience for accurate information recording and security.
Education
Harvey Mudd College, CALIFORNIA
B.S. Physics