MANAGEMENT & SCIENTISTS:

Derek Rapp - Chief Executive Officer (see Board of Directors)

James McCarter, M.D., Ph.D. - Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer (see Board of Directors)

Deryck Jeremy Williams, Ph.D. - Vice President of Discovery Research
Dr. Williams joined Divergence in 2000 to implement the Company's bioinformatics and target gene discovery efforts. He has overseen the development of the Company's strategies in genomics, functional validation using RNA interference, and chemistry, and is a co-inventor responsible for most of Divergence's growing patent estate. He is the company's liaison to its intellectual property counsel, Fish and Richardson. As Vice President of Discovery Research he oversees the company's discovery efforts which include several chemical and transgenic projects in nematode control. Prior to joining Divergence, Dr. Williams was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Williams received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from Washington University where he worked with Kathleen Hall Ph.D. on the application of computational methods - continuum solvation and stochastic dynamics models - to analyze the effects of mutations on the thermodynamics and structure of RNA hairpins. At Washington University, Dr Williams twice held the Gerty T. Cori Sigma Chemical Company Fellowship. He received his B.A. in Biochemistry and French from Swarthmore College where he was also a Pew Minority Fellow.

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Barry Shortt, Ph.D. - Senior Director of Plant Protection Research
Dr. Shortt joined Divergence in 2002 after 17 years as a plant pathologist at Monsanto Company in St. Louis. At Divergence, he leads the testing of chemicals and transgenes for nematode control in laboratory and greenhouse trials, and oversees progress in formulation chemistry. He also supervises all field trials, collaborations in product testing, and other efforts in plant pathology. At Monsanto, Dr. Shortt conducted and coordinated chemical and biotech research trials for control of nematodes and diseases of most commercial row crops, fruits, vegetables, as well as ornamentals. He directed all greenhouse- and field-testing for the Monsanto/Bayer Tribute nematicidal chemistry and has relationships with an extensive network of private and academic field test sites throughout the U.S. He is also a patent holder for the silthiofam fungicidal chemistry introduced in Europe in 1999 and was a discovery team leader for thifluzamide fungicidal chemistry introduced in Japan in 1998 by Rohm and Haas. Dr. Shortt received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Plant Pathology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in Biology from Northeast Missouri State University.

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Michelle Coutu Hresko, Ph.D. - Senior Director of Protein Engineering
Dr. Hresko joined Divergence in 2001 to lead the Company's efforts in C. elegans molecular genetics and to direct multiple projects in nematode control based on Divergence's gene target discoveries. She has served as principal investigator on a Small Business Innovation Research Grants from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Hresko brings to Divergence 20 years of experience in C. elegans and Drosophila molecular genetics with a focus on structural proteins. Most recently, she was a Research Instructor in Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where she was also a post-doctoral fellow with departmental chairman Robert Waterston M.D., Ph.D. researching key genes involved in muscle attachment. Previously, Dr. Hresko received a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she worked on vinculin with Susan Craig Ph.D. and a B.A. in Biology from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Dr. Hresko has authored 10 research papers and is a recipient of the George Meany Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

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Bingli Gao, Ph.D. - Director of Transgenic Discovery
Dr. Gao joined Divergence in 2004 to lead the Company's efforts in transgenic nematode control. He brings to Divergence significant experience in plant parasitic nematode molecular biology and host-parasite interactions. Prior to joining Divergence, Dr. Gao was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Dick Hussey at the University of Georgia where Dr. Gao contributed nine first-author publications on the study of the molecular and functional characterization of parasitism genes in the soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines. This work included a comprehensive profile of parasitism genes in H. glycines, the first such profile produced for a parasitic nematode. Dr. Gao received his Ph.D. from Nanjing Agricultural University in China where he worked on signal recognition between rhizobacteria and legumes. Dr. Gao previously served as Associate Professor of Microbiology at Central South Forestry University (Hunan, China) where his research focused mainly on the biological control of forest pests.
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Michelle Insco - Director of Business Administration
Ms. Insco joined Divergence in 2001. At Divergence, Ms. Insco manages a variety of functions including human resources, financial management, communications, grant management, general administration, liaisoning with attorneys, accountants, and others. Prior to her employment with Divergence, Ms. Insco worked for seven years with KPMG LLP in New York where she was, most recently, Project Manager for the Office of the Chairman of KPMG US and International. Ms. Insco has a bachelor's degree from Northeast Missouri State University with a major in speech communications and a minor in business administration.  Ms. Insco is an active member of the Friends Committee of St. Louis Children's Hospital and is a member of an allocations panel for the United Way of Greater St. Louis.

If you are interested in employment with Divergence, submit CV or resume to Michelle Insco, Divergence, Inc., 893 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO, 63141; via email to Insco@Divergence.com; via fax to 314-812-8080.

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John D. Bradley, M.S - Senior Scientist
Mr. Bradley joined Divergence in 2000. He brings over fifteen years of experience in biotechnology discovery and development. At Divergence, he has managed efforts in molecular target identification by C. elegans RNAi, contributes to the assaying of novel chemicals, and plays a key role in the development of grant proposals. Mr. Bradley is an author on seventeen U.S. patents on such topics as target identification in nematodes and the yeast C. albicans, molecular approaches to target evaluation in the yeast S. cerevisiae, identification of antifungal chemistry, and purification of anti-apoptotic lipid mixtures. Prior to working at Divergence, he was employed at Chiron Corporation working on purification strategies for human recombinant growth factors in yeast. At LXR Biotechnology, Inc. he identified and purified anti-apoptotic soybean lipids. In five years at Scriptgen (now Anadys) Pharmaceuticals, Inc. he designed, developed and implemented strategies for target gene validation in yeast. Mr. Bradley is a graduate of Harvard College, with a B.A. in Biochemical Studies. He received his M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley for studies of telomerase in T. thermophila.

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Michael Crawford, Ph.D. - Senior Discovery Scientist
Dr. Crawford joined Divergence in 2005. He plays key roles in bioinformatics, target identification and curation initiatives. Prior to joining Divergence, Dr. Crawford was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate in the laboratory of David S. Roos, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania where his research involved bioinformatic, biochemical, pharmacological, cell biological and genetic approaches to identify and characterize proteins targeted to the plastid organelle of apicomplexan parasites. He received his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis were he worked in the laboratory of Daniel Goldberg, M.D., Ph.D. performing studies on gene regulation and nitrosative stress protection in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Salmonella typhimurium.

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Matt Dimmic, Ph.D. - Senior Scientist, Computational Discovery
Dr. Dimmic joined Divergence in 2005 to expand the company's efforts in comparative genomics and structural bioinformatics. Prior to joining Divergence, Dr. Dimmic was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University working with Dr. Carlos Bustamante and Dr. Rasmus Nielsen, where he developed advanced computational methods for detecting coevolution between amino acid residues in proteins. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Michigan, working in the laboratory of Richard Goldstein to develop models of protein evolution which account for differing selective constraints due to protein structure and function.

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PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS:

Andrew T. Hoyne - General Counsel and Secretary
Andrew T. Hoyne is a partner in the St. Louis-based law firm of Armstrong Teasdale LLP where he practices business and corporate law focused upon the representation of biotechnology, life sciences and other technology-based companies. From 1987 through 1990, he was Associate General Counsel of Invitron Corporation, a publicly-held biotechnology spin-off of Monsanto Company. He is Vice-Chair of the American Bar Associationfs Biotechnology Committee of its Science and Technology Section, Chair of The St. Louis Capital Alliance, and a member of the Executive Committee of St. Louis Technology Gateway, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Missouri Biotechnology Association during 2003-2004. Andy is an active member of the St. Louis regionfs life sciences and venture capital communities, a frequent speaker and author with respect to technology law matters and listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He received J.D. and L.L.M. degrees from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and a B.A. from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

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Anita Meiklejohn, Ph.D. - Patent Counsel
Dr. Meiklejohn is a principal in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson, P.C., a national firm of 300 lawyers in eight cities specializing in intellectual property law. Founded in 1878, the firm is a national leader in patent law, filing 4,000 patent applications annually and employing 54 Ph.D. scientists. Prior to practicing law, Dr. Meiklejohn was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She received a J.D. from Boston College Law School (cum laude), a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell University (with honors).

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