Bala S. Manian

Bala S. Manian is a celebrated Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur.

Early life

Childhood(1944–1964)

Bala Manian was born in Chennai (formerly Madras) India in 1944. He and his seven siblings form a relatively illustrious family. His elder brother N. Vaghul is the long time chairman of ICICI Bank.

tudies in India(1964–1967)

Bala S. Manian earned a B.Sc. in physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1964 and a postgraduate level diploma in instrumentation from the Madras Institute of Technology at Madras in 1967.

Academic Career in the US(1967–1974)

He then entered the University of Rochester and pursued a Masters in optics (1968) followed by a Ph.D. from Purdue in 1971. His research at Purdue was conducted in the Applied Optics Laboratory of the College of Engineering.

From 1971 until 1974 Dr. Manian held a position as a senior research associate and assistant professor at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics.

Consulting Career(1974–1980)

From 1974-75 he was a senior scientist at Spectra Physics, Inc. where he helped develop the first compact “under the counter” barcode laser scanner for supermarkets. As an independent contractor from 1975-76 at the Defense Mapping Agency he developed several laser scanner-based stereo mapping instruments. After the completion of this assignment, he was senior scientist at Eikonix Corporation in Burlington, Massachusetts from 1976-78 where he developed image quality control instrumentation for photo reconnaissance systems. This was followed by a two-year period from 1978 to 1980 working as an independent consultant in the area of computer vision for on-line quality control for major companies including Ford, IBM, Corning, Kodak, and the Union Pacific Railroad.

Entrepreneurial activities

Digital Optics(1981–1984)

In 1980, Bala (as he was now universally known in the optics industry) founded Digital Optics Corporation, an optical instrumentation and systems development company, which developed the first three-color laser, film reader/writer system. This allowed filmmakers to insert or merge special effects into movies using computerized digital imaging. Working with David DiFrancesco and Tom Noggle, he created a technology that was transferred in 1983 to Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company created by “Star Wars” director George Lucas. It has been used in the production of numerous movies including “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Return of the Jedi.” In February 1999, Bala was awarded an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Award for this advance in technology. The same technology was then further developed to write the CAT scan and MRI images used in medical diagnosis directly onto film. This required a special film for optimum results and Bala convinced Kodak to develop such a film. Bala sold Digital Optics in 1984 to the Matrix Corporation. At that time it had grown to 30 employees.

Lumisys and Molecular Dynamics(1985–1992)

Bala remained as Chief Technical Officer for Digital Optics through 1985 and then, from 1985-87, acted as an investor and independent consultant to several venture capital firms before becoming the founder and Chief Technical Officer for two startups, Molecular Dynamics and Lumisys. Molecular Dynamics was known for its high quality laser-scanner-based life science instrumentation systems applied to protein and DNA analysis. The company grew to nearly 200 employees and went public in 1993. Amersham acquired Molecular Dynamics in September 1998. Lumisys was a world leader in laser-based x-ray film digitizers (75% market share) and has now introduced a desktop computer radiography system. This company accumulated more than 100 employees and also went public in 1993. Eastman Kodak acquired Lumisys in 2000.

Biometric Imaging:First foray into clinical diagnostics(1992–1999)

In 1992 Bala founded Biometric Imaging and, following his usual pattern, became the Chief Technical Officer. This company has developed technology that allows doctors to examine the blood cells of seriously ill patients and determine the nature and extent of their disease. It also gives pharmaceutical companies the ability to perform cell function analyses in the discovery and development of pharmaceutical drugs. This company's target product was a whole blood assay to count Cd4/Cd8 T-cells for HIV patients. Becton Dickinson Corporation acquired Biometric Imaging in February 1999.

urromed

Surromed was started in 1998 using the base technology of Biometric Imaging. The four co-founders were Alex Zaffaroni, Gordon Ringold, Bala Manian and Isaac Stein. Surromed’s mission is to establish a unique capability for human disease research and biological marker enabled drug development that leverages its proprietary, integrated technology platform for molecular phenotyping and biological marker discovery.

Quantum Dot

Bala Manian co-founded Quantum Dot Corporation in 1998 along with Dr. Joel Martin. Quantum Dot Corporation (QDC) developed and sold novel solutions to accelerate the discovery and development of functionally validated novel drug targets at the cellular level. QDC's products and services employ quantum dot (Qdot) particles, tiny semiconductor crystals that were developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Melbourne, and Indiana University. Quantum Dot was acquired by the Invitrogen Corporation in 2005.

Current Activities

ReaMetrix, BioCon and India activities

Bala Manian founded ReaMetrix in May 2003. In the near term, ReaMetrix is particularly committed to serving the public health needs to the developing world through the research and development of affordable diagnostics. ReaMetrix is the first company to produce the reagents for the CD4/CD8 assay in high HIV prevalence country.

Bala Manian serves both as a science advisor, business advisor and a mentor for a number of entrepreneurial companies (Galileo Labs, Biocon India, ICICI Knowledge Park and APIDC -VC).

References

* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/01/02/stories/2003010201230200.htm The Hindu The Knowledge Industrialist]
* [http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ECN/DEA/2000/Manian.whtml Purdue 2000 Distinguished Almnus]
* [http://www.biospectrumindia.com/content/biotalk/10601172.asp Import the science, but implement it in the local context]

External links

* [http://www.reametrix.com Reametrix]
* [http://www.bio.com BioCon]
* [http://www.manian.org Manian.org]