MENLO PARK, Calif., June 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACB), a leading provider of high-quality, long-read sequencing platforms, today welcomed Neil Ward to the new role of Vice President and General Manager for the company's Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region to expand and develop the team and infrastructure to capitalize on the immense potential for genomics in this area of the world.

Neil is a genomics industry veteran with more than two decades of global experience. He most recently served as Senior Sales Director for Northern Europe at Illumina. In his various commercial roles, Neil has served as a key contributor in many of the world's largest genomics projects including Genomics England's 100,000 Genome Project, the Estonian Genome Project, and the whole genome sequencing of the 500,000 UK Biobank samples. Prior to his 13 years at Illumina, Neil held bioinformatics and sales roles at leading institutions, including Agilent, Silicon Genetics, Oxford Biomedica and Celltech.

"We could not be more thrilled to have Neil join us. His deep experience and relationships across the genomics ecosystem, as well as his demonstrable passion for the role genomics can play to better human health will be invaluable to lead our expansion strategies in EMEA," shared Peter Fromen, Chief Commercial Officer at PacBio.

"I'm grateful and excited for the opportunity to be part of this exceptional team working to improve the health of the planet through genomics. PacBio is at an inflection point and we're just beginning to realize the potential that HiFi data can have on our understanding of genomics," said Neil Ward, Vice President and General Manager of EMEA at PacBio. "As we look forward to the next decade, I believe this team will help accelerate the utility of genomics through new applications and insights uncovered by SMRT Sequencing technology."

The genomics landscape has grown considerably over the past decade, and there are more labs than ever performing sequencing. After years of investment and product development, industry experts recognize PacBio as a leader in accurate and complete long-read sequencing. The company's innovative instruments are based on Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) Sequencing technology, which delivers a comprehensive view of genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes, enabling access to a wide spectrum of genetic variation in any organism.

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