In 2007, Eltoukhy and
Mostafa Ronaghi co-founded the biotechnology
startup companyAvantome, to accelerate the commercialization of semiconductor sequencing technologies and affordable high-throughput DNA sequencing.[3][8] Eltoukhy was president and CEO of the new company until 2008, when Avantome was acquired by
Illumina.[3][14] As part of the acquisition terms, Ronaghi and Eltoukhy joined Illumina, where Eltoukhy continued pioneering genomic research as director of Advanced Sequencing Development until 2012.[8] At Illumina, Avantome’s
CMOS/semiconductor sequencing platform became the basis for Project Firefly, a program to develop an "integrated sequencing solution simple and affordable enough to install in hospitals for routine testing".[3][15] In 2018, Illumina launched iSEQ, a new product developed using Avantome’s CMOS sensor approach combined with nanowell technology; iSEQ delivered on the original Avantome goals of low cost instrumentation and reduced per-sample processing cost in a
long read format.[14][16]
In 2012, Eltoukhy and
AmirAli Talasaz co-founded Guardant Health, established to "forge a new frontier" in cancer detection and treatment using
artificial intelligence[17] and a
big data approach.[18][19] They developed new methods to detect and monitor the low levels of circulating tumor DNA (
ctDNA) fragments released into the bloodstream of people who have cancer, enabling cancer detection and monitoring using
minimally-invasive blood tests (
liquid biopsies) which are lower cost and lower risk compared to traditional
tissue biopsies.[18][19][20]
Under Eltoukhy’s direction as CEO, Guardant Health raised over one billion dollars (US) in financing,[21][22] launched three products, established collaborations with oncology researchers, and gained recognition as a healthcare innovator in
liquid biopsy approaches used for cancer diagnosis and research.[17][20][23][24] Named as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer[2][23] and to Fierce Biotech's Fierce 15 list[25] in 2015, the company launched Guardant360, the first commercially available comprehensive liquid biopsy for cancer in 2014.[4][26][27] The test uses a combination of
genomics and
signal processing innovations to simultaneously profile the
mutational signature of several (54 at time of product launch; 74 as of 2019)[28] circulating tumor DNA genes in patient blood samples.[2][29][30] By 2016, the test was in use by
oncologists to guide personalized treatment plans for late-stage cancer patients,[20][31] and to pair
advanced cancer patients with
clinical trial opportunities.[26][32] The
Food and Drug Administration granted Guardant360Expedited Access Pathway status in 2018.[33]GuardantOMNI, an expanded testing panel measuring levels of 500
circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) genes, was launched in 2017.[28][34] Released for research use in 2019, LUNAR is an assay for high sensitivity detection of changes in genomic and
epigenetic signatures of ctDNA in early stage and recurring cancers.[29][31][34]
In 2017, a
venture capital funding round led by
SoftBank raised $360 million,[26] allowing Guardant Health to expand operations globally[35] and continue to focus on accelerating progress towards early cancer detection.[31][36] Eltoukhy and Talasaz rang the
opening bell at the
Nasdaq when Guardant Health
went public (IPO) on October 4, 2018.[37] In January 2019, Guardant Health entered a partnership with pharmaceutical company
AstraZeneca to develop
companion diagnostics.[38][39] In October 2019, the company initiated ECLIPSE, a 10,000 patient colorectal cancer study, in an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of using blood tests to screen for
colorectal cancer in the general population.[40][41]
Eltoukhy was named to
Time Magazine’s inaugural 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare (2018)[42][43] and
Fortune’s 40 under 40 (2017).[44][45]
Representative publications
Journal articles
El Gamal A and Eltoukhy H (2005) CMOS image sensors.
IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine 21(3), 6-20[46]
Eltoukhy H et al. (2006) A 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS bioluminescence detection lab-on-chip.
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 41(3)[47]
Lanman et al. (2015) Analytical and Clinical Validation of a Digital Sequencing Panel for Quantitative, Highly Accurate Evaluation of Cell-Free Circulating Tumor DNA.
PLOS OnePMID26474073[48]
Odegaard J et al. (2018) Validation of a Plasma-Based Comprehensive Cancer Genotyping Assay Utilizing Orthogonal Tissue- and Plasma-Based Methodologies.
Clinical Cancer Research 24(15) 3539-3549.
PMID29691297
Zill OA et al. (2018) The Landscape of Actionable Genomic Alterations in Cell-Free Circulating Tumor DNA from 21,807 Advanced Cancer Patients.
Clinical Cancer Research 24(15), 3528-3538
PMID29776953
Biological analysis arrangement and approach therefor, (2012).[50]
Multibase delivery for long reads in sequencing by synthesis protocols, (2012).[51]
Methods and systems for detecting genetic variants, (2015).[52]
Methods to detect rare mutations and copy number variation, (2016).[53]
Methods for multi-resolution analysis of cell-free nucleic acids, (2017).[54]
Recognition
Eltoukhy was named to
Time Magazine’s inaugural 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare in 2018,
Fortune’s 40 under 40 in 2017,[44][45] and the San Francisco Business Times 40 under 40 in 2019.[55] He has served as an invited speaker or panelist at the World Economic Forum,[56]Fortune Brainstorm Health 2017,[57]The Business of Personalized Medicine Summit 2018,[58][59]HLTH (healthcare innovation) 2018,[60] and the World Medical Innovation Forum 2016.[61]
^Harry Glorikian; Malorye Allison Branca (20 November 2017).
"Liquid Biopsies". MoneyBall Medicine: Thriving in the New Data-Driven Healthcare Market. Taylor & Francis. pp. 110–.
ISBN978-1-351-98433-1. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
^US 8236532,
Ronaghi, Mostafa & Eltoukhy, Helmy, "Multibase delivery for long reads in sequencing by synthesis protocols", published 2012-08-07, assigned to
Illumina, Inc. & inventors.
^EP 3087204, Eltoukhy, Helmy & Talasaz, AmirAli, "Methods and systems for detecting genetic variants", published 2015-07-15, assigned to Guardant Health, Inc.
^EP 2893040, Talasaz, AmirAli & Eltoukhy, Helmy, "Methods to detect rare mutations and copy number variation", published 2016-11-02, assigned to Guardant Health Inc.
^US 9850523, Chudova, Darya; Eltoukhy, Helmy & Mortimer, Stefanie Ann Ward et al., "Methods for multi-resolution analysis of cell-free nucleic acids", published 2017-12-26, assigned to Guardant Health Inc.