DELFI Diagnostics, Inc., a developer of accessible blood-based tests that deliver a new way to enhance cancer detection, today announced the appointment of Susan Tousi as Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Tousi joins DELFI from Illumina, Inc. where she held multiple leadership roles during a more than 10-year tenure, most recently as Chief Commercial Officer leading global sales, service and support, commercial operations and strategy.
“Susan is a remarkable leader and has earned the respect of her peers and the industry for her deep knowledge of the commercial, scientific and leadership principles that drive value for diagnostic companies like DELFI. We are excited to welcome her to the team,” said Liz Homans, DELFI Board Chair and former CEO of Lyell Immunopharma. “Susan is behind the engineering and launch of several of Illumina’s most impactful, globally profitable products. This translatable expertise makes her the right fit to drive DELFI forward and lead the commercial strategy for the FirstLook Lung liquid biopsy test.”
Former CEO Dr. Victor Velculescu will remain on DELFI’s Board of Directors and, as Founder, will guide DELFI’s research and discovery portfolio. “The Board and the entire DELFI team are deeply grateful to Victor for founding the company, pioneering a novel fragmentomics scientific approach and guiding the team from inception to commercialization. As the company grows and evolves, we look forward to continuing to work closely with him as a Board member and committed founder,” Homans added.
“I am delighted that Susan is joining us and confident that her inclusive, dynamic leadership will unleash DELFI’s commercial potential,” said Dr. Velculescu. “The DELFI platform has significant untapped potential beyond lung cancer screening, and we will continue to focus on uncovering accessible new solutions for patients.”
Ms. Tousi has more than 25 years of R&D and business leadership experience across the life sciences and technology industries. In addition to serving as Illumina’s Chief Commercial Officer for almost three years, she previously led the product development organization as Chief Product Officer responsible for global engineering, consumables, sequencing applications, IVD, software and informatics development efforts. Illumina products launched under Ms. Tousi’s oversight include: HiSeq X, NovaSeq 6000, NextSeq 550Dx/1000/2000, MiSeq Dx, iSeq, VeriSeq NIPT, TSO500, COVIDSeq, DRAGEN™ and Illumina Connected Analytics. Additionally, she led the acquisition of Edico Genomics, BlueBee and Enancio to enable scalable, seamless, end-to-end software solutions that accelerate clinical care. Prior to Illumina, Ms. Tousi was Corporate Vice President and General Manager for Eastman Kodak’s Consumer Inkjet Systems organization. She also worked in R&D for Phogenix Imaging LLC, a joint venture start-up of Hewlett-Packard and Kodak, earlier in her career following a decade with Hewlett-Packard in technical and management roles.
“I am thrilled to join DELFI, a team that sees a world where cancer is found early and there are zero needless deaths from disease,” said Ms. Tousi. “This is a vision that I believe in and one that must be accessible to those who need it most, regardless of geography, socioeconomic status or other barriers to healthcare. The DELFI team is in a race against disease, and I am so excited to bring FirstLook Lung to as many people as possible while also expanding this scalable platform to address society’s largest cancer risks.”
Ms. Tousi holds an MBA degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and an Honors B.S. in engineering science and mechanics from Pennsylvania State University. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2018, and currently serves as a scientific advisor on Vizgen’s Scientific Advisory Board, as well as on BICO’s Board of Directors. In 2022, Forbes recognized Ms. Tousi as a ’50 Over 50′ entrepreneur and the California Diversity Council named her one of 2020’s ’50 Top Diverse Leaders.’ She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum, a global organization of preeminent women of significant and diverse achievement.
About DELFI Diagnostics
DELFI Diagnostics is developing next-generation, blood-based tests that are accurate, accessible and deliver a new way to help detect cancer. Employing advanced machine-learning methods to whole-genome sequencing data, the DELFI platform is built to address the highest-burden health challenges. We prioritize solutions that have the potential to save lives on a global scale, including for historically underserved populations. DELFI’s platform leverages fragmentomics – the discovery that cancer cells are more chaotic than normal cells and, when they die, leave behind tell-tale patterns and characteristics of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments. FirstLook Lung, for individuals eligible for lung cancer screening, is our first laboratory-developed screening test and can be part of routine blood work. FirstLook Lung uses these millions of data points to reliably identify individuals who may have cancer detected through low-dose CT, including early stage disease, with a negative predictive value of 99.7 percent. This test has not been cleared or approved by the FDA. For more information, visit www.delfidiagnostics.com.
