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Expert has worked in the biotechnology industry for more than 30 years. He has directed R&D efforts in gene expression technology, genetic engineering technology, DNA microarrays, and high-throughput screening at Sandoz (Novartis), Operon, Agraquest, and GenoSpectra. He has led product development efforts for more than 15 years. His efforts have resulted in the introduction of over 50 products to the market. Expert has worked with nucleic hybridization and DNA techniques for more than 30 years. This includes DNA oligonucleotide synthesis and probe design for oligonucleotide-based DNA microarrays. During his tenure at Operon Technologies he and his research group conceived of and developed oligonucleotide longmers (70 mers) for DNA microarray
use. He and his collaborators in Scotland were one of the first groups to develop quantitative RT/PCR techniques for analyzing RNA splicing. He has publications on in situ, filter-based and DNA chip based nucleic acid hybridizations.

He has been working on developing drugs and discovery tools for twelve years at Operon, and GenoSpectra. This work includes DNA microarrays, high-throughput screening technology and quantitative gene expression technology. He taught a one-day intensive drug discovery and development course at the University of California, Berkeley Extension for several years. He also has taught a one-day course on the power of DNA microarrays. He is currently involved in clinical trials with a cardiovascular protein drug that reduces inflammation and stabilizes vulnerable plaque that is delivered locally.

Expert's group at Sandoz was one of the first groups to effectively genetically engineer corn to be resistant to insects. He holds key patents in corn transformation and a gene expression plasmid construct of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxin. Most of the Sandoz (now Syngenta) insect-resistant transgenic corn lines utilized this technology. Expert and his group also did intensive work on intron-mediated enhanced expression in corn cells. This work is not only key to Bt expression in corn but is routinely used in expressing heterologous genes in mammalian cells. He and his lab also assisted in developing technology to identify these genetically engineered organisms.

He has taught genetics for more than 10 years at the University of Illinois, Santa Clara University and at the University of California, Berkeley Extension. His research has dealt with cytogenetics, developmental genetics, drug development and molecular genetics.

Expert's R&D work and interests have always revolved around eukaryotic genes and their regulation of expression. His work in this area includes heat shock gene expression, developmental regulation of gene expression, intron-mediated enhanced expression in heterologous systems, and codon-optimized gene expression in heterologous systems. He has more than 24 years of experience in these areas. He has also developed protein production systems to produce recombinant protein drugs.

Expert has been performing research and development in the area of genomics and genome biology for the last eight years. As mentioned in his paragraph on DNA technology, he and his lab group developed DNA microarray probe technology at Operon that included the design and manufacture of genomic sets of 70 mer oligonucleotides for expression profiling for the human, mouse, rat, yeast, Mycobacterium, Drosophila, Arabidopsis, C. elegans, Candida and other genomes.

Expert led product development efforts at Operon Technologie Genospectra, Inc. at the Vice President level. He was responsible for putting into place a product development process and the project management oversight to assure on-time introduction of the products. He was involved in product development efforts at the Project Manager/Senior Staff Scientist level at Sandoz. Altogether he was involved with the introduction of over 50 products into the biotechnology market. These products include DNA microarray genomic sets, related products, and transgenic corn plants at Sandoz. The R&D cycles of these products ranged from three to six months to seven years.

Expert is currently serving as the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President at a company where they are developing a novel cardiovascular protein drug that reduces inflammation and stabilizes and reduces vulnerable plaque in arteries. This project is ready to enter clinical trials. He designed and developed recombinant protein production systems that are capable of producing this bioactive protein is a cost effective manner. He also developed protein purification methods to isolate this protein effectively.

Expert has assisted in recoding and designing genes to be expressed in heterologous systems by codon optimization and avoiding the use of specific inhibiting nucleic acid sequences. Expression levels of the proteins were raised 10- to 100-fold.He made critical suggestions in vector and promoter design that led to stable and ample expression in transgenic organisms expressing heterologous genes.His oligonucleotide design suggestions led to the development of DNA microarrays that yielded consistent and specific expression analysis results. This allowed the development of a platform to be used in clinical research analysis of gene expression in cancer systems.He has advised clients on DNA microarray technology, oligonucleotide design and nucleic acid hybridization as it pertains to intellectual property and basic research and development.

He has also served as an expert witness for a number of patent disputes and has been deposed in number of patent disputes.