Paul Billings


Paul Billings is an American doctor, lecturer, researcher, professor, and consultant on genetic information. His major research interests include the impact of genomic information and biotechnology on society, the integration of genomics and diagnostics in to health and medical care and individualized genomic medicine. Dr. Paul Billings is the author of nearly 200 publications and books on genomic medicine, has spoken at numerous medical conferences, and appeared on talk shows such as The Oprah Show and 60 Minutes. He is currently the chief medical officer of Natera, chairman of Biological Dynamics, Inc. and Plumcare LLC, and CEO of Synergenz Bioscience, Inc.

Biography

Board certified internist and clinical geneticist, Dr. Paul R. Billings is a chairman of Biological Dynamics, Inc. and Plumcare LLC, and CEO of Synergenz Bioscience, Inc. He has completed an Executive-in-Residence at the California Innovation Center of Johnson & Johnson and was the medical director of the IMPACT Cancer Care Program Thermo Fisher Scientific. Recently, Dr. Billings was the chief medical officer of Life Technologies Inc. and then the CMO of the Genetic Sciences Division of TFS both unique positions aimed at improving patient care through expanding the use of medically relevant genomic technologies in clinical settings. Dr. Billings has extensive expertise and health care experience in the areas of genomics and molecular medicine. He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Food and Drug Administration and the Genomic Medicine Advisory Committee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. He currently is a director of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and a member of the IOM Genomics Roundtable. Prior to the appointments at Lifetech and TFS, Dr. Billings was the director and chief scientific officer of the Genomic Medicine Institute at El Camino Hospital, the largest community hospital in the Silicon Valley. He was also a member of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's advisory committee on Genetics, Health and Society before it was disbanded. Dr. Billings has had a distinguished career as a physician and researcher. He has been a founder or chief executive officer of companies involved in genetic and diagnostic medicine including GeneSage Inc., Omicia Inc., CELLective Dx Corporation and was senior vice president for corporate development at Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. He has held academic appointments at some of the most prestigious universities in the United States including Harvard University, U.C. San Francisco, Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley, and has served as a physician at a number of leading medical centers. He is the author of nearly 200 publications and books on experimental and clinical medicine. His work on genetic discrimination was instrumental in the creation and passage of the federal Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008. Dr. Billings holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard University. Prior to their recent transactions, Dr. Billings was a director of Ancestry.com, the executive chairman of Signature Genomics Inc., and a founder of the Cordblood Registry, Inc. He is currently a board director of Trovagene Inc. and CollabRX Inc., both publicly traded personalized medicine companies in the United States. He also acts as the chief medical officer of Omicia, Inc. He serves on many other for profit and not for profit Boards including the Council for Responsible Genetics, the country's oldest independent biotechnology “watchdog” organization.

Background

Billings has a varied background. His education began at the Webb School of California in the 1960s. He then continued his undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz in 1970 and transferred to UC San Diego in 1972. While at UCSD,Billings worked with adviser Martin Kagnoff as a student fellow at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences and spent the summer of 1973 as a student summer fellow at American Gastroenterology Association advised by Morton Grossman. He graduated summa cum laude from UC San Diego in 1974 with an Artium Baccalaureatus Degree in History. After his undergraduate degree, Billings went on to study medicine and immunology at Harvard University with a Medical Scientist Training Grant Fellowship from NIH and Harvard University. He won Harvard Medical School's James Tolbert Shipley Prize for best published research in 1979. Billings' MD adviser at Harvard was Baruj Benacerraf, who went on to win a Nobel Prize the following year. Billings graduated in 1979 with both a PhD in immunology and an M.D. degree. Billings went from medical school into his residency at University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, which he finished in 1982. After his residency, Billings stayed on as a fellow in medical genetics until 1984 under the advisement of Dr. Arno Motulsky. After a winter as acting assistant professor in the Department of Genetics, still at University of Washington, he returned to the Boston area to begin a series of clinical and research fellowships. By 1985, Billings was diplomat and board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Billings went on to teach and tutor at a university level while conducting research and practicing medicine. Billings has been on the faculties of University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University. His research focuses on ethics and medicine. Specifically, he is interested in the impact of genetic information and biotechnology on society, the integration of genomics into healthcare, post-genomic health and identity, molecular biology and immunogenetics, their relationship to cellular differentiation, and their application in cancer care,and human stem cell research and its relationship to clinical medicine. Billings' research on genetic discrimination provided academic support for the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act. He has received research grants for his work from various organizations, including National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Council for Responsible Genetics.

Government positions

A partial list of Billings' government positions:
Office of Technology Assessment, United States Congress:
National Institutes of Health :
Partial list of publications:
Books published:'''