Management

John McDonough

Chief Executive Officer

John McDonough joined T2 Biosystems in 2007.  Prior to joining T2, Mr. McDonough was President of Cytyc Development Corporation and had responsibility for designing and executing Cytyc Corporation’s acquisition and investment strategy for growing the company from a single product company with revenue of approximately $300 million in 2003 to a company with revenue of approximately $750 million from multiple products in 2007. In total, Cytyc acquired five companies totaling over $1 billion in acquisitions and also entered into alliances and investments with several early stage companies.  John most recently led the efforts that resulted in Cytyc’s acquisition by Hologic, Inc. in October, 2007 for over $6 billion, representing almost a four times increase in Cytyc’s market cap over a four year period.  During Mr. McDonough’s tenure at Cytyc, he also had responsibility for Cytyc’s Research & Development, Operations and Regulatory functions. 

Mr. McDonough came to Cytyc after serving as co-founder, CEO and president at SoundBite Communications, a customer communications company which went public in 2007.  Previously, he was COO of Direct Hit Technologies, an Internet search engine company that was successfully acquired in January, 2000 for over $500 million, and CEO and President of Workgroup Technology, a publicly held company that developed and marketed product development management solutions.  Mr. McDonough also spent 10 years with Easel Corporation where he held the role of CFO, COO and then CEO of a start-up company that grew into a publicly held company in 1990 and which was acquired in 1995. 

Mr. McDonough is a Certified Public Accountant and was a Senior Accountant with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells after graduating Magna cum Laude from Stonehill College in 1981.

Rahul K. Dhanda

Vice President, Marketing

Mr. Dhanda joined T2 Biosystems in January, 2008.  He brings over a dozen years of experience in the Life Science industry, both in biotechnology and medical devices. Prior to joining T2 Biosystems, Mr. Dhanda worked in marketing at Boston Scientific Urology, where he led the team responsible for the Access, Visualization and Laser Lithotripsy franchises, representing roughly $100 million in annual revenue.  His responsibilities included upstream and downstream management of mature and breakthrough, platform technologies.  Prior to Boston Scientific, Mr. Dhanda worked in Business Development at Interleukin Genetics, where he held roles of increasing responsibility.  While there, he helped negotiate the firm’s acquisition by Alticor, Inc., as well as multiple other deals.  Mr. Dhanda has also worked at Mosaic Technologies, a platform diagnostics company, as well as Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Medical Center.

Mr. Dhanda received his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and his BA from Wesleyan University.  He served as a committee member of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from 2006- 2009, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Jamestown Project at Harvard Law School.  Mr. Dhanda is the author of several publications, an inventor on numerous patents and applications, and has authored the first book to address the crossroads between industry and bioethics/public policy, entitled Guiding Icarus: Merging Bioethics with Corporate Interests. 

Tom Lowery, PhD

Vice President, Diagnostics Research & Development

Dr. Lowery was the first person to join T2 Biosystems working closely with the founders of the company in the early stages of the company.  Dr. Lowery has applied his extensive experience in cutting edge biochemical and biophysical methods development and has played a key role in establishing T2’s technical capabilities and in driving the company's product strategy and development. At T2, he has successfully led internal research and development efforts to significantly advance the robustness of T2’s nanoparticle-based diagnostic technology through innovative and proprietary solutions.

Prior to joining T2 Dr. Lowery’s efforts were focused on developing breakthrough magnetic resonance based biosensors for molecular imaging. He attained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California Berkeley where he was funded by the UC Graduate Research and Education in Adaptive Biotechnology program. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Biochemistry and University Honors from Brigham Young University. Dr. Lowery has a record of highly productive research that includes authoring six articles as an undergraduate and fifteen as a graduate student. His scientific achievements include multiple patent applications, and publishing in top peer-reviewed journals, including a featured research article in Science, and articles in journals like The Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences USA, and Journal of the American Chemical Society. He also wrote the first comprehensive book chapter on T2’s technology, entitled “Nanomaterials-based Magnetic Relaxation Switch Biosensors”. 

Parris S. Wellman, PhD

Vice President, Product Development

Dr. Wellman joined T2 Biosystems in July of 2010 and brings more than 15 years of experience in research and technology development, product development and manufacturing to the role.  He has led teams and helped build companies that have commercialized products for laboratory measurement, biotechnology and medical diagnostics and therapy.  Most recently, he served as head of engineering and manufacturing for Helicos Biosciences Corporation where his teams helped to commercialize, develop and produce the Helicos Genetic Analysis System that included the world's first single molecule DNA and RNA sequencer.  Prior to Helicos, he held a variety of roles of increasing responsiblity in research and development at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson and Johnson company where he was responsible for inventing and commercializing new products in cardiac surgery, cardiology and women's health.  He has also held technical and leadership positions in a number of small companies, including Pressure Profile Systems, which he helped found while in graduate school to sell sensors and systems into research markets.

Dr. Wellman holds more than 40 patents or patents pending in 12 distinct fields and has published more than 15 peer reviewed articles.  He received his PhD in Engineering Science from Harvard University and his BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.