Harold “Skip” Garner

Chief Scientific Officer, Director, Founder

Harold “Skip” Garner is the inventor of Orbit Genomics’ platform technology and a physicist, engineer, and biomedical/informatics researcher. He is a serial entrepreneur whose innovations have repeatedly resulted in market-validated, commercially successful products. He has held leadership roles across academia, including co-Director of an NIH Genome Center, full professorships at UT Southwestern, Virginia Tech, and Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, and service as Associate Dean and Associate Vice-Provost for Research Development, all while maintaining an active research laboratory. He has co-founded many successful companies based on his innovations. Orbit Genomics’ platform technology is based on of decades of research into repetitive DNA which provides clinically actionable genomic insights into a person’s health. Light Biology/NimbleGen (acquired by Roche in 2007) was founded on his inventions in light-directed DNA synthesis devices and methods used to manufacture ultra-high-density DNA microarrays and NextGen DNA target-enrichment libraries—tools that helped enable modern genomic and diagnostic workflows. BioAutomation (acquired by LGC in 2018) commercialized his invention of the MerMade Oligo Synthesizer product line, widely used for high-throughput, high-quality DNA oligonucleotide and chemical library synthesis for molecular diagnostics, next-generation sequencing, and drug discovery. Heliotext, uses his Natural Language Processing/AI software to detect publication and grant/contract fraud for NIH, other government agencies, Qui Tam lawyers, and professional organizations worldwide, and at Helix (a subsidiary of General Atomics) he helped design and manufacture spectrometers, fluorometers, PCR, sequencing, and other diagnostic instruments sold by companies such as Beckman Coulter and Shimadzu. Skip serves as an adviser and reviewer for U.S. and international government agencies, publishers, and journals, has contributed to 10 books, authored more than 220 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on over 30 issued and pending patents.Skip holds a B.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri and an M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering and Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Wisconsin.

Harold “Skip” Garner is the inventor of Orbit Genomics’ platform technology and a physicist, engineer, and biomedical/informatics researcher. He is a serial entrepreneur whose innovations have repeatedly resulted in market-validated, commercially successful products. He has held leadership roles across academia, including co-Director of an NIH Genome Center, full professorships at UT Southwestern, Virginia Tech, and Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, and service as Associate Dean and Associate Vice-Provost for Research Development, all while maintaining an active research laboratory.

He has co-founded many successful companies based on his innovations.  Orbit Genomics’ platform technology is based on of decades of research into repetitive DNA which provides clinically actionable genomic insights into a person’s health.   Light Biology/NimbleGen (acquired by Roche in 2007) was founded on his inventions in light-directed DNA synthesis devices and methods used to manufacture ultra-high-density DNA microarrays and NextGen DNA target-enrichment libraries—tools that helped enable modern genomic and diagnostic workflows. BioAutomation (acquired by LGC in 2018) commercialized his invention of the MerMade Oligo Synthesizer product line, widely used for high-throughput, high-quality DNA oligonucleotide and chemical library synthesis for molecular diagnostics, next-generation sequencing, and drug discovery. Heliotext, uses his Natural Language Processing/AI software to detect publication and grant/contract fraud for NIH, other government agencies, Qui Tam lawyers, and professional organizations worldwide, and at Helix (a subsidiary of General Atomics) he helped design and manufacture spectrometers, fluorometers, PCR, sequencing, and other diagnostic instruments sold by companies such as Beckman Coulter and Shimadzu. Skip serves as an adviser and reviewer for U.S. and international government agencies, publishers, and journals, has contributed to 10 books, authored more than 220 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on over 30 issued and pending patents.Skip holds a B.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri and an M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering and Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Wisconsin.