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Our Leadership
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David H. Persing, MD, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Medical and Scientfic Affairs (Chief Medical and Scientific Officer)
David (Dave) Persing, MD, Ph.D., is EVP/Chief Medical Scientific Officer at Cepheid and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for the Danaher Diagnostics Platform.
He has spent most of his 30-year career in biomarker discovery, translational medicine, and innovation in the diagnostics space. As CSO, Danaher Diagnostics Platform, he has the responsibility for providing scientific, medical, and strategic input to the Diagnostics' Operating Companies. He also has the responsibility for the development of new clinical processes, technologies, and products that advance patient care, innovation, and the competitive position of the Danaher Diagnostics group of operating companies.
Dave joined Cepheid in 2005 and has focused on the enablement of molecular diagnostic technology to meet global needs in infectious diseases and oncology. He conducted his scientific and medical training with Don Ganem and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus at the University of California, San Francisco. After residency training in Clinical Pathology at Yale University, he held leadership roles in academia and industry starting in the early 1990s with the design, implementation, and operation of the first PCR reference laboratory at the Mayo Clinic.
His interest in the democratization of molecular diagnostic methods has been longstanding, starting in 1993 with his publication of the first of five widely adopted textbooks to include PCR protocols and guidelines for laboratory operations. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and reviews, including multiple articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and PNAS. In 2020, he was named to the Fierce Pharma list of the 22 most influential scientists in the fight against COVID-19. To maintain a connection with the latest trends in translational medicine, Dave also serves as Consulting Professor of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He obtained his MD and Ph.D. degrees from UCSF in 1988.