John E. Hamer joined Burrill & Company in November 2003 as Entrepreneur-In-Residence and co-founded Arête Therapeutics, a cardiovascular therapeutics  company and became a Managing Director of Burrill in 2006.

Prior to joining Burrill & Company, Dr. Hamer helped to build Paradigm Genetics/Icoria (acquired by Clinical Data, CLDA: NASDAQ) from its beginning in 1998, serving in various capacities as Director of Microbial Research,Vice President of Research, Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President for Business Development, and Interim President and CEO. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis in 1987 and was a visiting scientist at Dupont’s Central Research and Development from 1987 to 1989. He served on the faculty of Purdue University where he held the positions of Assistant Professor (‘89-’90), Associate Professor (‘92-’98), Professor (‘98-’00), and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University/Purdue University Medical School. He currently holds an honorary position as Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences. Dr.Hamer has published more than 70 research articles and has received numerous awards of distinction throughout his career, including a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship (1990-1995) and the National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship (1993-1998).

He has served on numerous scientific review and biotechnology advisory boards including those at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Purdue Alumni Science Advisory Board, and North Carolina Genomic and Bioinformatics Consortium. Dr. Hamer serves on the Boards of Directors of Chromatin, Cobalt Technologies (Chairman), Nanovasc Inc. (Director), Arête Therapeutics (Founder, Observer), and Diadexus (Observer).