Our Team

150+ Years of Experience

Combined from our Scientists, Researchers, and Doctors

Our team at VisionGate has considerable knowledge and an extensive work history in the creation of cutting-edge technologies in fields including pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. We’ve put our heads together to develop world-class early-stage lung cancer detection methods.

Executive Team

Alan Nelson

President and CEO

Dr. Nelson, is founder, Chairman and CEO of VisionGate where his team has developed the world’s first AI-driven 3D cell analysis platform, Cell-CT, to address the unmet medical need for non-invasive, early-stage lung cancer detection.

Previously, he was the founder and CEO of NeoPath, where his team developed the world’s first and only fully-automated AI-driven platform to detect cervical cancer, now marketed as FocalPoint by Becton Dickinson. He is the former Executive Director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute and has held professorships at ASU, University of Washington, MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Nelson holds 22 U.S. patents and has 28 peer-reviewed publications in the field of biomedical imaging. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from U.C. Berkeley.

Michael Meyer

Chief Technology Officer

As CTO, Mr. Meyer manages efforts among the various technical and clinical groups and provides final technical arbitration. His expertise is in artificial intelligence methods which are used for the development of tests such as the LuCED® test for early lung cancer detection based on the Cell-CT™ platform.

He was previously a research scientist for TriPath Imaging, Inc. (formerly NeoPath), where he supervised a variety of efforts to develop algorithms to detect rarely occurring cervical neoplasms and their precursors on Pap smear slides. Prior to TriPath, he was employed at IBM in Rochester, MN.

Jon Hayenga

VP, Advanced Product Development

Mr. Hayenga has 30 years of product development experience, 22 of them in the FDA-regulated industry. He has held senior engineering and management roles in previous start-up biomedical technology companies, including NeoPath, where he delivered emerging complex technology products.

Before joining VisionGate, Mr. Hayenga was director of engineering at Micronics where he developed patented technologies utilizing instrumentation and micro-fluidics solutions for the biotech industry. He holds more than 30 patents and contributes at the theoretical level as well as the applied level.

David Wilbur, M.D.

Medical Director

Dr. Wilbur is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. As the Medical Director and Member of VisionGate’s Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Wilbur serves as the final review on all patient cases. He is an anatomic pathologist practicing at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Nikki Villanueva

Sr. Director, Human Resources and Operations

Ms. Villanueva is a certified Professional in Human Resources with over 15 years’ experience centered around both operational excellence and strategic HR. She has served in several leadership roles with companies in various phases of growth. Her hands-on methodology of leading executive teams to high performance, achieving strategic and operational objectives, as well as driving accountability, has been a mainstay of achievement for her groups and organizations.

She has a passion for people, maintaining the highest level of integrity and utilizing her vast knowledge in corporate strategy, executive leadership and human resources, which has led to her being a critical member on every team she has joined. She is a member of several local and national networks and advisory groups.

Board of Directors

Tom Miller

Board Member

Tom is a global healthcare industry leader and visionary CEO. He served as CEO of the Customer Solutions Division of Siemens Healthcare. He also served as CEO of Carl Zeiss, Analogic Corporation, and LightLab Imaging.

Tom is a frequent speaker on healthcare technology and business. He gave the 2013 commencement address to the India Institute of Technology, the keynote addresses to the Chinese Private Hospital Association, the Innovation for Health Conference in Amsterdam, the TiE Leapfrog Conference in Bangalore, and the World Executive Healthcare Forum in Montreal.

Tom Serves on the Board of Atlas 5D and Hummingbird Diagnostics and serves as Chairman of the Board of Ceres Nanosciences. Tom earned his Master of Science degree in Medical Physics from Harvard/MIT.

Margery Perry

Board Member

Margery Perry has been an experienced health care advocate for over 30 years focusing primarily in the diabetes field. She has served on several International non-profit boards leading the scientific research efforts.

In addition she has served on the NIH National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Committee and the International Stem Cell Forum and was part of the group that set the ethical guidelines for Stem Cell research worldwide.

Margery is an advisor for the University of Massachusetts Diabetes Center and a for-profit stem cell company. She has been an invited speaker at many conferences across the world. Her education was in Philosophy in Europe and Mexico.

Neil Bush

Board Member

Neil Bush is an international businessman who operates through Neil Bush Global Advisers. He is Chairman of Singhaiyi, a Singapore publicly listed company; Co-Chairman of CIIC, a property development business in China; and, Chairman of A&A Consulting, a global platform that provides bridging services between the United States and Asia in health care, education, and technology in the USA.

Neil chairs both the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, dedicated to helping all Houstonians realize their fullest potential through literacy, and the Bush China U.S. Relations Foundation, which convenes a conference that brings together leaders from the United States and China forging cooperation on issues of global importance. Neil serves on the advisory boards of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, the Houston Salvation Army and the Asia Society Texas Center. In 2016, Mr. Bush co-founded A&A Consultants, which focuses on cross border business development, mergers and acquisitions, fund management and financial advisory.

Mr. Bush also serves as Chairman of the Points of Light Board of Directors and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Our Technology

Our breakthrough technology helps detect early signs of lung cancer that otherwise may not be discovered. Through non-intrusive testing we’re able to detect the abnormal cells indicating lung cancer and lung dysplasia.

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Non-Intrusive Testing

Sputum (phlegm) samples from a deep cough (LuCED° Lung Test) are collected over a three-day period using a take-home test kit.

AI-Powered Cancer Detection

Our AI-based classification of cells can identify 1,000 cell images per second and over 800 3D cell features at a 200 nanometer isotropic resolution.

Patented Cell-CT Imaging

High-resolution 3D images (Cell-CT™) of individual cells contained in the sputum measure hundreds of disease indicators and molecular markers in each cell.

Our Partners

VisionGate has strong clinical engagement with leading academic and healthcare institutions such as Northwestern Medicine, Vrijie University (Netherlands), and Kaiser Permanente.