# Alex Aravanis

> Alex Aravanis is the CEO and co-founder of Moonwalk Biosciences, a precision epigenetics company he launched in 2024 with $57 million and Broad Institute scientist Feng Zhang. An engineer-turned-physician with degrees from UC Berkeley and Stanford, he co-founded the cancer early-detection company GRAIL, later returned to Illumina as Chief Technology Officer, and now wants to rewrite the 'software of the genome' without cutting a single strand of DNA.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Moonwalk Biosciences
- **Organizations:** Moonwalk Biosciences, GRAIL, Illumina, ONI (Oxford Nanoimaging), Sapphire Energy, Pria Diagnostics
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (Physics minor), University of California, Berkeley, MS and PhD, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, MD, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded GRAIL and led R&D for one of the largest clinical study programs in genomic medicine, developing a multi-cancer early detection blood test, As Illumina CTO, led research and product development across assays, arrays, sequencers, and software during a period of record product launches, At Illumina built the first distributed comprehensive genomic profiling assay for liquid biopsy and tumor tissue, and early massively parallel single-cell sequencing

## Career timeline

- **early 2000s** — Postdoctoral research at Stanford University, where he met then-graduate student Feng Zhang
- **—** — Co-Founder and VP of Engineering, Pria Diagnostics
- **—** — VP of Development and Chief Science Officer, Sapphire Energy
- **2013** — Joined Illumina as Senior Director of R&D; led liquid biopsy, single-cell, and targeted RNA assay development
- **2016** — Co-founded GRAIL; served as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D on multi-cancer early detection
- **2020** — Returned to Illumina as Chief Technology Officer, Head of Research and Product Development
- **2023** — Appointed to the board of directors of ONI (Oxford Nanoimaging)
- **2024** — Launched Moonwalk Biosciences as CEO and Co-Founder with $57M in seed and Series A financing

## Achievements

- Co-founded GRAIL and led R&D for one of the largest clinical study programs in genomic medicine, developing a multi-cancer early detection blood test
- As Illumina CTO, led research and product development across assays, arrays, sequencers, and software during a period of record product launches
- At Illumina built the first distributed comprehensive genomic profiling assay for liquid biopsy and tumor tissue, and early massively parallel single-cell sequencing
- Co-founded Moonwalk Biosciences and raised $57M to advance precision epigenetic medicines
- Developed the EpiRead and EpiWrite platforms for single-cell methylome mapping and multiplexed epigenetic engineering

## Latest updates

- **2024-01** — Moonwalk Biosciences launched publicly with $57M in seed and Series A financing led by Alpha Wave Ventures, with Aravanis as CEO.
- **2024-02** — Featured guest on The Peter Attia Drive podcast (#290) discussing liquid biopsies, epigenetics, and aging.
- **2024-05** — Moonwalk presented its first platform data at ASGCT 2024, showing single-cell methylome mapping and targeted methylation modifications.

## Links

- Website: https://moonwalk.bio
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-aravanis-md-phd-3a9345

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alex-aravanis
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-19