About Us

Aaron Bensimon, Ph.D., co-founder, CEO & President

Aaron founded Genomic Vision in 2005 and was appointed as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer in May 2006. He also serves as Genomic Vision’s Chief Scientific Officer.

Aaron has brought more than 20 years of scientific and management experience to Genomic Vision and is responsible for the overall planning and execution of the company’s operations. He also facilitates and coordinates research collaborations and licensing and business agreements between Genomic Vision and other industry leaders and supervises trademark and patent activities.

Aaron co-discovered Molecular Combing and is a renowned expert on all aspects of this pioneering technology including its applications. His contributions to this field have been published extensively in leading medical and business journals and he has authored more then 20 patent applications that have been granted on Molecular Combing

Prior to Genomic Vision he spent 15 years in a permanent position at the Pasteur Institute in Paris where he was Head of the Genome Stability Unit. Aaron received the Jacques Monod prize from the Fondation de France (an award to young scientists who have made significant advances in the early years of their career). Formerly, he pursued post-doctoral research in Prof. Jean-Pierre Changeux’s laboratory, Pasteur Institute, Paris, where he was awarded a Human Frontier Science Fellowship. Aaron received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel in 1993.

Erwan Martin, MBA, Vice-President Finance & Corporate Development

With over 20 years of professional experience in the field of finance and biotechnologies, Erwan Martin is an expert on financial issues and corporate development.

He joined Genomic Vision is 2009 as Administrative and Financial Director, before being appointed Vice-president of finance and corporate development in 2011.

As well as the administrative and financial management of the company and the search for capital (fund raising), today he is in charge of negotiating collaboration agreements and licenses with industrial and academic partners and industrial production contracts. He also oversees internal industrialization and quality control.

Erwan Martin started his career as an analyst, and was head of missions for ten years with Syndex, a firm specializing in audits and consultancy for works councils.

In 2000, he co-founded Cytomics Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company specialising in drug research. A member of the board and in turn General Manager and Administrative and Financial Director, he supervised the development of the company, in particular organising several funding rounds and mobilizing over €20 million in public aid.

Erwan Martin holds an MBA from the Warwick Business School (United Kingdom). He is also a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) in Toulouse.

Yamina Ghomchi, Ph.D, Director of Technology and Innovation

A physicist by training with more than ten years’ experience, Yamina Ghomchi specializes in complex instrumentation.

She joined Genomic Vision in 2006 as a project manager for R&D Instrumentation, before taking responsibility for the Department of Technology & Innovation.

Today, she is in charge of designing and developing specific imaging technologies and automating the molecular biology process.

Yamina Ghomchi started her career in 1997 at the Meudon Observatory, as part of her doctoral thesis, as a research engineer in the Laboratory for space studies and astrophysics instrumentation (LESIA), where she helped to develop an instrument for the ESA Rosetta space mission.

She then joined Atmel Grenoble, as a Test & Characterisation engineer, and worked as a consultant for Segime (Altran group) on missions in the field of high-precision optics systems.

She is a graduate engineer from the ENSPS (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg) and a doctor of physics (Astrophysics and associated Instrumentations) of the University of Paris-VI.

Guillaume Boissy, Ph.D, Director of IT & Bioinformatics

Aged 46, Guillaume Boissy has 15 years’ experience in the field of life sciences and health, as a specialist in information systems and bioinformatics.

He started his career in 1999 at Hybrigenics, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in developing innovative drugs against cancer and in the proteomics of interactions, where he held various positions before becoming director of information systems (DSI) and bioinformatics in 2005 and holding a seat of the board.

A biologist by trade, graduate in molecular biophysics (Université Paris-VI Pierre-et-Marie-Curie) and a doctorate in x-ray crystallography, he also did a Masters in IT at the INSA in Lyon. He is the joint inventor of a patent and the author of ten scientific publications.

A member of the R&D board at Genomic Vision, that he joined in 2011, Guillaume Boissy is today responsible for managing information systems and bioinformatics developments associated with the projects, in particular image and data analysis along the production chain.

Pierre Walrafen, Ph.D, R&D Alliance Manager

With eight years of professional experience, Pierre Walrafen, aged 37, is a specialist in developing genetic diagnostic tests.

He has spent most of his career at Genomic Vision since joining them in 2006, first as a project manager within the diagnostic division, then as head of the partnership with Quest Diagnostics. He is a member of the partnership’s executive board and supervises transfers of technology and expertise to clients, as well as looking for avenues for development. A joint inventor of four patents and author of numerous scientific publications, he is also responsible for intellectual property.

A graduate engineer from the Ecole Polytechnique, he also holds a Master of Advanced Studies in oncogenesis, and a doctorate in cellular biochemistry (Paris VII Denis Diderot).

He regularly visits third level establishments to give courses or promote careers in biotechnologies. He is an external member of the Council of the doctoral school of biology/biotechnology of the University of Paris-VII Denis Diderot.