J. William Efcavitch, PhD

Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Molecular Assemblies

Bill Efcavitch was the ninth employees at Applied Biosystems. He built and managed the research and development groups that led the commercialization of phosphoramidite oligonucleotide synthesis and the Model 380A, 380B and 381 DNA synthesizers. During his 23 years at Applied Biosystems, he managed the development of many successful biotechnology instrument and reagent systems, including the ABI 1700 Expression Array System, Model 3900 DNA Synthesizer, ABI Prism Models 377 and 3700 Genetic Analyzers, ABI Model 310 DNA Analyzer, and the Model 230A Micro Preparative Electrophoresis System. He is co-inventor of the flowable polymer for capillary electrophoresis DNA sequencing used in all Applied Biosystems’ capillary sequencers as well as virtual terminator nucleotides for single molecule DNA sequencing. 

At Helicos BioSciences, he led the development of the Helicos® Genetic Analysis System, the world’s first commercially available single molecule DNA sequencer. Dr. Efcavitch has also served as an independent consultant to several venture capital firms and biotechnology start-up companies. 

Dr. Efcavitch received his PhD in 1978 at Ohio University, where he studied with Dr. Thomas E. Wagner. He was also a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Marvin H. Caruthers at the University of Colorado in Boulder from 1978-1981, before joining Applied Biosystems.