Feb 17th, 2022
Chris Shumate, CEO and Co-Founder Etaluma Inc.
Chris grew up in St. Louis Missouri and attended Washington University for a degree in Chemistry. He received a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Washington State University. In 1991 he entered the field of Drug Discovery instrumentation with the Hamilton Company’s liquid handling robots. Later he was an early employee of Aurora Biosciences where he worked with Nobel Laureate Roger Tsien towards industrializing drug discovery. Recognizing the limitations of existing software for fluorescent cellular analysis, he co-founded Cytoprint in 2001 to generate digital cell appearance signatures. Following acquisition, he co-founded Blueshift Biotechnologies where semiconductor wafer inspection techniques were applied to cellular analysis. This experience reinforced his belief that modern microscopy could be disrupted. In 2009 he co-founded Etaluma to take advantage of advances in CMOS sensors, LEDs, and filter technology applied to a new microscopy market. Etaluma turned 13 years old this year with 40% YoY revenue growth and three microscopes on the International Space Station currently. Chris’ wife heads up sales at Etaluma and he enjoys outdoor adventures with his adult son.
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