In
1997, Cathy and Mike co-founded Wildcrest
Associates, a Silicon Valley consultancy and software
products company
specializing in software business consulting, intellectual property
development,
and Internet applications and components.
Cathy was a Staff Engineer at Applied
Biosystems. Applied Biosystems is the world-wide
leader in
DNA
sequencing hardware and software systems. Their
systems have
been the driving force behind many recent gene sequencing breakthroughs
and play a prominant role in the Human Genome Project working with
their
sister company Celera Genomics.
Cathy
had the technical lead role for Applied Biosystems' DNA fragment
analysis
product line, consisting of an integrated suite of three products: Genotyper,
GenoPedigree, and GenBase. She was the originator,
designer,
and lead programmer on GenoPedigree, a family tree visualization and
analysis
program for the Macintosh.
Cathy was the technical lead and software architect for Applied Biosystems' GeneMapper high-performance genotyping software, developed in Java.
Cathy also developed DNA sequencing software and mass spectrometer software while at Applied Biosystems.
Prior
to Applied Biosystems, Cathy was a Senior Software Engineer for Becton
Dickinson Immunocytometry Systems, makers of
immunofluorescent cell
sorter and analyzer systems for the medical research and biotechnology
industries. Cathy developed VMS, Unix, and Macintosh versions
of
the software that runs these instruments and analyzes their
data.
She played a important role in BDIS's transition to Macintosh-based
systems
and was a key member of the team that developed their current flagship
product, the CellQuest
software system. 
As
part of her post-doctoral work at Northwestern University, Cathy worked
with Dr. Mark Karlan on 3D reconstruction and measurement of
eardrums. 
Cathy
developed a technique to calibrate and measure stereo
photographs of eardrums sprayed with ink droplets, perform
automated
stereoscopic matching of the two images, and from these compute and
display
3D
reconstructions of the eardrum surfaces. 
Working
as a post-doctoral fellow with colleague Bob Josephs at the University
of Chicago, Cathy, Mike, and two graduate students Bridget Carragher
and
Dave Blumke developed the image processing and 3D reconstruction
systems
used to solve the molecular
structure of sickle cell hemoglobin fibers that underlie
sickle cell
anemia. Cathy's specialty was Fourier
filtering
of macrofibers, shown here in lateral and cross-section
views. 
Cathy
received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Chicago, where her
thesis was on the development computer-based analysis techniques for
studying
cellular slime mold chemotaxis using time-lapse microcinephotography.
Cathy's
Ph.D. thesis involved detailed analysis of motility in aggregating
fields of cellular slime molds. Fields of cells
responding to
propagated chemical signals move in bands such as are shown
here. 
Cathy's
research involved performing different developmental experiments,
performing
time-lapse microscopy, and then measuring and analyzing individual
cell tracks of motion. Computer analysis revealed
how individual
motions combined into the overall behaviors and were influenced under
varying
experimental conditions. 
Cathy
received her M.S. in Biology from Purdue
University in West Lafayette, Indiana. 
Cathy
received her B.S. from Juniata
College
in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where she had a double major in Chemistry
and Biology.