Ridgeway Biophotonics, LLC

I offer a San Diego based consulting service bridging the Scientific and Engineering product development worlds.

I help the genomics & life sciences communities build scientific instrumentation from scratch. My customers trust me to architect their new instruments and provide technical leadership for the prototyping process. I have brought many instruments to life, including an exome-scale DNA sequencer, genomic optical mapping instruments, single-molecule microscopes and high-throughput screening platforms for drug discovery. I can start with a blank sheet design - including all custom optics if warranted - or troubleshoot difficult problems in existing designs. I have been the technical lead for eight figure development programs, commissioned custom objectives and optics and made sure customers were getting the optical and electronic performance they needed from their suppliers.

I started as a biochemist, tackling first-of-their-kind but obscure measurements of coupled RNA folding and / RNA-protein binding processes. To do this, I learned to build single-molecule microscopes, and when I presented at conferences, other researchers were more interested in my instruments than the biochemistry. So I sought engineering mentorship in industry and learned to build commercial-grade instruments. As an expert in the domain of high throughput fluorescence microscopy, I have engineering proficiency in optical design, optical metrology, illumination and sensors, mathematically sophisticated algorithms, high performance computing, precise motion control, firmware, embedded Linux, microfluidics, nanofluidics and single-molecule analysis. This domain requires a large breadth of in depth knowledge and is as overwhelming as it is stimulating. What drives me is seeing an instrument working well, getting heavy use and cranking out reliable results.

I lead from the lab and take active roles in projects. I try to make your team maximally productive by charting a technical path that balances recent technological advances in the field, your team's current and future technical capabilities and the project's appetite for risk and business case. I'm there to help your team 1:1 when they hit hard problems or take on the problems myself. I enjoy mentoring and helping companies build engineering teams to continue engineering development after I am no longer needed to help get projects off the ground.

I always welcome the chance to discuss new projects, and can be reached via the Contact button below.

William Ridgeway

B.A. Molecular & Cell Biology (Honors) UC Berkeley

Ph.D. Biophysics, The Scripps Research Institute