Swaroop Aradhya, PhD, is Illumina’s Global Head of Medical and Clinical Affairs. He is responsible for developing and executing strategies to drive genomics further into healthcare worldwide, to expand access to genomics, and to increase diversity of genomic data to improve health equity for people everywhere.

His group serves as a key internal linkage between R&D and Commercial teams and advises on compliance and scientific requirements. This organization guides adoption of Illumina’s products to address unmet medical needs and improve patient outcomes by collaborating with clinicians, healthcare institutions, government bodies, and key opinion leaders.

The Medical Affairs function supports product development, commercial activities, biopharma partnerships, market access, and regulatory efforts. This team provides medical education, conducts key scientific research on translational genomic medicine and publishes peer-reviewed science. The Clinical Affairs function is responsible for executing clinical studies designed for evidence generation to support global regulatory submissions. The Patient Advocacy team seeks meaningful engagement with individual patients and patient advocacy groups in order to build evidence and advocate for the positive impact of genomics utilization in the clinic.

Swaroop has had a long tenure in clinical genomics and developed deep experience in building effective global Medical Affairs teams, advancing laboratory practices in genomics, innovating ways to integrate genomics into routine healthcare, and publishing impactful scientific research. He has served in leadership roles at three globally prominent providers of clinical genomics technologies and services and his teams have conducted clinical studies to promote adoption of genomics in healthcare, reimbursement by third-party payers, and advances in clinical guidelines. Over the past 20 years, he has cultivated a broad range of relationships in the global genomics community and served on various influential consortia, committees, and boards.

Before Illumina, Swaroop was Chief of Global Medical Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer for rare disease at Invitae, where he spent a decade helping build the company into a leader in clinical genetic testing. Previously, he was part of the executive team at GeneDx, where he helped develop business strategy and established a large-scale diagnostic program for neurodevelopmental and congenital rare disease. Earlier in his career, he participated in the Human Genome Project and characterized the etiologies for various Mendelian disorders. Swaroop earned his Ph.D. in 2001 in molecular and human genetics from Baylor College of Medicine and has been certified since 2007 in clinical molecular genetics and cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics.