Our Scientific Consulting Firm’s

As a Principal Scientist and leader of Advantest’s Terahertz Applications group, Dr. McKay led efforts to gain traction for this unique and relatively unknown technology in the US and Europe.

Working with scientists in a wide variety of disciplines, from pharmaceutical manufacturing to the automotive, aerospace, and semiconductor industries, he helped scientists understand how this technology could solve their problems.

Through a combination of feasibility studies, presentations, publications, patents, and white papers, Dr. McKay’s team helped establish the scientific credibility of the company and raise awareness of the capabilities of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy in a broad range of fields.

During his tenure as a Principal Scientist and Director of Scientific Affairs Group, Dr. McKay drove the development of Omnyx Pathology Slide Scanner. From proof of concept to beta trials to market, he brought the product through a full development cycle.

To guide the trajectory of digital pathology, Dr. McKay interfaced with key opinion leaders and the FDA during the development of the system, helping gain regulatory approval and driving industry adoption.

In the role of Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Richard McKay led programs to develop and validate new high-throughput optical imaging systems. He also developed novel high-throughput fluorescent assays and investigated ultra-sensitive single-molecule detection technologies.

During his five years at GE, Dr. McKay cultivated relationships with pharmaceutical research customers, translating the requirements of end-user biologists to a multidisciplinary design team (engineers, optical scientists, programmers, algorithm developers) to deliver industry-best optical detection and cell analysis systems.

Working as a Senior Research Scientist for a small biotech, which then became a subsidiary of Amersham Biosciences, Dr. McKay brought a novel fluorescent assay for SNP genotyping to fruition.

Collaborating with the foremost expert in peptide nucleic acid technology, he advanced research into single-molecule SNP and haplotype analysis technologies.

As a Principal Research Scientist at Bayer, Dr. McKay headed up a group that developed a novel qualitative nucleic acid-based viral pathogen assay.

Not only was this project mission-critical, but the team faced an accelerated deadline. Working well under pressure and with a variety of key players, he successfully coordinated interdepartmental efforts to facilitate the implementation of this assay.

Thanks to their fast-acting development and enactment, Dr. McKay and his team immeasurably increased the safety of the final product – and potentially saved Bayer hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For half a decade at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) as a Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Richard McKay applied his skills to the field of mammalian calcium signaling.

He developed and applied a multi-faceted approach to clone, express, and probe the function of a novel family of calcium channels, using molecular and cell biological, pharmacological and biochemical techniques. To visualize dynamic organelle trafficking, he designed and implemented novel fluorescent assays.

During his tenure there, he established molecular biology as a staple technology in a lab renowned for cell biological and pharmacological approaches to the study of calcium signaling in non-excitable cells.