Quanterix Taps Commercial Veteran to Drive Next Growth Phase

BILLERICA, Mass. – January 08, 2026 – Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ: QTRX) is ushering in a new era of leadership, appointing seasoned commercial executive Everett Cunningham as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 19, 2026. The move signals a deliberate strategic pivot for the biomarker technology firm, shifting focus from a period of intensive technological development and acquisition to one of aggressive commercialization and market expansion.

Cunningham, who most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer at genomics giant Illumina, will succeed Masoud Toloue. Dr. Toloue, who helmed the company through its transformative acquisition of Akoya Biosciences, will transition to an advisory role to ensure a smooth handover. The leadership change comes as Quanterix reports it expects to exceed its revenue and cash guidance for the full year 2025, setting a high bar for its incoming chief.

A New Commercial Mandate

The selection of Everett Cunningham is a clear statement of intent from the Quanterix board. His career is a roadmap of commercial leadership at some of the most influential companies in diagnostics and life sciences. Before his tenure at Illumina, where he was tasked with redesigning the global commercial model to accelerate growth, Cunningham was the Chief Commercial Officer at Exact Sciences. There, he led the marketing, sales, and customer service for the company's portfolio of cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics, a field directly relevant to Quanterix's clinical ambitions.

His resume also includes senior leadership roles at diagnostic powerhouse Quest Diagnostics and GE Healthcare. This deep background in diagnostics and scaling commercial operations is precisely what many industry observers believe Quanterix needs to fully capitalize on its powerful technology portfolio.

"Throughout his career, Everett has demonstrated his ability to accelerate growth at both research tools and diagnostics companies, build high-performing commercial organizations and lead transformational change at scale," said Bill Donnelly, who will transition from Executive Chair back to his prior role as non-executive Chair of the Board. "His deep understanding of our customers and markets and his track record of operational execution makes him exceptionally well suited to lead Quanterix in its next phase of growth."

The company is backing this mandate with a significant inducement package for Cunningham, including performance-based stock units tied to ambitious share price targets of $15 and $20. This structure tightly aligns the new CEO's incentives with delivering substantial shareholder value, underscoring the board's focus on driving growth and market recognition.

Building on a Transformative Foundation

Cunningham inherits a company fundamentally reshaped under the leadership of Masoud Toloue. Toloue's tenure was marked by a significant expansion of the company's proprietary Simoa® technology, an ultra-sensitive platform capable of detecting protein biomarkers at concentrations far below traditional methods. This technology has become a cornerstone for research in neurology, oncology, and immunology, with its applications featured in thousands of peer-reviewed publications.

However, Toloue's most defining move was the 2025 acquisition of Akoya Biosciences, The Spatial Biology Company®. This bold strategic play vaulted Quanterix into one of the hottest fields in life sciences. The acquisition integrated Akoya’s high-plex tissue imaging platforms with Quanterix's blood-based biomarker detection, creating a uniquely powerful, integrated platform that allows researchers to connect biological insights across both blood and tissue.

Donnelly acknowledged Toloue's contributions, stating, "Under his leadership, the Company significantly expanded its assay menu, entered adjacent markets, and built its Diagnostics business from the ground up... These initiatives, together with the transformative acquisition of Akoya Biosciences, have positioned Quanterix for broader scientific impact, deeper clinical relevance and enhanced long-term value creation." This foundation of powerful, synergistic technologies is the launchpad from which Cunningham is expected to drive commercial success.

The Spatial Biology Gambit and Clinical Ambitions

The integration of Akoya's technology is central to Quanterix's future. Spatial biology allows scientists to see not just what molecules are present in a tissue sample, but precisely where they are located and how they interact within the complex cellular neighborhood. This provides an unprecedented view of the tumor microenvironment, neurodegenerative disease progression, and immune responses, moving research far beyond what can be learned from disassociated cells alone.

By combining this tissue-level insight with its best-in-class Simoa technology for detecting biomarkers in blood, Quanterix now offers a comprehensive toolkit for precision medicine. Researchers can potentially identify a biomarker in the blood and then use spatial tools to visualize its activity directly within the diseased tissue, a powerful workflow for drug development and diagnostics.

This is where Cunningham's background becomes particularly critical. His experience at Exact Sciences, a company that successfully brought a non-invasive cancer screening test to market, and Quest Diagnostics, a leader in clinical laboratory services, provides him with the playbook to translate Quanterix's powerful research tools into clinically validated diagnostics. The goal is to move the company's technology from the research bench to the patient bedside, a challenging but highly lucrative transition that could revolutionize how diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer are detected and managed.

Navigating a High-Stakes Market

Quanterix does not operate in a vacuum. The markets for both ultra-sensitive proteomics and spatial biology are intensely competitive. In biomarker detection, it faces established players and nimble innovators alike. In the spatial biology arena, it now goes head-to-head with well-funded rivals like 10x Genomics and NanoString Technologies, both of which have established strong footholds in the research market.

The successful integration and commercialization of the Akoya platforms are therefore paramount. Cunningham's immediate challenge will be to unify the commercial teams, streamline the product narrative, and demonstrate to customers the unique value of the combined blood-and-tissue offering. His appointment is a bet that his proven operational and commercial acumen can outmaneuver competitors and capture significant market share.

Cunningham expressed his enthusiasm for the challenge, commenting, "With its differentiated technology platform, expanding portfolio and talented team, Quanterix is uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of innovation in advanced disease detection and therapeutic development." His leadership will be pivotal as the company navigates this competitive landscape, works to realize the full financial and scientific synergies of its recent acquisition, and strives to meet the high expectations set by its board and investors for a new chapter of sustained, profitable growth.