ABOUT
About Magellan Bioanalytics
Magellan Bioanalytics is redefining how biological data is captured, analyzed, and understood.
Modern biology generates extraordinary amounts of information—especially through technologies like mass spectrometry—but much of that signal is lost.
Traditional software can’t keep up with the scale and complexity of the data, forcing researchers to simplify experiments, reduce sample sizes, or ignore large portions of what is measured.
We built Magellan to change that.
At the core of our platform is COMPASS, a purpose-built computational system designed to handle the full depth of mass spectrometry data. By combining rich biological samples—such as serum or plasma—with high-resolution mass spectrometry and advanced machine learning, Magellan enables a more complete and unbiased view of biology and patients.
This approach allows researchers and clinical teams to move beyond constrained datasets and toward a deeper, more precise understanding of patients, diseases, and treatment response.
Founder Bios
Marc Hansen, PhD
Founder
Cell Biologist
Marc trained as a cell biologist, earning his PhD at Stanford University and completing his postdoctoral work at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. He joined the faculty at Brigham Young University in 2005, where he led a research group for 15 years that pursued biological questions using an unusually broad range of technical approaches — from live cell imaging and two-photon microscopy to chemical genetics and proteomics.
His chemical genetics research led him into biotech, where he founded a cancer drug discovery company that developed a novel therapeutic compound now entering clinical evaluation. His proteomics work pointed in a different direction: a graduate student who spent a few months collecting mass spectrometry data then spent several years trying to analyze it. That imbalance — extraordinary data generation, inadequate tools to process it — became the founding problem Magellan was built to solve.
Marc deepened his understanding of large-scale biological data analysis during a 2012–13 sabbatical at the Systems Biology Group at Imperial College London. He is a co-author on the peer-reviewed publication demonstrating COMPASS's ability to classify breast cancer patients by disease stage using full-spectrum serum analysis (Cancers, 2024), and has led the application of COMPASS in clinical trial settings, including the blinded treatment-response study described in Magellan's white paper.
His broader experience includes drug discovery from concept through IND readiness, FDA approval for clinical studies, patent prosecution across multiple international jurisdictions, capital raising, technology licensing, and company leadership at the C and VP level.
Marc can be reached directly at mhansen@mag-bio.com.
Dan Olsen, PhD
Founder
Computer Scientist
Dan is a computer scientist with faculty appointments at Brigham Young University, Arizona State University, and Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught and conducted research at the intersection of large-scale data analysis, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction.
Marc and Dan began working together in 2013 through a technology innovation program that brought STEM researchers together with computer science talent. Recognizing that the mass spectrometry data problem was fundamentally a computational challenge — one requiring a rethinking of how software handles data at scale — Dan joined forces with Marc to build the tools that became COMPASS.
As CTO, Dan oversees all technology development and strategy at Magellan. His work is central to COMPASS's ability to process an average of one million molecular datapoints per sample across entire study cohorts without data reduction, pre-filtering, or loss of resolution. He holds a B.S. from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, has published extensively in computer graphics and human-computer interaction, and has held leadership roles in SIGGRAPH and the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. He is also recognized as a software intellectual property expert and consultant to software-focused venture capital firms.
Dan can be reached directly at olsen@mag-bio.com
What Makes Us Different
While instrumentation sensitivity has advanced rapidly, the ability to interpret the resulting data remains a key bottleneck in biological discovery. Magellan addresses this challenge for mass spectrometry datasets.
With COMPASS, we:
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Analyze the entire mass spectrum: every detected biomolecule, not a filtered subset
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Maximize insight from small pilot studies, with no limitation when expanding to larger studies
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Perform comprehensive analysis, without bias introduced by pre-selection and data trimming
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Unlock new biological insights that were previously inaccessible
MISSION
Our mission is to unlock the full informational potential of biological samples.
Better data leads to better decisions—whether in drug development, clinical trials, or translational research.
By expanding what can be measured and understood, Magellan aims to accelerate discovery and improve outcomes for trials, drugs, and patients.
