NEW YORK, March 21 -- Michael Berens, a researcher at
His first task will be to talk to potential partners, such as pharmaceutical companies, and to raise funds for the consortium, according to an IGC spokesperson.
Berens, a former researcher at the Barrow Neurological Institute, will keep his position as senior investigator at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in order to be able to pursue federally funded research.
Further, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based consortium named Robert Penny as chief medical officer, Michael Bittner as chief research officer, and Michael Rodgers as chief financial officer. In addition, Max Poll, president and CEO at Scottsdale Healthcare, was elected to the IGC's board.
The IGC, a non-profit medical research foundation, is planning to collect tissue samples from a variety of sources and analyze them using genomics technologies. Its first project will be to study gene expression in cancer.