Michael Campbell, Abhay Joshi, William Freytag, Leroy Hood, Ira Levin, Randal Chase, John Langstaff, Ross MacLachlan, Yves Rosconi, Jane Steinberg, Alan Wildeman, Donald Ware, Dana Gordon, James Hogg, Dominic Frisina

 

Michael Campbell has been named executive director of the Seed Biotechnology Center at University of California, Davis, a newly-created position, effective Aug. 1.

 

In his new position, Campbell will work with academic director Kent Bradford to lead the ongoing development and implementation of the Center’s research and education program. Campbell will oversee strategic planning and implementation of programs and activities that support SBC’s mission, goals, and partnership objectives. SBC aims to serve as a link between academic research, education programs, and the commercialization of new agricultural technologies.

 

Campbell was previously associate vice chancellor of university relations at University of California, Merced. He has been involved with the center since its conceptual phase in 1998. Over the next two years as assistant dean for college relations at UC Davis’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, he led the fundraising effort for both the center and its programs and the Center which is now housed in UC Davis’ Plant Reproductive Biology building.

 

Campbell earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and a master’s degree from Stanford University.

 

 

Abhay Joshi Named President and CEO of Alvine Pharmaceuticals

 

Abhay Joshi has been named president and CEO of Alvine Pharmaceuticals, as well as a member of the company’s board of directors. Headquartered in San Carlos, Calif., Alvine is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutic products for the treatment of celiac sprue.

 

Joshi previously served as executive vice president and chief technical officer at CoTherix, which was acquired in January by Actelion.

 

Joshi received his BTech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; an MSE and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Southern California School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

 

Joshi succeeds Blair Stewart, a co-founder of Alvine who will continue with the company as a consultant.

 

 

 

William Freytag has been named chairman and CEO of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals following the announced departure in May of Richard Glickman, the company’s first chairman/CEO and a co-founder of the publicly traded Victoria, BC, company.

 

Previously, Freytag served as president, CEO, and Chairman of Myogen, a publicly traded development-stage biopharmaceutical company acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2006. He earlier held positions at Somatogen, Boehringer Mannheim, and DuPont.

 

Freytag currently serves on the board of directors for Immunicon, Arca Discovery, and the Colorado BioScience Association. He is also a member of the board of advisors to the Colorado University Cardiovascular Institute, and serves on the executive advisory council for the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship.

 

Freytag received a PhD from the University of Kansas Medical Center, and a BS in Biochemistry from Purdue University. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center.

Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) has appointed two new members to its board of directors:

 

Leroy Hood, co-founder and president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and an inventor of the DNA sequencing technology used to map the human genome. Previously, Hood worked as the William Gates III professor of biomedical sciences and founding chairman of the department of molecular biotechnology at the University of Washington. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the California Institute of Technology, a doctor of medicine from the John Hopkins Medical School, and a doctorate in biochemistry from Caltech.

 

Ira Levin, a senior investigator and deputy director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases within the National Institutes of Health. Levin’s laboratory has pioneered technologies in vibrational spectroscopic imaging techniques that are used in materials research, biomedical approaches for monitoring disease progression and organ dysfunction. Levin holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in physical chemistry from Brown University.

 

Science Foundation Arizona is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that funds research, training and industry-academic collaborations. It was founded in 2006 by three CEO groups: Flagstaff 40, Greater Phoenix Leadership, and Southern Arizona Leadership Council.

 

 

 

BIOTECanada, an industry-funded organization based in Ottawa, has named six new members to its board of directors:

Randal Chase, president and CEO of ImmunoVaccine Technologies, a Halifax, Nova Scotia, company commercializing a proprietary vaccine technology.

 

John Langstaff, president and CEO of Cangene, a Winnipeg developer of specialty hyperimmune plasma and biotechnology products.

 

Ross MacLachlan, president and CEO of Lignol Energy, a Vancouver developer of biorefineries for the production of fuel-grade ethanol and other biochemical co-products from cellulosic biomass feedstocks.

 

Yves Rosconi is president and CEO of Theratechnologies, a Montréal biopharmaceutical company that won Biotechnology Company of the Year honors last year from BIOTECanada.

 

Jane Steinberg is a partner with Gowling Lafleur Henderson, and heads the firm's national Life Sciences Industry Group.

 

Alan Wildeman, vice-president of research at the University of Guelph. He is an executive committee member of Ontario's genomics advisory panel, and a member of the scientific advisory board of Foragen Technologies Management.

 

The appointments were announced during BIOTECanada’s annual general meeting, held June 18 in Montreal.

 

 

 

Donald Ware has been named chair of the expanded intellectual property group at Boston-based law firm Foley Hoag, while Dana Gordon, a registered patent attorney and scientist, has been named the group’s deputy chair.

 

The IP group consists of more than 80 professionals, includes lawyers, scientists, engineers, medical doctors and other practitioners experienced in patent prosecution, patent litigation, technology transfer, IP due diligence and strategies, copyright and trademark prosecution, and trade secret litigation.

 

Ware, a former member of the law firm's executive committee, specializes in biomedical patent litigation including recombinant DNA, monoclonal antibodies, small molecule compounds, drug delivery, molecular diagnostics, research tool patents, and medical devices. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard University.

 

Dana is a registered patent attorney, handling matters involving organic chemistry, including synthetic organic chemistry, pharmaceuticals, molecular diversity, materials science, biochemistry and molecular biology. Gordon holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Yale University, and a law degree from Boston College Law School.

 

 

 

James Hogg has been named a partner in the corporate and business practice of the law firm Brouse McDowell, while associate Dominic Frisina has been named to the law firm’s intellectual property practice in Akron, Ohio.

 

Hogg will focus on the core areas of corporate securities and merger/acquisition work. He has counseled Weatherhead 100, Fortune 50, Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange companies in industries ranging from manufacturing to e-commerce. A member of the American, Ohio, and Cleveland Bar Associations, Hogg received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

 

Frisina, a onetime chemist, has drafted and prosecuted patent cases in biotechnology as well as other science and technology specialties. Frisina has a masters’ degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from the University of Louisville. Frisina is a member of the American and Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Associations, the Akron and Ohio State Bar Associations, Akron Law Library, and American Chemical Society.

 

Brouse McDowell has nearly 70 attorneys and offices in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio, as well as Akron.