Sunesis Pharmaceuticals this week announced the appointment of Lesley Stolz as vice president of corporate and businesses development.
Stolz will oversee the company’s partnering and collaboration activities. Stolz joins Sunesis from Aerovance, where she was senior director of business development. She has also served as senior director of business development for GPC Biotech AG, and director of business development for Cell Genesys. She holds a PhD and MS from the University of Rochester, and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School.
The Arizona BioIndustry Association last week said that Natasha Hebell-Fernando will become the association’s chief operating officer on Dec. 4.
Hebell-Fernando joins AZ Bio from the Arizona Department of Commerce, where she most recently served as the Arizona small business advocate and executive director of the Arizona Governor’s Council on Small Business. She has also served the department in various roles since 2003, including assistant director of the office of innovation and technology, and bioscience manager in the global business development division.
Gene Logic last week announced that Bethany Mancilla has been promoted to senior vice president of business development, and will lead the company’s partnering and licensing efforts.
Since July 2004, Mancilla held positions within Gene Logic’s drug repositioning partnerships division and its toxicogenomics business. Prior to Gene Logic, Mancilla was director of business development at BCM Technologies, the venture and tech-transfer subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine.
Robert Cade, the University of Florida scientist that led the research team that invented the sports beverage Gatorade, died last week at the age of 80, UF said.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Cade attended medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He came to UF in 1961 as an assistant professor for the College of Medicine’s renal division, and was UF’s first kidney specialist and one of the university’s first true clinical and translational researchers, Bruce Kone, dean of the UF College of Medicine, said in a statement.
Gatorade bred a multibillion-dollar sports drink industry and has brought in more than $150 million in royalties to UF since its invention 40 years ago, the school said. The money has funded numerous projects and programs in the UF College of Medicine. Cade also used some of his share of the royalties to fund scholarships and an endowed chair in the college.
“Without that funding, the College of Medicine would not be where it stands today,” Kone said.