Biological Dynamics: Mike Aicher, Michael Nall, Michael Russell
Biological Dynamics, a San Diego-based company developing exosome isolation and early disease detection technologies, has appointed Mike Aicher as chief operating officer. Aicher most recently served as executive chairman of Roswell Biotechnologies, and has also been a director at Genetic Signatures, board member at Techcyte, and chairman of the board at CytoBay. He also cofounded and was CEO at National Genetics Institute, now part of Labcorp.
Biological Dynamics also said that Michael Nall is assuming the role of chief commercial officer. Nall most recently served as president, CEO, and a board member at Biocept. Prior to that, he served in senior operational and commercial roles at Clarient, before and after its acquisition by GE Healthcare. Nall currently serves on the boards of Nonigenex, Clearity Foundation, and Alacrity, and on the industry relations committee at Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego Health.
In addition, Michael Russell has replaced Biological Dynamics' cofounder Raj Krishnan as a director. Russell has served as head of finance for several companies including Enevate and MaxLinear. He will serve on the board's audit committee.
Bionano Genomics: Donna Polizio
Bionano Genomics has appointed Donna Polizio as its global head of market access. In this newly created role, Polizio will advocate for the company with government and private payors to drive global reimbursement for optical genome mapping-based tests, with a strong focus on the US market. In addition, Polizio will lead Bionano's government relations efforts, the company said. Prior to Bionano, Polizio was the VP of US managed care and reimbursement at Genomic Health.
DNA Script: Bruno Poddevin
DNA Script has appointed Bruno Poddevin as senior VP of business and corporate development to manage the firm's external collaborations and partnerships. Poddevin joins DNA Script from the genomic services branch of Eurofins, and he has worked for several DNA synthesis companies including Genset Oligos, Proligo, Sigma-Genosys, MWG Biotech, and Operon Biotechnologies. He holds a master's degree in engineering and a Ph.D. in molecular biology.
Pleno: Mark Gardner
Pleno, a San Diego-based multiomics instrument provider, said that Mark Gardner has joined its board of directors. Gardner is currently senior VP of molecular genomics and oncology at Quest Diagnostics. Prior to that he was senior VP at Corza Health and CEO of OmniSeq. He also spent 12 years in various executive roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific (previously Life Technologies), including as VP and general manager of the Ion Torrent business unit.
NeoGenomics: David Perez
NeoGenomics has appointed David Perez to its board of directors. Perez retired in 2019 as CEO of Terumo BCT, a blood-banking, transfusion medicine, and cell-based therapy company. He holds a B.A. in political science from Texas Tech University.
OpGen: Yvonne Schlaeppi
OpGen has elected Yvonne Schlaeppi as a new, independent nonexecutive member of the company's board of directors. Since 2011, Schlaeppi has served as a managing partner of Stratevise, an international strategic advisory firm that she cofounded. From 2007 to 2011, she served as general counsel at Global Enterprise Technologies, Passport & ID, a high-security document printing solutions provider and systems integrator. Schlaeppi also previously served as executive VP, general counsel, and corporate IP officer at Organon BioSciences; and as a partner at the Boston-based law firm of Palmer & Dodge.
Day Zero Diagnostics: Gail Marcus
Gail Marcus has joined the board of infectious disease diagnostics firm Day Zero Diagnostics. She is an assistant professor of population health at Hofstra University and has held leadership positions at Fortune 100 firms including at CIGNA, AdvancePCS/Caremark CVS, UnitedHealth Group, and Caris Diagnostics where she was president and CEO. Boston-based Day Zero recently said it received an additional $8.2 million in non-dilutive funding from CARB-X to develop its sequencing-based diagnostic system.
AnPac Bio: Yuyang Cui, Jiawen Kang
AnPac Bio-Medical Science said this week that Yuyang Cui has resigned as co-chair of its board of directors and co-CEO, effective Nov. 7. In addition, Jiawen Kang has resigned as company director, member of the audit committee, and member of the nominating and corporate governance committee, effective Nov. 4.
For additional recent items on executive appointments, promotions, and departures in the omics and molecular diagnostics space, please see the People in the News page on our website.