GA4GH: Heidi Rehm
The board of directors of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) has elected Heidi Rehm to a three-year term as chair, effective in January. Rehm, chief genomics officer at Massachusetts General Hospital and codirector of medical and population genetics at the Broad Institute, will replace Ewan Birney, who has chaired the alliance since November 2016. Rehm has been GA4GH vice chair since 2018.
Mercy BioAnalytics: Josh Gralapp, Tim Membrino
Josh Gralapp has joined Mercy BioAnalytics as VP for marketing and strategic alliances, and Tim Membrino has joined the firm as VP for program and portfolio management. Gralapp comes to the liquid biopsy company from Delfi Diagnostics, where he was VP of commercial. Previously, he held marketing roles at Exact Sciences and at Genomic Health. He holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BS in chemistry from California State University, Chico. Membrino joins Mercy from Quanterix, where he was VP for program and portfolio management. Before that, he held project management office roles at life science companies including Medtronic, Bio-Rad, and RainDance Technologies.
Deepcell: Mark Aitkenhead
Mark Aitkenhead has been appointed as chief commercial officer of Deepcell, a new position at the Menlo Park, California-based single-cell analysis company. He comes to Deepcell from next-generation sequencing firm Element Biosciences, where he had the same role. Before that, he held various positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific, including general manager for cellular analysis instrumentation and global commercial leader for the clinical next-generation sequencing division. Aitkenhead obtained a PhD in anatomy and a bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences from Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
One Biosciences: Hedi Ben Brahim
Hedi Ben Brahim has been appointed as CEO of single-cell analysis firm One Biosciences, succeeding Magali Richard, who cofounded the company and will remain its chief operating officer. Ben Brahim joins Paris-based One Biosciences from Transgene, where he was CEO. Prior to that, he was VP of immunotherapy at Institut Mérieux. He holds degrees from École Polytechnique and from École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.
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.