Haystack Oncology: Bert Vogelstein, Diamantis Xylas, George Petrocheilos, Isaac Ro
Bert Vogelstein, Diamantis Xylas, George Petrocheilos, and Isaac Ro have joined the board of directors of Johns Hopkins University spinout Haystack Oncology in connection with the firm's recent Series A financing.
Vogelstein is codirector of the Ludwig Center at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and a scientific cofounder of Haystack, Exact Sciences, and Thriver Earlier Detection. Xylas, who will be an observer on Haystack's board, is head of research; and Petrocheilos is cofounder and managing partner at Catalio Capital Management, Haystack's lead investor. Ro, who will chair Haystack's board, is the former CFO of Thrive Earlier Detection (acquired by Exact Sciences in 2020) and the former CFO of Sema4.
Alveo Technologies: Shaun Holt, Erik Tyrrell-Knott, and Slava Elagin
Alveo Technologies, an Alameda, California-based developer of point-of-care molecular tests for infectious diseases, has made three new executive appointments: Shaun Holt as CEO and chairman of the board of directors; Erik Tyrrell-Knott as chief business and strategy officer; and Slava Elagin as chief technology officer.
Holt previously served as chief operating officer at Atonarp, an optical and mass spectrometry instrument company. Prior to that he was CFO for Berkeley Lights, leading that company through its $205 million IPO. Holt also held numerous finance leadership positions during a seven-year tenure with Illumina. He is an advisor to Celesta Capital and is on the board of directors of Prellis Biologics.
Tyrrell-Knott most recently served as VP of business development at Atonarp. Prior to that he was head of business development at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Tyrrell-Knott also previously served as senior VP of business development and product management at Mesa Biotech prior to its acquisition by Thermo Fisher.
Elagin has held senior executive operations and R&D positions with several publicly traded and privately held companies including MiraVista Diagnostics, Meridian Biosciences, EraGen Biosciences, and Third Wave Technologies.
Biofidelity: Matt Franklin
Genomic technology company Biofidelity has appointed Matt Franklin as a non-executive director. Franklin I currently president and chief operating officer of Akili. He has previously served as the general manager of the oncology business at Exact Sciences, and has held senior leadership roles at Foundation Medicine (acquired by Roche), ArcherDx (acquired by Invitae), and Thrive Earlier Detection (acquired by Exact Sciences).
Biocept: Quyen Dao-Haddock
Biocept has appointed Quyen Dao-Haddock to its board of directors, effective immediately. The company's board has increased to eight members as a result. Dao-Haddock will serve on Biocept's audit committee. She is a certified public accountant with more than 20 years of accounting experience and is controller of real estate investment trust IQHQ, which is focused on the life sciences industry. She previously was chief accounting officer of Presidio Property Trust. Before that she was corporate controller of American Assets Trust.
IndyGeneUS AI: Kumar Balasubramaniam
IndyGeneUS AI has named Nandha Kumar Balasubramaniam to its scientific advisory board. Balasubramaniam, who goes by Kumar Bala, is a former head of digitalomics strategy and former director of healthcare genomics, medical device, and life science strategy for Oracle. Earlier, he held manager-level marketing positions at companies including Integrated DNA Technologies, Qiagen, MP Biomedicals, and Bio-Rad Laboratories.
Cue Health: Josh Ghaim, Sachin Jain
Josh Ghaim and Sachin Jain have joined Cue Health's board of directors, the company said.
Ghaim joined the board in July and is the founder and managing partner of innovation accelerator Ignite Venture Studio. He was previously chief technology officer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.
Jain joined the board last month and is president and CEO of Scan Group, as well as a professor of medicine at Stanford University. He previously served as CEO of CareMore and Aspire Health (subsidiaries of health insurance provider Elevance Health) and was chief medical information and innovation officer at pharmaceutical firm Merck. He was also an attending physician at Boston VA Medical Center and a faculty member at both Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. Jain has served in leadership roles at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Virax Biolabs: Richard Pallin
Virax Biolabs has appointed Richard Pallin VP of In Vitro Diagnostics Sales. He was previously VP of global commercial operations at transplantation diagnostic company Omixon. Before that, Pallin was director of commercial operations at Singulex. He has also held senior commercial roles at Genmark Diagnostics UK, Vela Diagnostics, Luminex, Affymetrix, and Roche Diagnostics.
ACMG: Robert Best
Robert Best has become interim CEO of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. He is a medical geneticist and a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. Best will lead the ACMG and the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine (ACMGF) during a transition period following the retirement of Max Muenke until a permanent CEO is selected. He will maintain his faculty appointment in the meantime.
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.