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People in the News: New Appointments at Genetron Health, BioSkryb, Geisinger, More

Genetron Health: Chao Tang and Shan Fu

Genetron Health has appointed Chao Tang and Shan Fu to its board of directors. Tang replaces Weiwu He, who had served as chairman of the board beginning in May 2015. Fu replaces Weidong Liu, who served as board director starting November 2019. According to Genetron, both He and Liu have resigned from its board due to personal reasons. He has since been appointed chairman emeritus in recognition of his prior contributions.

Tang is a chair professor of physics and systems biology at Peking University. His current research interest is at the interface between physics and biology. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the founding director of the Center for Quantitative Biology at Peking University, and the founding co-editor-in-chief of the journal Quantitative Biology. He had his undergraduate training at the University of Science and Technology of China and received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. 

Fu has previously served as joint CEO of Vivo Capital, beginning in October 2013. Prior to Vivo, he worked as the chief representative of China at Blackstone Group, and in leadership positions at several other firms. Fu received both his B.A. and master's degree in history from Peking University.

Genetron also said that it has named Sizhen Wang, the firm's co-founder, chairman, and CEO, as its new board chairman. In addition, effective June 30, Kevin Ying Hong will become the firm's senior adviser.


BioSkryb: Gary Harton

BioSkryb, a Durham, North Carolina-based developer of genomic amplification technologies, has appointed Gary Harton as CSO. Harton has more than 30 years of experience in single-cell diagnostic product development, and will apply BioSkryb’s platform technology to develop new diagnostic technologies for cancer, neurological disorders, and assisted reproductive technologies, the company said. Prior to BioSkryb, he was the portfolio director for preimplantation genetic testing at PerkinElmer. He has also previously held a variety of product and portfolio-development positions at PerkinElmer, Igenomix US, Progyny, Illumina, BlueGnome, and Reprogenetics.


Geisinger: Christa Lese Martin

Geisinger Health System has named Christa Lese Martin as CSO. Martin, the founding director of the Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute at Geisinger, has served as interim CSO since December and previously was associate CSO at the health system. She will lead clinical research programs across the entire organization, directing a team of more than 500 researchers in precision health, genomics, data science, population health, implementation science, health services, bioethics, and clinical trials. Martin, cochair of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics' Secondary Findings Working Group, was operations director of Emory Genetics Clinical Laboratory at Emory University before joining Geisinger in 2013.


For additional recent items on executive appointments and promotions in omics and molecular diagnostics, please see the People in the News page on our website.

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