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People in the News: New Appointments at Mission Bio, Akoya Biosciences, Micronoma, More

Mission Bio: Yan Zhang, Charlie Silver

Single-cell analysis firm Mission Bio has appointed Yan Zhang as CEO.

Zhang joins Mission Bio after 10 years at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she led that firm's commercial organization in China for genetic sciences and clinical next-generation sequencing and was general manager for its reproductive health and microarray businesses.

Prior to Thermo, Zhang held product management and commercialization roles at Affymetrix, NuGen Technologies, and Molecular Devices. She holds a PhD in biochemistry from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Former CEO Charlie Silver, a Mission Bio cofounder, will move into an advisory role.


Akoya Biosciences: Frederick Pla

Akoya Biosciences has appointed Frederic Pla as its chief operating officer. Pla most recently served as chief operating officer at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Prior to this, Pla served as COO at Genomic Health before its acquisition by Exact Sciences in 2019. He has also served in leadership positions at Life Technologies, GE Healthcare, and NASA.


Micronoma: Jennifer Wargo

Micronoma, a company using signals from the tumor-related microbiome for liquid biopsy-based cancer diagnosis, has appointed Jennifer Wargo to its scientific advisory board. Wargo is a professor of surgical oncology and genomic medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.


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

The Scan

Cell Signaling Pathway Identified as Metastasis Suppressor

A new study in Nature homes in on the STING pathway as a suppressor of metastasis in a mouse model of lung cancer.

Using Bees to Gain Insights into Urban Microbiomes

As bees buzz around, they pick up debris that provides insight into the metagenome of their surroundings, researchers report in Environmental Microbiome.

Age, Genetic Risk Tied to Blood Lipid Changes in New Study

A study appearing in JAMA Network Open suggests strategies to address high lipid levels should focus on individuals with high genetic risk and at specific ages.

Study Examines Insights Gained by Adjunct Trio RNA Sequencing in Complex Pediatric Disease Cases

Researchers in AJHG explore the diagnostic utility of adding parent-child RNA-seq to genome sequencing in dozens of families with complex, undiagnosed genetic disease.