Illumina CFO Christian Henry has become the company’s senior vice president of corporate development, a new position. In his new role, he will be responsible for all activities related to corporate and business development, strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions. Henry will remain Illumina’s CFO until the post has been filled.
Kathy Hudson will leave her post as director and founder of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at the Johns Hopkins University to become chief of staff of Francis Collins, who recently became director of the National Institutes of Health. She is currently also an associate professor at the university’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Institute of Genetic Medicine, and the department of pediatrics. She will be replaced as director of the GPPC by Joan Scott, who is currently the center’s deputy director.
Prior to founding the center, Hudson was assistant director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Previously, she served as a senior policy analyst in the Department of Health and Human Services and worked on Capitol Hill. Hudson holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley, an MS in microbiology from the University of Chicago, and a BA in biology from Carleton College.
In conjunction with the closing of its Series D funding round, Complete Genomics has appointed two directors from its two new investors to newly created board positions.
Thomas Caskey is an adjunct partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. He is also director and CEO of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and an adjunct professor in the department of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Previously, he was senior vice president for human genetics and vaccines discovery at Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pa., as well as president of the Merck Genome Research Institute.
Carl Gordon is a founding general partner and co-head of private equity at OrbiMed Advisors. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he was a senior biotechnology analyst at Mehta and Isaly.
Pete Domenici has joined the board of directors of the National Center for Genome Resources. He is a former US senator of New Mexico. In 1992, Sen. Domenici initiated a task force to explore the creation of a center in New Mexico to participate in the Human Genome Project, which led to the founding of NCGR, according to the center.
David Barker and Lynne Kielhorn have become advisors to Helixis, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based company that develops nucleic acid analysis tools.
Until 2006, Barker was vice president of research and CSO of Illumina. Previously, he worked for Amersham Biosciences and Molecular Dynamics. Barker holds a PhD in biochemistry from Brandeis University.
Kielhorn is a founder of Nanodrop, which was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2007. She is also a founding member of Qualicon, a DuPont venture that supplies automated DNA-based microbial analysis systems to the food industry. In addition, she was a member of a DuPont team that commercialized one of the earliest DNA sequencers. Kielhorn holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Bucknell University.