NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – David Botstein, Eric Lander, and Craig Venter will share the 2012 Dan David Prize, and will split the $1 million prize the award carries.
The awards are provided in three categories — past, present, and future – and this trio of scientists won the future award for genomics research. The awards are named for Dan David, a businessman and philanthropist who died in 2011. The three winners have been recognized for their contributions to the Human Genome Project and an array of genomics research efforts, from developing microarrays and DNA sequencing technologies to computational genomics and SNP mapping, and launching labs, companies, and institutes that have driven cutting-edge genomics.
Botstein currently is a director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. Venter is founder, chairman, and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, as well as the Institute for Genomic Research, and Celera Genomics. Lander is founding director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and director of its Genome Biology Program.
Jorge Garces has joined GenMark Diagnostics as senior vice president of R&D, the company said recently. Garces most recently served as CEO and president of Enigma Diagnostics' US business. Prior to that, he was VP of R&D and site operations manager at Hologic. He has also held positions at Third Wave Technologies, Genzyme Genetics, and Athena Diagnostics.
Insight Genetics has promoted David Hout to be VP of research and development from his previous post as director of R&D. Hout has been with Insight since 2009, and during his stay he has led development of two commercial biomarker-based personalized cancer tests.
Accelrys said in a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that Christopher Steffen, a member of the firm's board of directors, will not stand for re-election to the board when his term expires this year. The company said that Steffen's departure is due to personal reasons not related to company operations.
The National Institutes of Health has named Christine Grady chief of its Department of Bioethics, NIH Clinical Center. Grady has been deputy director of the department since 1996, and she has been acting chief since September 2011. She also serves on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and is a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and a fellow at the Hastings Center and the American Academy of Nursing.
Cofactor Genomics has hired Don Henricksen as its North American sales director. Henricksen joins Cofactor after 16 years at PerkinElmer, most recently as a regional manager in the company's bio-discovery division. Previously, he was a scientist at MDS Pharma and also at Roche.
Sequencing startup GenapSys has disclosed members of its management team, scientific advisory board, and business advisory board.
Co-founder Hesaam Esfandyarpour serves as acting CEO and chief technology officer.
GenapSys' scientific advisory board includes Ron Davis, professor of biochemistry and genetics and director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center; George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School; Mike Snyder, chair of genetics and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford; Steve Quake, professor of bioengineering at Stanford; Juan Santiago, professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford; Luke Lee, professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley; and Bruce Wooley, professor of engineering at Stanford.
The business advisory board includes André Marion, a co-founder of Applied Biosystems who was chairman, CEO, and president of the company at the time of its merger with Perkin-Elmer in 1993; Herb Heyneker, an early Genentech employee who has served as senior vice president of research and development at Crucell, CTO of Eos Biotechnology, and other roles in life science and biotech firms; and Dennis Harris, a co-founder of IntegenX who formerly served as chief scientific officer at Millipore and held management positions at Serologicals, Vitra Bioscience, Aclara Biosciences, and Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, now part of GE Healthcare.
NanoMR said this week that it has appointed Jim Macemon as vice president of product development. Macemon will oversee the design and manufacture of disposable cassettes for NanoMR's Pathogen Capture System for the blood culture market. Prior to joining NanoMR, Macemon was vice president of operations at Luminous Medical. He has also held senior positions at Baxter Healthcare, Richardson-Vicks, and SpaceLabs Medical.
Promoted? Changing jobs? GenomeWeb wants to know. E-mail [email protected] to appear in People In The News, a weekly roundup of industry comings and goings.