Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

People In The News: May 24, 2013

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Charles Lee has been appointed scientific director of the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. Lee is the director of the Molecular Genetics Research Unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital and also directs the Cytogenetic Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. He holds a PhD from the University of Alberta in Canada.


Affymetrix has named Gavin Wood as its new chief financial officer. He will replace outgoing CFO Tim Barabe, who is set to leave the company on June 28.

Wood has worked for Affymetrix for seven years. He will be relocating to California from the UK to take over as CFO. He most recently served as vice president of finance, international controller, where he was responsible for Europe and Asia Pacific.

Wood is a chartered accountant and prior to joining Affymetrix, he held positions at Unipart and Grant Thornton LLP.


An independent Ethics and Governance Council has been formed for the UK Biobank, with the aim of ensuring public accountability for the program, which will engage 500,000 participants who will provide DNA samples as well as clinical and lifestyle information. The council will report publicly on the UK Biobank's activities, with an eye toward safeguarding its participants and the public at large.

The council will be chaired by Alastair Campbell, a professor at the University of Bristol and director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine.

Other council members include:

Sandy Thomas, director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and a senior fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex;

Sheila McLean, director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University;

Ilora Finlay, a consultant in palliative medicine at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff;

Roger Higgs, a professor and former deputy head of division at GKT School of Medicine, King's College;

Ian Hughes, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Leeds School of Medical Biosciences and chair of the Leeds Mental Health NHS Teaching Trust;

Clara Mackay, director for policy and research at Breast Cancer Care and commissioner for the Patient and Public Involvement in Health Commission;

Sally Smith, a barrister who specializes in medical law and a member of the Royal College of Physicians Ethics Committee;

Christopher Wild, a professor of molecular epidemiology and head of the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Leeds;

Andrea Cook, chair of a consumer interest organization focused on water and sewage issues in Northumbia;

And Jayam Dalal, a freelance marketing consultant and member of government advisory groups;


The Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre, which is scheduled to open in 2015 and will be located in South Glasgow Hospitals Campus, has named David U'Prichard to serve as its founding chairman.

U'Prichard currently serves on the boards of Life Technologies, Cyclacel and Iroko Pharmaceuticals, and he is president of the pharma and biotech consulting firm Druid Consulting and chief scientific officer at BioMotiv. He has held academic positions at Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania.


Pacific Biosciences' shareholders have re-elected William Ericson and David Botstein to continue serving as members of its board of directors.

Botstein is director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and a professor at Princeton University, and he formerly was VP for science at Genentech. Ericson is a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures.


Transgenomic's stockholders have elected company President and CEO Craig Tuttle to serve on its board of directors for a three-year term. Tuttle has been president and CEO at the company since 2006, and before that he was president and COO of Duke Scientific, and president and CEO of Applied Biotech.


Flagship Ventures has appointed former BioMérieux CEO Stephane Bancel to be a senior partner. Bancel currently is president and CEO of Moderna Therapeutics and is executive chairman of the board for BG Medicine. Bancel led BioMerieux for five years, and before that he was managing director of Eli Lilly in Belgium.


Molecular diagnostics firm Ignyta, which purchased Actagene Oncology this week, has made Actagene's former CEO, Patrick O'Connor, its new chief scientific officer.

Ignyta also has added several new faces to its management team:

Jean-Michel Vernier, who previously led chemistry groups at Ardea Biosciences, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Merck Research Laboratories, will be VP of medicinal chemistry;

Paul Pearson, former global head and VP of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism at Amgen, will lead PK, drug metabolism and safety;

And Dave Matthews, scientific founder of Agouron Pharmaceuticals, will be head of Crystallography.

Ignyta also said that James Bristol, who previously was worldwide head of Pfizer Discovery and head of discovery and chemistry at Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis, has joined its scientific advisory board.


BioMérieux has appointed Nicolas Cartier to be corporate VP of its Industrial Microbiology Unit, as of this week. He also will become a member of the company's management committee. Cartier has been GM of Sanofi France since 2009, and he held a number of other posts with Sanofi in its Southeast Asia, China, and Mexico City operations.


Quidel's stockholders this week re-elected seven members of its board of directors, including Thomas Brown, Douglas Bryant, Kenneth Buechler, Rod Dammeyer, Mary Polan, Mark Pulido, and Jack Schuler.


Ruby Gadelrab has taken on a senior role in marketing and development at Invitae. She recently served as senior director of marketing for international markets at Affymetrix. She also has held positions at Dharmacon, Serologicals, Life Technologies, and Invitrogen.


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.