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People In The News: May 23, 2014

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The National Human Genome Research Institute has reorganized and created three new branches, appointing a senior investigator to head each branch.

Charles Rotimi will serve as chief of the Metabolic, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Diseases branch. Rotimi is director of the National Institutes of Health's Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health. He is on the Executive and Scientific Committee for the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies and was recently elected to the Human Genome Organization Council. He is the founding and past president of the African Society of Human Genetics. In addition, he has participated in the HapMap project, the 1,000 Genomes Project, and the African Genome Variation Project.

Pam Schwartzberg will head the Genetic Disease Research branch. Schwartzberg has been at the NHGRI since 1997 and currently studies T lymphocyte signaling pathways.

Julie Segre will serve as chief of the Translational and Functional Genomics branch. She joined the NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research in 2000. Segre studies microbial genomics, focused particularly on the microbes that inhabit the human skin, and on tracking hospital outbreaks of multi-drug resistant bacteria. She collaborates closely with the NIH Clinical Center's hospital epidemiology, microbiology, and dermatology departments and with the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center.


Mostafa Ronaghi has joined BaseHealth's board of directors.

Ronaghi currently serves as Illumina's chief technology officer and senior vice president. Before joining Illumina, he founded several life sciences companies including ParAllele BioScience, which was acquired by Affymetrix, as well as Avantome and NextBio, both of which were acquired by Illumina. He also previously spent nine years as a principal investigator at the Stanford Genome Technology Center.


Pacific Biosciences said that its shareholders re-elected Brook Byers, John Milligan, and Lucy Shapiro to the companies board of directors.


Atossa Genetics announced the hiring of Jelle Kylstra as its new VP of clinical research and development. Kylstra joined the company on May 19, and brings with her more than 23 years of industry experience. Before joining Atossa, Kylstra was VP of global clinical affairs at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, and prior to that held various leadership roles at AngioDynamics, Light Sciences Corp., and other firms.


BioNano Genomics announced that Mike Ward will serve as its VP of corporate development. Ward brings to the company more than two decades of experience in life sciences-related investment banking, venture capital, and private equity.

Ward comes to BioNano from Lurie Investment Fund. He has worked at various investment banks, including Leerink Partners, Credit Suisse, and others.


Strand Genomics said that Ravi Venkatesan has joined the firm's board of directors. Venkatesan was chairman of Microsoft India from 2004 to 2011 and formerly was chairman of Cummins India.


KineMed has tapped Patrick Doyle to be executive VP and chief business officer. In the post, he will head corporate development activities, including licensing and strategic partnerships. Doyle previously was VP of strategic partnerships at PPD, president of Kareus Therapeutics, CEO of Syntaxin, and he held senior positions at F. Hoffman-La-Roche and Novo Nordisk.


Cancer Genetics said that its shareholders had re-elected members of the company's board of directors including Chairman John Pappajohn, President and CEO Panna Sharma, and keith Brownlie, Edmund Cannon, Raju Chaganti, Franklyn Prendergast, Paul Rothman, and Michael Welsh.


The Jackson Laboratory has named Peter Lamothe senior director for development. Lamothe, who will be based at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine campus in Farmington, Conn., served as director of development for the Yale Cancer Center since 2007.

While at Yale, he developed and launched a fundraising program, managed and supported fundraising professionals and volunteers, and helped complete a $100 million campaign.
He also previously was executive director for the New Haven Museum and Historical Society.


Genome British Columbia has appointed Joseph Garcia and Jock Finlayson to its board of directors.

Garcia is a law partner at Blake, Cassels and Graydon, where he practices in the securities and commercial areas for clients in the life sciences and technology sectors, and he is a member of the board of directors of LifeSciences BC.

Finlayson is executive VP and chief policy officer at the Business Council of British Columbia, where he directs the council's work on economic, fiscal, tax, environmental, regulatory, and human capital issues.


New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center has appointed Christopher Cunniff director of the division of medical genetics. Previously, Cunniff was chief of medical and molecular genetics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also served as co-medical director of the Children's Clinics for Rehabilitative Services and was recently a professor of pediatrics with joint appointments in pathology, public health, and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also previously served as secretary of the American College of Medical Genetics and as president of the American Board of Medical Genetics.


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