Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

People In The News: Jul 25, 2014

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Stephen Burley will take over as director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank effective July 2014.

Burley is a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and is the director of the institute's Center for Integrative Proteomics Research.

Previously, he was in charge of the PDB's outreach efforts as an associate director and also led the PDB team at University of California, San Diego.

Burley is replacing Helen Berman, who has led the organization since 1998. She will now serve as associate director there and will be responsible for external partnerships and activities related to hybrid or integrative structure determination methods. She will also retain her leadership role in the Nucleic Acid Database, the Structural Biology Knowledgebase, and the EMDataBank.


Quest Diagnostics' board of directors has elected Vicky Gregg to serve on the board, which now has 10 members.

Gregg was CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee for nearly a decade, and she held a series of senior leadership roles there and at Humana Health Plans. She is an expert in health IT and was appointed to the National Institutes of Health Commission on Systemic Interoperability in 2004.


Peter Dansky, formerly the president of the molecular and cell biology division at Life Technologies, has joined Agena Bioscience as its CEO and a member of its board of directors. He will lead Agena's expansion of its genetic analysis business into new application areas including clinical diagnostics. Previously, he held management positions at Arcturus Bioscience, Affymetrix, Molecular Dynamics, PerSeptive BioSystems and Millipore.


The UK's Genome Analysis Center has appointed Federica DiPalma to director of science, where she will be responsible for all aspects of TGAC's scientific strategy and vision. Previously, she was head of vertebrate and health genomics at TGAC and prior to joining TGAC, she was assistant director of vertebrate biology at the Broad Institute.


The Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology has awarded Jay Shendure its HudsonAlpha Life Sciences Prize for his work in the development and application of genomic technology, including completing a detailed sequence of DNA from HeLa cells. Shendure, an associate professor in the department of genome sciences at the University of Washington, will receive the award for early career scientists on November 19.


Signal Genetics has appointed Tamara Seymour to replace Robert Johnson as chief financial officer. Johnson has resigned from his post and will leave the firm in early August.

Seymour has 25 years of experience in senior financial functions in the biotech industry. She joins Signal from HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, where she was CFO, and she formerly held the same title at the therapeutics company Favrille. She also was director of finance and controller at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, and held various positions, including audit manager, at Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers.


Biotheranostics has tapped Ramesh Hariharan to be VP of marketing. In the role, he will head commercial development and marketing efforts for the firm's molecular diagnostic oncology tests.

Hariharan formerly was head of AbbVie's Women's Health and Pain franchise, and he held senior posts at Abbott, Novartis, and McKinsey and Company.


Robotic liquid handling systems supplier Sias AG said today that company Co-Founders Clare Dench and Pius Fink have stepped down from their operative and managerial duties, but the two will continue to work with some customers. The company said the move, which took effect on July 1, was part of a change in management structure.


Promoted? Changing jobs? GenomeWeb wants to know. [email protected] to appear in People In The News, a weekly roundup of industry comings and goings.