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People In The News: Aug 22, 2014

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute said this week it has named Perry Nisen as its CEO and as holder of the Donald Bren Chief Executive Chair. Nisen joins Sanford Burnham from GlaxoSmithKline, where he was senior VP of science and innovation.

In his new post, Nisen will lead the institute's strategic vision plans, which include implementing a research model that aligns basic and translational research and drugs discovery and development. He also will oversee business development and fundraising initiatives.


WaferGen has appointed Keith Warner as chief operating officer and Michael Henighan as chief financial officer.

Warner has served as a consultant to several life science investment firms since 2009 and was also previously vice president of worldwide marketing at Novartis/Chiron and CEO of Biodesix.
Henighan was a founder and CFO of Aplegen prior to joining WaferGen. Before that, he served as CFO of Alpha Innotech and corporate controller at HemoSense and Cholestech.


Douglas Sites has joined Rosetta Genomics as its executive VP of sales and marketing, a newly created position. Sites will report to Kenneth Berlin, president and CEO of the company. Before

Rosetta, Sites was VP of sales and marketing at Asuragen, and prior to that director of sales-hematology and oncology at PLUS Diagnostics.


Nanosphere has appointed private equity investor Kristopher Wood to its board of directors.

Wood is the sole member of Highline Partners, a consultancy through which he serves as chief investment officer at Lurie Holdings, and special advisor on strategic matters to New Page Corporation. Before forming Highline, Wood was head of strategy and corporate development at WorldColor Press, and he previously was an associate at the private equity firm MidOcean Partners. He also was chief acquisitions officer for Glenayre, and managing director for mergers and acquisitions and venture capital at Vertis Holdings.


Autism Speaks has named Stephen Scherer as director of the Autism Speaks Ten Thousand Genomes Program (AUT10K). In addition to leading AUT10K, Scherer will continue in his role as director of the Center for Applied Genomics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He will also continue serving as director of the McLaughlin Center at the University of Toronto.


Vermillion has named Holly Bauzon to be VP of sales and managed markets. Bauzon most recently was director of lab services sales and managed markets at PerkinElmer, where she worked for seven years. She also previously worked in commercial management and payer relations at PolyMedica, National Diabetic Pharmacies, and Byram Healthcare.


Healthtell has named Glen Ferguson vice president of corporate development. Ferguson was previously vice president of molecular biomarkers at ApoCell. Before that he was head of global strategic accounts at Beckman Coulter.


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