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People in the News: Paula Dowdy, Jeff Elliott, and Eric Rhodes

Paula Dowdy

Illumina has appointed Paula Dowdy as senior vice president and general manager. Dowdy will lead the Europe, Middle East, and Africa commercial team. She comes to Illumina from Cisco where she worked for 20 years in numerous senior positions leading the company's products and services groups. She most recently led Cisco’s go-to-market team for cloud, software, and managed services.


Jeff Elliott

Exact Sciences has appointed Jeff Elliott as vice president of business development and strategy. Effective June 20, Elliott will oversee the identification and pursuit of strategic business opportunities while also helping drive sales of Exact’s Cologuard colon cancer test. Most recently, Elliott worked as a senior research analyst covering the diagnostic and lab industries for Exact. He previously worked at Robert W. Baird as a senior research analyst covering diagnostics and life science tools companies. Elliott has also worked in a supply chain role for Walgreens and as a consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.


Eric Rhodes

ERS Genomics has appointed Eric Rhodes as CEO. He succeeds founder Shaun Foy who has been appointed chairman of the company's board of directors. Rhodes joins ERS from Horizon Discovery where he was responsible for commercializing Horizon's genome editing technologies and overseeing research and development. Before his time at Horizon, he held various positions focused on gene editing technologies, including director of business development at Sigma-Aldrich and vice president of business development and alliance management at Sangamo Biosciences.


For more recent items on executive appointments and promotions in the omics and molecular diagnostics industries, please see the People in the News page on our website.

The Scan

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Researchers in Nature Genetics described their generation of a foxtail millet pangenome, which they say can help in crop trait improvement.

Protein Length Distribution Consistent Across Species

An analysis in Genome Biology compares the lengths of proteins across more than 2,300 species, finding similar length distributions.

Novel Genetic Loci Linked to Insulin Resistance in New Study

A team reports in Nature Genetics that it used glucose challenge test data to home in on candidate genes involved in GLUT4 expression or trafficking.

RNA Editing in Octopuses Seems to Help Acclimation to Shifts in Water Temperature

A paper in Cell reports that octopuses use RNA editing to help them adjust to different water temperatures.