Asterand has appointed Peter Coggins to be a non-executive director. Coggins formerly was president of PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, and he was executive VP of global sales at Amersham Biosciences. Coggins also was a chairman of the Analytical & Life Science Sciences Association and he is now a director on the boards of DeltaDot and Biohit Oyj.
US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach has tapped Frank Torti to be the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner and its first chief scientist, a newly created position. Both a clinician and a researcher in molecular oncology, Torti is currently a professor of medicine, chair of the Department of Cancer Biology, and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Torti also is a member of the National Institutes of Health's National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and he founded and currently serves as president of the Cancer Biology Training Consortium.
Francis Collins has received the Inamori Ethics Prize from the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University. Collins is director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. The Inamori prize includes a $25,000 award that is intended to support the recipient’s ongoing research.
Collins has "consistently emphasized the importance of ethical and legal issues in genetics, while at the same time working tirelessly to improving the lives of people worldwide," said Inamori Center Director Gregory Eastwood.
Response Genetics has appointed John Ferrara to its board of directors. Ferrara is currently chief financial officer at EDGAR Online, and he formerly was interim CFO at GAMCO Investors and president of the LGL Group. He also has held CFO posts at Space Holding Corporation, Golden Books Family Entertainment, and Renaissance Communications.