Silicon Genetics has promoted COO Saeid Akhtari to president and CEO, the company said Jan. 30. Akhtari succeeds Andrew Conway, who will continue as executive chairman of the board of directors while “evaluating new technologies” for the company, according to Silicon Genetics.
Before joining Redwood City, Calif.-based Silicon Genetics in 2001, Akhtari held senior-management positions at DoubleTwist, IntelliGenetics, Pharsight, and Oxford Molecular Group.
OpGen has appointed Kary Mullis to its scientific advisory board. Mullis, a Nobel Laureate in chemistry and the inventor of PCR technology, will help OpGen develop single DNA-molecule optical-mapping technology for whole-genome analysis.
“I see great potential” in this technology “and I want to help make this technology successful in the marketplace” said Mullis. “I see this technology advancing the genomics field much like PCR did in the late ‘80s.”