NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Complete Genomics said this week that it has formed a genomic medicine advisory board to "provide insight and guidance on the best ways for the company to provide sequencing services to healthcare organizations and physicians interested in implementing genomic medicine in their practice."
Robert Nussbaum, chief of the division of medical genetics in the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, will serve as chairman of the advisory board.
Other founding members include:
• Jonathan Berg, assistant professor in the department of genetics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;
• Charis Eng, chair and director of the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and professor and vice chair of the department of genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine;
• Brynn Levy, co-director of the division of personalized genomic medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and director of the clinical cytogenetics laboratory at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center;
• Elaine Lyon, associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and medical director of the genetics division, and co-medical director of pharmacogenomics at Arup Laboratories;
• Federico Monzon, associate professor of pathology and immunology and director of molecular pathology at Baylor College of Medicine's Cancer Genetics Laboratory;
• DesiRae Muirhead, assistant professor of pathology at Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota;
• Stirling Puck, former vice president for medical affairs at Genzyme Genetics; and
• Heidi Rehm, director of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine at Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine and assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.
The Jackson Laboratory has hired Yijun Ruan for its new center for genomic medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Ruan is currently associate director of the Genome Institute of Singapore and a biochemistry professor at the National University of Singapore. Ruan will bring up to six members of his research team to the Jackson lab's Connecticut facility.
Arizona State University has appointed Kenneth Buetow to be director of the Computational Sciences and Informatics program under the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, or CASI. Buetow is a geneticist and former director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology at the National Cancer Institute. The Computational Sciences and Informatics program will focus on developing computing and modeling expertise and capabilities in areas such as agent base modeling, visualization, and algorithm development for applications in healthcare, the environment, and national security.
Viral Genetics said this week that it has hired Nathan Tinker, executive director of the New York Biotechnology Association, to serve as an adviser in its capital-raising and corporate development initiatives. Tinker formerly led the Sabin Vaccine Institute's Cancer Vaccine Consortium and he was a co-founder of the NanoBusiness Alliance.
The New Zealand-based genomics software developer Biomatters has tapped Karin Fredrikson to be its VP for US operations. Fredrikson was director of business development at 454 Sequencing, now part of Roche, where she developed strategic relationships with commercial providers and collaborations with the National Cancer Institute, the Food and Drug Administration Sequencing Quality Control international study group, and others.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen has hired Jiri Lukas to take the director post, the school said. Lukas currently is head of the Centre for Genotoxic Stress Research at the Danish Cancer Society. The protein science center launched in 2007 and is now preparing to expand its research activities.
Quest Diagnostics named Timothy Ring to serve on its board of directors three months ago, and in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the company said it has appointed him to sit on its compensation committee and its quality, safety, and compliance committee. Ring is chairman and CEO C. R. Bard., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical technologies.
Combimatrix this week said it has named two San Diego area executives, Richard Ding and Joseph Limber, to seats on its board of directors, and that former President and CEO Amit Kumar, as well as Rigdon Currie and John Abeles, will not be candidates for reelection at its next stockholders meeting.
Ding is CEO of BioTheranostics, a molecular diagnostics test developer and lab, and formerly was VP of strategy and business development at BioMerieux. Limber is president and CEO of Prometheus Laboratories, a pharmaceutical and diagnostics company focused on personalized medicine. He also previously was president and CEO of Aclara BioSciences, now called Monogram Biosciences.
Genetic testing company Natural Molecular Testing this week named Karthikeshwar Kasirajan to be its chief medical officer. Kasirajan most recently was director of clinical research and endovascular therapy at East Bay Cardiovascular & Thoracic Associates, and he formerly was associate professor of surgery and director of clinical research at Emory University Hospital.
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