Andrew Fire, a professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.

Fire, along with Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts, discovered in 1998 that the RNAi mechanism could be triggered by introducing to a cell long double-stranded RNAs.

Aptamera, a drug development company focusing on aptamer therapeutics, said this week that it has appointed Mark Rogers as its chairman.