John West has been appointed president, CEO, and director of Novocell, a San Diego-based stem cell engineering company.
West was the CEO of Solexa from 2004 until early 2007, when the firm was acquired by Illumina. Prior to Solexa, he was vice president of DNA platforms at Applied Biosystems, now part of Life Technologies. Before that, he was president of Princeton Instruments, which focused on low light imaging and spectroscopy technology.
West holds BS and MS degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
Andre Marion has joined the board of directors of Microchip Biotechnologies. He is a co-founder of Applied Biosystems, where he was initially vice president of engineering, followed by chief operating officer and later president and CEO. Prior to founding ABI, he held various research and development managerial positions at Hewlett-Packard. Marion holds an engineering degree from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers in France.
Wayne Grody is one of four new directors that were recently elected to the board of the American College of Medical Genetics Foundation. He is a professor in the departments of pathology and laboratory medicine, pediatrics, and human genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine.
According to the foundation, Grody has been one of the main developers of quality assurance and ethical guidelines for DNA-based genetic testing for a large number of governmental and professional agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, and the Human Genome Project's ELSI program. Grody holds MD and PhD degrees from Baylor College of Medicine and an undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.