Cypher Genomics has appointed Adam Simpson as president and chief operating officer. Previously, he served as an executive adviser to life sciences investors and companies, including Cypher Genomics. Before that, he was co-founder and chief business officer of Meritage Pharma and was general counsel at Verus Pharmaceuticals, where he led its sale to AstraZeneca and Shionogi.
Cypher Genomics has also appointed Henry Nordhoff as executive chairman of its board and Herbert Boyer and Andrew von Eschenbach as directors.
Nordhoff was CEO of Gen-Probe for 15 years until retiring in 2009. He also held senior positions in his 16 years at Pfizer. Boyer is co-founder of Genentech and served as a director of the company until it was bought by Roche in 2008. He was also a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Von Eschenbach is currently president of Samaritan Health Initiatives and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Previously, he served as a commissioner to the US Food and Drug Administration and was also the director of the National Cancer Institute.
Peter Dansky, formerly the president of the molecular and cell biology division at Life Technologies, has joined Agena Bioscience as its CEO and a member of its board of directors. He will lead the Agena's expansion of its genetic analysis business into new application areas including clinical diagnostics. Previously, he held management positions at Arcturus Bioscience, Affymetrix, Molecular Dynamics, PerSeptive BioSystems, and Millipore.