Judah Folkman (right), founder and director of the vascular biology program at Children's Hospital Boston and a professor of pediatric surgery and cell biology at Harvard Medical School, died on January 14, 2008, of an apparent heart attack. He was 74. Folkman pioneered the study of angiogenesis and its role in cancer, and more than ten new cancer drugs, most notably Genentech's Avastin (bevacizumab), have been developed as a result of his discoveries.

“Dr. Folkman's passing represents a great loss for the field of angiogenesis. His inexhaustible enthusiasm for sharing ideas accompanied him to the very end, on his way to give a keynote talk at a Keystone meeting,” Napoleone Ferrara, Genentech fellow in tumor biology and angiogenesis, told Nature Biotechnology. Peter Carmeliet, of Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, added, “His seminal discoveries laid the foundation of angiogenesis research for generations of vascular biologists. He has not stopped inspiring young and old, scientists and clinicians alike, to convey the important message that antiangiogenesis would become a new medicine to treat cancer and eye disease—a message that now has turned into clinical reality.”

Donald Capra, president emeritus of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, has joined the board of directors of InNexus Biotechnology (Vancouver, BC, Canada). He is also currently chairman of InNexus's scientific advisory board.

Cellzome (Heidelberg, Germany) has named Jane Dancer as vice president of business development. Dancer was most recently director of business development at MedImmune, and was previously a global project manager at Aventis Crop Science.

Chimerix (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) has named Neil Frazer (right) as chief medical officer. Before joining Chimerix, he served as chief medical officer and chief operating officer of Erimos Pharmaceuticals (previously Biocure Medical). He was also previously vice president, clinical research at Shire Pharmaceuticals.

NanoBio (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has announced the appointment of Stephen Gracon as vice president of regulatory affairs. Gracon brings 30 years of pharma experience to NanoBio, serving in various clinical, research and regulatory positions at Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Amgen and Baxter.

Chris Kendrick-Parker has joined the board of directors at protein chip company GenTel Biosciences (Madison, WI, USA). He spent nine years at Affymetrix as vice president of sales and marketing in the global pharma business unit and was also responsible for market development.

Edward Marcotte, codirector of the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the 2008 Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. His research focuses on mapping protein interactions in a wide range of organisms.

Biofuels technology company SunEthanol (Amherst, MA, USA) announced that Sarad Parekh has joined the company as vice president of R&D. Parekh was most recently director of pilot plant operations at Phyton Biotech.

Edward E. Penhoet, cofounder and CEO of Chiron (now Novartis), has been appointed to the board of directors of ChemoCentryx (Mountain View, CA, USA). Penhoet is currently the president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, vice chairman of the independent citizen's oversight committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a director on the boards of Zymogenetics, Scynexis, Metabolex and Renovis.

MannKind Corporation (Valencia, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of John Riesenberger as corporate vice president and chief commercialization officer. Riesenberger joins MannKind from Shaw Science Partners, where he has been a principal and executive vice president since 2001, with responsibility for strategic planning, marketing, sales and client services.

Gene Express (Toledo, OH, USA) has appointed Jonathan Rowe as senior vice president of strategy and clinical innovation. Rowe previously worked at Pfizer as senior director of worldwide pharmaceutical sciences, director of intellectual property strategy management and clinical director of the cardiovascular risk factors group.

David Sidransky has been appointed chairman of Alfacell (Somerset, NJ, USA), succeeding Kuslima Shogen. Sidransky has served as Alfacell's vice chairman since January 2007 and as a director since May 2004. Shogen continues to serve as Alfacell's CEO and a director.

Pamela A. Simonton, senior vice president of patents and licensing, has been promoted to executive vice president and general counsel of Exelixis (S. San Francisco, CA, USA). In addition, Gisela M. Schwab, senior vice president and chief medical officer, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief medical officer.

Hyperion Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Mark Spring as senior vice president and CFO. Spring joins the company from MedImmune, where he served as vice president of finance and controller.

Rebecca A. Taub has been named senior vice president of R&D of VIA Pharmaceuticals (San Francisco). She joins VIA from Roche Pharmaceuticals, where she had served as vice president of research in metabolic diseases since 2004.

Cardiokine (Philadelphia) has announced the appointment of Manuel Worcel as president, CEO and director of the company. Worcel founded NitroMed in 1993 and served in the roles of CEO, president and chief medical officer. Previously, he was head of cardiovascular R&D at Ciba Geigy (now Novartis) and head of R&D at Roussel Hoechst (now Sanofi Aventis).