Roche (Nutley, NJ, USA) has announced the appointment of James (Jim) Cassidy (right) as head of translational medicine in the oncology discovery and translational area (DTA) in its Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) section. Cassidy was previously professor of oncology, head of the department of cancer research and head of the division of cancer sciences and molecular pathology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

“We are very fortunate to have Jim join Roche,” says Mike Burgess, global head, oncology DTA and head, large molecule research in pRED at Roche. “With his rich and deep experience in oncology research, we believe he is the perfect fit for the translational medicine position. He brings new energy and inspiration to our group that will allow us to enhance our development of new, more effective treatments for cancer patients.”

ERA-NET PathoGenoMics, a project funded by the European Commission aimed at advancing transnational research in the field of pathogenomics, has announced the winners of the 2011 PhD Award for the outstanding PhD theses in the field of genome research on human-pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria and fungi). The three winners, Roland Christian Arnold from the Technical University of Munich, Germany; Enrique Calvo Alcocer from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain; and Alexandra Isabel Cardoso Nunes from the New University of Lisbon, Portugal, were awarded €2,000 ($2,876) each.

Karen A. Dawes has been elected co-chairperson of the board of directors of Repligen (Waltham, MA, USA) along with Alexander Rich. Dawes has served as a director since September 2005.

Richard Eglen has joined Corning Life Science (Lowell, MA, USA) as vice president and general manager, succeeding Mark Beck, who will lead Corning's environmental technologies business segment. Eglen most recently worked for the biodiscovery business of PerkinElmer.

George M. Gill has been appointed chief medical officer of Oncolytics Biotech (Calgary, Alberta, Canada). He has been senior vice president of clinical safety and regulatory affairs at Oncolytics since 2002. Previously, he held executive positions at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, ICI Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers (now Bristol-Myers Squibb).

EMD Serono (Rockland, MA, USA) has appointed James Hoyes as president. Hoyes will also serve as a member of the executive management board for Merck Serono, the global pharmaceuticals division of EMD Serono parent company Merck KGaA. He previously served as chief commercial officer for EMD Serono and also held positions at Elan, Sanofi and Sterling Drug.

Cellectis Therapeutics (Paris) has named Andrew M. Scharenberg as CSO. Scharenberg is an attending physician in immunology at Seattle Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics and immunology at the University of Washington. He is also a principal investigator and codirector of the Northwest Genome Engineering Consortium, and cofounder and a member of the board of directors of Pregenen.

Boreal Genomics (Vancouver, BC, Canada) has named Nitin Sood as CEO and a member of the board of directors. Sood joins Boreal from Agilent Technologies, where he most recently served as general manager in charge of the automation business. He has also held senior management positions at Applied Biosystems, now Life Technologies.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has named Stephen Spielberg as deputy commissioner for medical products & tobacco, a newly created position. Spielberg is an FDA advisory board member and currently serves as director of personalized medicine at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. He was formerly vice president for pediatric drug development at Johnson & Johnson and dean of Dartmouth Medical School. He will oversee the centers for drugs, medical devices, biological products and tobacco. In addition, Deborah Autor has been promoted from director of FDA drug center's compliance office to deputy commissioner for global regulatory operations and policy; deputy commissioner for international programs Murray Lumpkin was named senior adviser and representative for global issues; and acting principal deputy commissioner John Taylor will stay on as a counselor in FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg's office.

Jonathan Thomas has been named chairman of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM; Los Angeles), succeeding Robert N. Klein, who served as chairman since the institute's founding in 2004. Thomas, an investment banker who started Saybrook Capital in 1990, was elected by a 14-11 vote of the CIRM board over Frank Litvack, a Los Angeles cardiologist and medical device entrepreneur.

Genesis Biopharma (Los Angeles) has named David Voyticky to its board of directors. Voyticky is currently president of Miller Energy Resources. He previously served as a vice president at the investment banks Goldman Sachs & Co. and Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and as a partner in Red Mountain Capital Partners and Chapman Capital.

Hagop Youssoufian has been appointed executive vice president and chief medical officer of ZioPharm Oncology (New York). He brings nearly 30 years of academic clinical investigation and industry drug development experience at Harvard Medical School, Baylor College of Medicine, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-aventis. Most recently, Youssoufian was chief medical officer and senior vice president of global clinical sciences at ImClone Systems, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly.