Proteros biostructures (Martinsried/Munich, Germany) has announced the appointment of Torsten Hoffmann (right) as CSO, a newly created position. Hoffmann has more than 18 years of international scientific and research management experience. He was previously CSO at Zealand Pharma and head of discovery chemistry at Roche in Basel. Under his leadership at Roche, more than 20 new chemical entities entered into clinical trials and 52 new chemical lead series were created.

“I am very impressed by the capabilities and the attractive business model of Proteros,” said Hoffmann. “The unique expertise in working on the most challenging targets and a prosperous business, working with almost all the big pharma companies, gives Proteros an outstanding position. It will be a pleasure to work with this highly motivated team.”

Nathalie Adda has been named senior vice president and chief medical officer of Enanta Pharmaceuticals (Watertown, MA, USA). She was most recently chief medical officer, vice president of clinical development, medical and regulatory affairs at Transgene.

Genisphere (Hatfield, PA, USA) has announced that Tom Bliss has joined the company as CEO. He joins the company with 25 years of leadership experience at biopharma companies including Therakine, Amgen, Baxter Bioscience and Johnson & Johnson.

Sanjay Chikarmane has been named senior vice president and general manager of the enterprise informatics business at Illumina (San Diego). He joins Illumina with more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software at companies including HP, BEA Systems and, most recently, SAP.

Colin Goddard has been named to the board of directors of Mission Therapeutics (Cambridge, UK). Goddard joined OSI Pharmaceuticals as a research scientist in 1989 and led the transformation of the technology platform services company into a profitable fully integrated biopharmaceutical organization, becoming CEO in 1998.

Robin David Isaacs has been appointed chief medical officer of antibacterial developer Entasis Therapeutics (Waltham, MA, USA). Isaacs spent 18 years at Merck, most recently as vice president and therapeutic area head, vaccine clinical research.

Voyager Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Perry A. Karsen (right) to its board of directors. Karsen has more than 30 years of experience in the biopharma industry, and currently serves as CEO of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics. Previously, he was Celgene's executive vice president and COO.

Orbsen Therapeutics (Galway, Ireland), a 2006 spinout of Ireland's Regenerative Medicine Institute, has named Jack Kavanaugh chairman of the board. Kavanaugh founded ZetaRX Biosciences, which was bought by Juno Therapeutics in 2013.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities (Pasadena, CA, USA) has announced that its founder, CEO and chairman Joel S. Marcus has been appointed to the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) board of directors for the 2015–2016 term. Marcus will also serve on the governing board of BIO's emerging companies section.

Kanya Rajangam (right) has joined Cleave Biosciences (Burlingame, CA, USA) as vice president, clinical development. She will lead the company's ongoing trials for lead compound CB-5083 and advance other internally discovered compounds into development. She joins from Nektar Therapeutics, where she was executive director of the oncology and immune-oncology program. Previously, at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, she played a key role in the clinical development and regulatory submissions of new oncology drugs. Cleave also announced that chief medical officer Alessandra Cesano is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

Santhera Pharmaceuticals (Liestal, Switzerland) has named Christoph Rentsch as CFO. Rentsch has served as CFO of privately held Polyphor since 2010. Previously, he was a partner at investment advisory and management firm Caperis and head of group funding and capital markets at Roche.

Abcam (Cambridge, UK) has appointed Suzanne Smith in the new role of chief legal officer and company secretary. She has 20 years' global legal, business and leadership experience within the life sciences industry, including directorship roles at Actavis and Genzyme Therapeutics.

Waypoint Capital (Geneva), the manager for investments associated with the Bertarelli family, has appointed Christopher A. Viehbacher managing partner of Gurnet Point Capital, its $2-billion US-based healthcare investment fund. Viehbacher has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, most recently as CEO of Sanofi and chairman of Genzyme.

DeNovo Sciences (Plymouth, MI, USA) has announced that Yixin Wang has joined the company as CSO. Wang has held several R&D leadership positions, including vice president, molecular probes at Ventana Medical Systems/Roche and executive director, R&D at Veridex.

Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the resignation of Douglas Williams, its head of R&D. Williams, who joined Biogen four years ago as part of a new management team headed by CEO George Scangos, departs to join a yet-unnamed cancer diagnostics and therapy startup. His duties at Biogen will fall to senior vice president and chief medical officer Alfred Sandrock and senior vice president and CSO Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas.