Cellectis (Biocitech, France) has named immunology and gene therapy specialist Alain Fischer (right) to the company's scientific advisory board and Alain Godard to its board of directors. Fischer is head of the immunology and pediatric hematology service at Necker Children's Hospital and serves as director of the INSERM unit on normal and pathological development of the immune system. Godard is a former president of the executive board at Aventis CropSciences and consults for a number of companies, including several biotech firms.

Cellectis cofounder and CEO André Choulika states, “As it grows, Cellectis also needs to evolve, and the appointment of experts like Professor Alain Fischer and Alain Godard to our key boards means that we are not only reinforcing our leadership in this industry but also demonstrating the potential for downstream integration of our technology. Alain Godard will provide us with essential insight into the agrobiotech industry and help us set our sights in the sector. Professor Alain Fischer will contribute to the implementation of our technology in orphan medical applications and those where our technology can deliver novel potential solutions.”

EyeGate Pharma (Waltham, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Remis Bistras as vice president, business development. He previously served as senior consultant at S.M. Jagger Consulting.

Antony Blanc has been appointed chief business officer of privately held Synosia Therapeutics (San Francisco), replacing Hervé Girsault, who will remain on the company's board of directors and continue to act as a key business advisor. Blanc joins the company from Syngenta, where he created and led the biopharmaceuticals business unit. He will also serve as head of Synosia's office in Basel.

Shire (Basingstoke, UK, and Philadelphia) has announced its board succession plans. Effective June 2008, James H. Cavanaugh will retire as nonexecutive chairman and be succeeded by Matthew Emmens, and CFO Angus Russell will be appointed CEO, succeeding Emmens. Cavanaugh has been chairman of Shire since 1999. Emmens joined Shire in 2003; he will continue to serve on the boards of Incyte and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Mark Frohlich has been promoted to the position of senior vice president of clinical affairs and chief medical officer of Dendreon (Seattle). A urologic oncologist with over a decade of oncology drug development and patient treatment experience, he joined Dendreon in 2005 after serving as vice president and medical director at Xcyte Therapies.

Barry Greene has been promoted to the new position of president and COO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA). He previously held the title of COO.

Oxford Genome Sciences (Oxford, UK) has named Christopher Hibberd, currently CEO at Astute Medical and formerly senior vice president, corporate development at Biosite, to its board of directors. Hibberd brings over 15 years of experience in business strategy and corporate development to Oxford Genome Sciences.

Cytheris (Paris) has announced the appointment of Richard W. Keatinge to the newly created position of chief business officer. Keatinge was most recently a managing director and vice president of business development at BioAlliance Pharma and previously vice president of corporate development at FeRx.

Affymax (Palo Alto, CA, USA) has named Keith Leonard and Christi van Heek to the company's board of directors. Leonard has nearly 20 years of operations experience at biotech companies, including 13 years at Amgen, and van Heek's 25 years in the biotech industry includes 13 years at Genzyme, where she most recently served as president, therapeutics division.

John Nicholson has been promoted to serve as senior vice president and CFO of Nektar Therapeutics (San Carlos, CA, USA), replacing Tim Harkness. Nicholson has more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, previously serving as senior vice president, corporate development and business operations at Nektar. Prior to joining the company, he served in a number of leadership roles at Bayer Schering Pharma.

SemBioSys Genetics (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) has named Oye Olukotun to the board of directors of the company, replacing Douglass Given, who is retiring from the board after serving for seven years. Olukotun is cofounder and chief medical officer of VIA Pharmaceuticals, and formerly served as chief medical officer at Esperion Therapeutics until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2004.

Isis Pharmaceuticals (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has named B. Lynne Parshall to the position of COO. She retains her position as CFO and is a director of the company.

Vincent Renz (right) has been named COO of ClinPhone (Nottingham, UK). Renz has over 26 years of experience in the information technology industry, most recently as executive vice president and chief technology officer with eResearch Technology. He previously held consulting roles in IT with Arthur Andersen and Deloitte, Haskins and Sells.

Codexis (Redwood City, CA, USA) has announced that Bill Rothwell, vice president of innovation and chemicals technology for Shell Global Solutions and Dennis Wolf, executive vice president and CFO of MySQL, have joined the company's board of directors.

AlgoNomics (Ghent, Belgium) has announced the promotion of Philippe Stas from COO to CEO, succeeding Ignace Lasters, who will continue as CSO and assume a role as director of the company. Before joining AlgoNomics in 1999, Stas started his career at PE Genscope, a subsidiary of PerkinElmer.