Stressgen Biotechnologies (Victoria, BC, Canada) has appointed Gregory M. McKee as the company's president and CEO, succeeding Dan Korpolinski who is leaving to pursue other interests. Mr. McKee, who has served as Stressgen's chief financial officer and vice president of corporate development for the past two years, will focus on the commercialization of HspE7, the company's lead product candidate targeting a broad spectrum of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases. Mr. McKee previously served as senior director, corporate development for Valentis, as well as director of Genzyme's operations in Asia.

Michael J. Astrue has been appointed to the board of directors of ArQule (Woburn, MA, USA). Mr. Astrue is currently president and CEO of Transkaryotic Therapies, and previously served as vice president, secretary and general counsel for Biogen as well as chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

Benitec (Mountain View, CA, USA) has named Michael Catelani chief financial officer. Mr. Catelani had served as a consultant to the company since January 2005. Mr. Catelani previously held senior financial management positions including vice president and CFO at Axon Instruments.

David Chiswell has been named nonexecutive chairman of DanioLabs (Cambridge, UK), replacing Roger Brimblecombe who has retired from the DanioLabs board. Dr. Chiswell was a founder and CEO of Cambridge Antibody Technologies. In addition to this new chairmanship, he also serves as chairman of Arrow Therapeutics, Sosei Co. and the UK BioIndustry Association, and as a nonexecutive director of Arakis Ltd.

Innovive Pharmaceuticals (New York) has announced the appointment of Adam R. Craig as vice president and chief medical officer. He joins the company from ArQule where he served as medical director and vice president, clinical development. Dr. Craig was also senior director, clinical development for Ilex Oncology and medical advisor, oncology for Antisoma.

Illumina (San Diego, CA, USA) has appointed Scott D. Kahn as vice president and chief information officer, a new position. Dr. Kahn joins the company from Accelrys, where he served as chief scientific officer. Illumina also named Paul Grint to its board of directors. Dr. Grint is currently senior vice president and chief medical officer of Zephyr Sciences, and previously served as vice president and head of clinical R&D for Pfizer in La Jolla, California.

Bryan Koontz has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of discovery informatics at Tripos (St. Louis, MO, USA). He succeeds Trevor Heritage, who is leaving to pursue other interests. The cofounder, and formerly CEO, of Optive Research, Mr. Koontz joined Tripos as vice president of marketing and corporate development when Tripos acquired Optive in January 2005.

John T. Henderson has been elected chairman of the board of Myriad Genetics (Salt Lake City, UT, USA). He succeeds Dale Stringfellow who recently died of complications associated with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Henderson, a board member since March 2004, was previously with Pfizer for over 25 years, most recently as a vice president in the pharmaceuticals group. In addition, Myriad's board of directors has selected Linda S. Wilson to fill the vacancy on the audit committee left by Dr. Stringfellow's passing. Dr. Wilson has been a director since 1999. She was the seventh president of Radcliffe College, and served as vice president for research at the University of Michigan, and in similar roles at the University of Illinois and Washington University.

Topigen Pharma-ceuticals (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has announced the appointment of G. John Mohr as chief business officer. Mr. Mohr was most recently a corporate officer and vice president of business development and licensing at AtheroGenics, and previously president, US operations at Fournier Pharma.

Protagen (Dortmund, Germany) has appointed Stefan Müllner as chief scientific officer, succeeding Helmut E. Meyer. Dr. Müllner previously served in positions in R&D management at Henkel and Hoechst. Dr. Meyer will join Protagen's scientific advisory board and the board of directors, replacing Achim Riemann, former CEO of Arthur D. Little Germany.

Tercica (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has appointed Chris E. Rivera to the newly created position of senior vice president, commercial operations. He joins the company from Corixa, where he was vice president of sales. Mr. Rivera also served as senior vice president of Genzyme Therapeutics.

August M. Watanabe has been named to the board of directors of Ambrx (San Diego, CA, USA). Dr. Watanabe was formerly a senior executive at Eli Lilly, where he occupied the positions of executive vice president of science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, and was a member of the board of directors.

Keith Yamamoto has been appointed as chairperson to the scientific advisory board of Sirna Therapeutics (Boulder, CO, USA). Dr. Yamamoto is currently executive vice dean at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He has been a member of the UCSF faculty for more than 25 years, serving as director of the biochemistry and molecular biology graduate program from 1988 to 2001 and as chairperson of the department of cellular and molecular pharmacology from 1994 to 2003.