Kenneth Coleman (right) has been appointed chief scientific officer (CSO) of antibiotic developer Novexel (Paris). He has almost 30 years of experience of scientific research in the areas of microbiology and pharmacology, most recently serving as director of the infection cellular biosciences department at AstraZeneca R&D in Boston. Before joining AstraZeneca in 2001, Coleman was head of antimicrobial profiling and assay development at SmithKline Beecham.

“I am delighted to welcome Ken to Novexel where he will lead the discovery and preclinical efforts of the company,” says Novexel CEO Iain Buchanan. “The search for novel class anti-infective agents with activity against resistant strains will remain a research priority for the company. Ken's contribution to this mission will be invaluable.”

SuperGen (Dublin, CA, USA) has announced the promotion of David Bearss to CSO. Bearss joined SuperGen as a result of its acquisition of Montigen Pharmaceuticals in 2006. He co-founded and served as Montigen's scientific leader.

XOMA (Berkeley, CA, USA) has named Stephen K. Doberstein vice president of research, with responsibility for directing the company's preclinical drug candidates through the discovery and development process. Doberstein has 15 years of experience in biotech R&D, most recently as vice president of research at Five Prime Therapeutics.

Antisoma (London) has named Eric Dodd chief financial officer and as an executive director. Dodd was most recently group finance director at Morse, a consulting, IT services and technology company. Previously, he held management positions at a number of companies, including GlaxoSmithKline. Raymond Spencer, Antisoma's current CFO, will become corporate development director and will remain on the board of directors.

Sirius Genomics (Vancouver, BC, Canada) has named three new members to its board of directors: Heiner Dreismann is the former president and CEO of Roche Molecular Diagnostics; Chris Fibiger was previously the vice president and global head of neuroscience at Amgen; and Patrick Terry is a co-founder of Genomic Health, a personalized medicine company.

The Canary Foundation (San Jose, CA, USA), a nonprofit early cancer detection organization, has announced that its scientific program director, Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, has been elected as a new member of the US National Academies Institute of Medicine. Gambhir is a professor of radiology and bioengineering at Stanford University, where he serves as chief of the nuclear medicine division and director of the molecular imaging program.

Vernalis (Winnersh, UK) has appointed Ian Garland and David Mackney, formerly CEO and CFO of Acambis, respectively, to its board of directors. They are slated to take up the same roles at Vernalis starting this month. Garland and Mackney left Acambis after it was taken over by Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis, in July.

Martin Gerstel has been appointed president and CEO of Compugen (Tel Aviv), effective January 1, 2009. Having served as chairman of Compugen since 1997, Gerstel will succeed current president and CEO Alex Kotzer, who recently announced his interest to retire from his full-time executive responsibilities. Kotzer will remain a director of the company. Before Gerstel became chairman of Compugen, he was co-founder, co-chairman and CEO of ALZA Corp.

Linda Hogan has been named vice president of business development of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals (Indianapolis). She has over 25 years of experience in the pharma and <0x000A>biopharma industries and will continue to serve as an executive in residence at Care Capital. She previously served as vice president of business development at Clearview Projects and vice president of business development at Aventis.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Cheshire, CT, USA) has announced the retirement of David W. Keiser, the company's cofounder, COO since 1992 and president since 2002. His responsibilities will be distributed among current members of Alexion's senior management. He will remain on the board of directors at least through the expiration of his current term in 2009.

The board of directors of OXiGENE (Waltham, MA, USA) has named John A. Kollins to the positions of CEO and director. Concurrently, the board accepted the resignation of Richard Chin as president, CEO and as a member of the board of directors. Kollins joined the company in March 2007 and currently serves as COO.

MDRNA (Bothell, WA, USA) has announced the appointment of Barry Polisky as CSO, effective January 2, 2009. He replaces Steven C. Quay, who steps down as CSO but will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors and a member of the scientific advisory board. Polisky previously served as research vice president at Merck & Co. and as CSO at Sirna Therapeutics. In addition, MDRNA announced that lead independent director Bruce R. Thaw has been named chairman of the board, replacing Quay; and James E. Rothman, a member of the board of directors and a member of the scientific advisory board, has been named chairman of the scientific advisory board.

Guy Van Meter has joined Adimab (Lebanon, NH, USA) as senior director, head of business development. He comes to Adimab from a business development role at Pfizer, where he was involved in new business initiatives around RNA interference therapeutics and regenerative medicine for Pfizer's Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center in San Francisco.

Acorda Therapeutics (Hawthorne, NY, USA) has announced the appointment of Thomas C. Wessel as chief medical officer. Wessel was previously senior vice president of clinical research at Sepracor.