Landmark Bio has announced the appointment of Ran Zheng (photo) as CEO. Zheng is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in biotech operations. She most recently served as chief technical officer at Orchard Therapeutics, and previously held leadership positions at Genzyme (now Sanofi) and Amgen.

“As a leader with broad and deep industry expertise and an impressive record of achievement in technology development and global clinical development, Ran comes to this role at the perfect time,” said Alan Garber, chair of the board of Landmark Bio. “The kickoff on the construction of Landmark Bio’s state-of-the-art facility is just the first step in our collective efforts to innovate in biological manufacturing and support the production of early-stage biological therapies. The facility will ease key bottlenecks in the development of some of the most promising approaches to therapy today.”

Credit: Harvard University

Immix Biopharma has announced that Helen C. Adams has joined its board of directors. She is currently the audit committee chair and a member of the board of directors of Prometheus Biosciences. Previously, she was the San Diego managing partner for certified public accounting firm Haskell & White.

Shefali Agarwal has been named chairwoman of the board of directors of Onxeo, succeeding Danièle Guyot-Caparros, who will remain an independent member of the board of directors and chair of the audit committee. Agarwal serves as chief medical and development officer at Epizyme and is a member of the board of directors of ITB Med, Gritstone Bio and Fate Therapeutics.

Arch Venture Partners has appointed Luciana Borio as a venture partner. Borio was most recently senior vice president at non-profit investment firm In-Q-Tel and also served as a member of President Biden’s transition COVID-19 advisory board. Previously, she was director for medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council and acting chief scientist and assistant commissioner for counterterrorism policy at the US Food & Drug Administration.

Merck executive chairman and former CEO Kenneth Frazier has joined venture group General Catalyst as chairman of its health assurance initiative, which will invest in healthcare startups via a $600 million fund unveiled in April 2021.

Q32 Bio has announced the appointment of Kathy LaPorte to its board of directors. She previously served as chief business officer and CEO of Nodality and was a founding partner of New Leaf Venture Partners. She currently serves on the boards of Elysium Therapeutics, Precipio Diagnostics, D2G Oncology and Bolt Biotherapeutics.

Chengdu, China-based Anticancer Bioscience has appointed Hong Liu as vice president of clinical development. Liu joins the company from Eureka Therapeutics where he served as vice president of R&D, taking drug candidates from discovery to IND filing and supervising the clinical research and clinical trial operation in China for the company.

Tracey Lodie (photo) has been appointed CSO of London-based Quell Therapeutics. She brings over 20 years of biopharma industry experience and joins Quell from Gamida Cell, where she served in the same capacity. Previously, Lodie was senior vice president, translational immunology at BlueRock Therapeutics and vice president of immunology at Syros Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Quell has announced the appointment of Dominik Hartl as chief medical officer. He joins the company from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was therapeutic area head, translational medicine/biomarkers for autoimmunity/transplantation/inflammation.

John Charles Martin (photo), former CEO of Gilead Sciences, pioneering medicinal chemist and visionary biotech leader, died earlier this year. Over the course of a long career at Syntex, Bristol Myers Squibb and Gilead, Martin was involved in the discovery and development of many FDA-approved antiviral drugs, including remdesivir (for SARS-CoV-2); sofosbuvir (for hepatitis C virus); tenofovir alafenamide and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (for HIV and hepatitis B virus); oseltamivir (for influenza); stavudine, didanosine and cidofovir (for HIV); and ganciclovir (for cytomegalovirus).

Preclinical stage company Tectonic Therapeutic has announced the appointment of Marcella (“Marcie”) Ruddy as chief medical officer. She joins the company from Regeneron, where she served as vice president, global program direction for immunology/inflammation and was the program leader for Dupixent (dupilumab).

Engineered antibody developer IGM Biosciences has named Chris H. Takimoto chief medical officer, succeeding Daniel S. Chen. Takimoto was most recently senior vice president, oncology at Gilead Sciences.

Noted pharma researcher, investor and bioentrepreneur Tadataka ‘Tachi’ Yamada died of natural causes at his home on 4 August at the age of 76. Yamada served as chairman of R&D and was a member of the board of directors at GlaxoSmithKline before joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as president of the global health program. He returned to industry in 2013 as chief medical officer and CSO at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the launch of Takeda Vaccines. He also co-founded biotech companies including Passage Bio and G2Bio and was a venture partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners.