Harbinger Health, which aims to detect early cancer with a simple blood test using artificial intelligence and machine learning combined with recent discoveries about the biology of early cancer, has named Stephen Hahn (photo) CEO. Hahn was the 24th commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration and former CEO of MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Noubar Afeyan, CEO of Flagship Pioneering, which committed $50 million in funding for Harbinger, said, “Steve Hahn has been instrumental in Flagship’s preemptive medicine and health security initiative, which is creating a new field that aims to protect, maintain or improve people’s health before they get sick. Leading Harbinger Health is the natural evolution of that work. I’m thrilled that Steve, a recognized oncologist and leader in medical research, as well as a former FDA commissioner, has joined as CEO-partner to lead the launch of Harbinger Health.”

Apollo Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Sanjay Aggarwal as chief medical officer. Aggarwal joins Apollo with over 20 years’ experience in the biopharma industry, most recently serving as chief medical officer at Angiocrine Bioscience.

Pascal Bamford has been appointed as senior vice president of R&D and laboratory operations at Akoya Biosciences. He was most recently senior vice president of products and services R&D at Exact Sciences, and previously CSO and head of laboratory operations at Epic Sciences.

PhaseBio has announced the appointment of Jonathan J. Birchall as chief commercial officer. Birchall has over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceuticals industry. He joins the company after 12 years at Genentech, where he most recently served as vice president and US head of the company’s thrombolytics franchise.

Clinical-stage gene therapy developer Coave Therapeutics has announced the appointments of Thomas Blaettler as chief medical officer and Patricia Françon to the newly created position of COO. Blaettler joins Coave from Orphazyme, where he served as chief medical officer. He previously held senior roles within the clinical neuroscience divisions at both Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb. Françon has over 20 years’ industry experience, having most recently served as chief operating/technology officer at Skinosive.

Phil Dormitzer has joined GlaxoSmithKline as global head of vaccines R&D. He joins from Pfizer, where he was vice president and CSO, RNA and viral vaccines.

Verve Therapeutics has appointed Allison Dorval as chief financial officer. She brings more than 20 years of experience in finance, accounting, financial reporting and investor relations, most recently serving as CFO at Voyager Therapeutics.

Clinical-stage Goldfinch Bio has named Jeff W. Jacobs CSO. Jacobs, who has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development, most recently served in the same capacity at Ardelyx.

Ancora Bio has named Stephen Kanes as CEO. He was most recently chief medical officer of Sage Therapeutics, and previously served as executive director in clinical development in the inflammation, neuroscience and respiratory therapeutic areas at AstraZeneca.

Padma Kodukula has joined A-Alpha Bio as chief business officer. She most recently led strategy and business development at Precision NanoSystems, which was acquired by Danaher in June 2021.

Life science venture capital firm Arch Venture Partners has named John Maraganore, Jake Bauer, Luciana Borio, Axel Bouchon and Sabah Oney new venture partners. Maraganore is the founding CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Bauer was most recently chief business officer of MyoKardia. Borio was a senior vice president at In-Q-Tel, a member of President Biden’s transition COVID-19 Advisory Board and director for medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. Bouchon is a director at Brii Biosciences, co-founder and chairman of BrainLuxury and co-founder and CEO of BrainGames. Oney was most recently chief business officer of Alector.

Biogen has announced the retirement of Alfred ‘Al’ W. Sandrock, Jr. Sandrock spent 23 years at Biogen, serving on the executive committee since 2015, as chief medical officer from 2012 to 2020 and as head of R&D since October 2019. Priya Singhal, head of global safety and regulatory sciences, will assume Sandrock’s duties on an interim basis until a permanent successor is identified.

Nadrian Charles ‘Ned’ Seeman passed away on 16 November 2021. A professor in the department of chemistry at New York University, Seeman founded and developed the field of DNA nanotechnology, which involves the design and construction of nanostructures from nucleic acids. He built nanocubes, nanotubes, polyhedra, two- and three-dimensional lattices and other structures using DNA strands, and the approach has also been used to build nanorobots and other machines, as well as knotted DNA molecules, and has applications in DNA computing. He has received numerous awards, including the 1995 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the 2010 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience and the 2016 Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute.

FogPharma has announced the appointments of Lihua Yu as chief data officer and Keith Orford as chief medical officer and executive vice president of clinical and translational science. Yu was formerly president and chief data science officer of H3 Biomedicine. Orford joins from Calithera Biosciences, where he was chief medical officer. Before Calithera, he was the clinical development lead in the immuno-oncology and combinations development performance unit at GlaxoSmithKline.