On the move…

I briefly considered some “I have a dream…”-style post musing about something and glomming onto the theme of MLK Day, then decided the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been in his grave a short enough period that he might roll over, roll out, and clonk me on the head for sheer impertinence (and I’d deserve it). So, as some of us work today, and some of us don’t, but most of us try to remember how short a time ago (historically speaking) it was that civil rights in the United States was a painful joke and keep moving beyond that era, I’ll just keep it simple with a pair of “People & Promotion”-style items that go right to the top.

Xhale Innovations Inc.
Craig T. Davenport
Chief Executive Officer
GAINESVILLE, Fla.—With more than 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry and “a proven track record of leading, building, managing and investing in rapidly growing medical device technology companies,” Craig Davenport has been announced as the new CEO of Xhale Innovations Inc. Recently, he he had served as chairman, president and CEO of Endocare and, over six years, built the company into a leading provider of minimally invasive technologies to treat prostate, kidney, lung and other cancers using cryotherapy. Earlier in his career, he was chief operating officer and president of Tokos Medical Corp. when it was an early stage medical device manufacturer and clinical services provider, and over nine years he spearheaded the company’s growth from a handful of people to more than 3,000 employees, took the company public in 1990 and grew revenues from $3.7 million to more than $120 million.

Crescendo Biologics
Mike Romanos
Chief Executive Officer
CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—Crescendo Biologics has announced the appointment of Dr. Mike Romanos as CEO after having served as chief scientific officer of the company since May 2009, a position in which he led the formation of the company and the development of its proprietary antibody fragment technologies. During this time, Crescendo notes, the company has made significant progress in the establishment of its team and its technology platforms. This has included the establishment of a colony of engineered mice completely devoid of endogenous antibody polypeptides, announced in September. The proprietary ‘triple knockout’ mice are believed to be unique and have the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH), kappa light chain and lambda light chain loci all functionally silenced by large-scale genomic deletion. Romanos brings more than 23 years’ biotech and pharma industry experience and within the last 10 years has held senior global positions leading major parts of GlaxoSmithKline Discovery.

People on the move: NIGMS head gives notice

BETHESDSA, Md.—Having served as director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) since November 2003, Dr. Jeremy M. Berg has announced that he will step down from his post to become associate senior vice chancellor for science strategy and planning in the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He will also be a faculty member in the department of computational and systems biology at the university’s school of medicine. However, he does not anticipate leaving NIGMS for some months yet, with a planned exit date of the end of June 2011. At that point, if the search for a new director is still underway, an acting director will be named.

“The time I have spent at NIH has been a highlight of my career, and I hope to be able to continue to contribute to this exceptional institution from my new position,” Berg says. “When I joined NIGMS, I was fortunate to come to an outstanding organization with an extremely talented and dedicated staff. With this strong team, I have worked hard to make the institute even better, more transparent and more responsive to the needs of the scientific community.” He adds that he had no intention of leaving NIGMS but is doing so in support of the career of his wife, a leading breast imaging clinical researcher, who was recruited by many institutions around the country, among them the University of Pittsburgh. He says that the university “offered tremendous opportunities for each of us.”

As NIGMS director, Berg oversees a $2 billion budget that primarily funds basic research in cell biology, biophysics, genetics, developmental biology, pharmacology, physiology, biological chemistry, bioinformatics and computational biology. The institute supports more than 4,500 research grants, which make up about 10 percent of all grants funded by NIH. NIGMS also funds a substantial amount of research training and programs designed to increase the diversity of the biomedical and behavioral research workforce.