Matthew Mullarkey has left West Pharmaceutical Services by mutual consent. Mullarkey was West’s chief operating officer (COO). Following the departure Steven Ellers, West’s president and former COO, will defer his retirement, initially planned for 2010, to ensure managerial continuity.

Light Sciences Oncology (LSO) has elected Akbar Seddigh to a newly created seat on its board of directors. Seddigh is currently chairman of the board at Elekta and has also held managerial positions at held managerial positions at Volvo and AB Atomenergi.

Peter Thompson has retired from Trubion Pharmaceuticals to pursue other interests. Thompson co-founded Trubion and served as its president, CEO and chairman of the board. Steven Gillis has been appointed executive chairman of the board and acting president.

Gillis is managing director of Arch Venture Partners and was founder and CEO of Corixa before it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline. He was also a founder and director of Immunex.

Genocea Biosciences has expanded its scientific advisory board by adding four vaccine experts. David Bernstein, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Robert Coffman, Dynavax Technologies, Patrice Dubois, University of Lausanne and Peter Kiener, Zyngenia are the appointees.

John Orwin has been appointed to the board of directors at NeurogesX. Orwin has 20 years experience in the biotech sector and currently is senior vice president, BioOncology Business Unit at Genentech. He has also worked at Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough.