Qiagen appoints chief medical officer

Qiagen has announced that Dr Ellen E Sheets has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer, effective 6 July 6 2010. In her new role, Dr Sheets will be primarily responsible for the development of Qiagen’s strategy for the discovery of biomarkers for new cancer diagnostics and their timely and effective clinical evaluation. Dr Sheets will be located at the Gaithersburg, MD, site and will report to Dr Joachim Schorr, Senior Vice President Global R&D.

Dr Sheets has a strong track record in clinical trial and product development and brings a wealth of experience from leading positions previously held in academia and the diagnostics industry. As an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, she built a successful gynecologic oncology practice and developed cervical cancer research programs. She also served on numerous US committees (including gynecologic cancer subcommittee work for the NCI) and acted as a consultant to the FDA.

As Vice President Clinical Affairs and, later ,Chief Medical Officer for Hologic, Dr Sheets was instrumental in growing top-line revenues from US$250 million to over US$750 million. She joins Qiagen from Predictive Biosciences, where she successfully headed the development of a novel marker business as General Manager and Chief Medical Officer.

Dr Sheets holds a BA and an MD degree from the University of Michigan and earned a MBA from the Stern School at New York University. In addition to her biomarker development and evaluation program responsibilities, Dr Sheets will assume leadership for the cross-functional content portfolio team, provide medical and regulatory expertise and ensure a consistent approach to key opinion-leader relationship building.