Strand Life Sciences Names Scott Storrer to Expanded Leadership Position of Global President and Introduces U.S. Management Team

BANGALORE, India and AURORA, Colo., April 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Strand Life Sciences, a global genomic profiling company that uses next generation sequencing technology to empower cancer care, today announced the appointment of Scott Storrer to the position of global president. In this new role, Storrer, who joined Strand in July 2014 as president of North America, will oversee the company's operations worldwide with a focus on strategy and business expansion.

In addition, Strand introduced its U.S. management team, which is focused on the national launch of StrandAdvantage. Available now to physicians, StrandAdvantage was designed to accelerate the analysis of therapeutically actionable cancer genes and match them to relevant FDA-approved targeted cancer therapies and open clinical trials without the need for multiple tests. Utilizing proprietary advanced analytics and interpretation expertise, StrandAdvantage provides oncologists with clinically actionable results in days instead of weeks to enable more timely decisions about the best targeted therapies for patients. 

"Scott has been an integral member of the team bringing StrandAdvantage to market in the United States," said Dr. Vijay Chandru, chairman and CEO of Strand Life Sciences. "The team we have appointed will support his efforts to deliver precision medicine to more oncologists and pathologists."

Storrer is a 20-year healthcare industry veteran. Prior to joining Strand, he was president and CEO of Genomind, a personalized medicine company. Before this, he held several leadership positions with Cardinal Health, where he advanced to group president of Cardinal's $81 billion pharmaceutical segment. Earlier in his career, Storrer was executive vice president, service and information technology with CIGNA Corp. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics from DePauw University and an M.B.A. from Boston University.

Storrer added: "The team we are putting in place enables Strand to continue to lead advances in NGS approaches to genomic testing and to offer physicians the most advanced care options through precision medicine."

The company's U.S. management team appointments are:

Dr. Preveen Ramamoorthy, global head of diagnostics

In this position, he leads next generation sequencing test validation, clinical operations, regulatory compliance and quality assurance of Strand's India and U.S. reference laboratories. He also holds an adjoint faculty appointment at the University of Colorado School of Medicine's Division of Personalized Medicine and Bioinformatics. Prior to joining Strand Life Sciences, Ramamoorthy was the founding head of the molecular diagnostics department at National Jewish Health, Denver, where he led the launch of high complexity molecular diagnostics laboratory-developed tests spanning oncology, immunology, genetics and infectious diseases.  Ramamoorthy completed his Ph.D. at Clemson University where he co-invented a prolactin receptor antagonist that was designed to be a targeted therapy candidate for breast cancer. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in genomics and molecular diagnostics.

Dr. Harsha Rajasimha, vice president of global business development

He focuses on corporate strategy to expand Strand's personalized medicine Smartlab business and to forge strategic alliances across vertical markets and around the world. Rajasimha is co-founder and board member of the Organization for Rare Diseases India and is an affiliate faculty member of systems biology at George Mason University. Since beginning to explore the intersection of computer science, genomics and medicine more than a decade ago, he has authored 14 peer-reviewed articles and worked on some of the largest interdisciplinary genomics projects at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, National Cancer Institute, and National Eye Institute. Rajasimha earned his M.S. in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at Virginia Tech.

Doreen Korba, vice president of global marketing

An experienced marketing executive and brand innovator, Korba directs Strand's diverse global marketing initiatives. Her responsibilities include corporate branding and messaging, product marketing, demand generation, public relations, website management, online marketing, social media and events. Prior to joining Strand, she served as vice president of marketing at Genomind, where she built a successful brand from the ground up and helped to establish the company as a leader in personalized medicine for mental health. Ms. Korba holds a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Health Services and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.

Caely Cusick, vice president of personalized medicine sales

She is responsible for the direction and management of all sales and business development activities. Cusick is a top-performing sales professional with expertise in business development, account management, marketing strategy and event production. She previously served as director of business development for Burrill & Company, a San Francisco financial firm specializing in biotechnology and life sciences investing; as director of national sales for Bloomspot; regional event sales manager for The Economist; and campaign manager for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Cheryl Abrantes, manager of client services

Abrantes has more than 15 years of customer service and public relations experience. Prior to joining Strand, she served as the head of client services for the Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories at National Jewish Health (NJH). In 2009, she built the client services team for the U.S.-wide launch of the age-related macular degeneration genetic test named Macula Risk in partnership with ArcticDx. While at NJH, she also managed the laboratories' highest revenue-generating account, LabCorp.

About Strand Life Sciences

Strand Life Sciences is a genomic profiling company that uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology aimed at empowering cancer care. Strand's StrandAdvantage pan-cancer panels provide oncologists and pathologists a complete understanding of genomic changes in solid tumors in days so targeted treatment plans can begin quickly. Strand's comprehensive knowledge base of genomic variants linked to FDA-approved targeted cancer therapies and drugs in open clinical trials provides clinically actionable treatment options, enabling clinicians to develop a truly personalized treatment regimen for cancer patients.

For more information, please visit www.strandls.com.

Contact:

Doreen Korba
Vice President, Global Marketing
888-801-9164
[email protected]

David Schull or Todd Davenport, Ph.D.
Russo Partners, LLC
(212) 845-4271
(212) 845-4235
[email protected] 
[email protected]

SOURCE Strand Life Sciences

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