Organovo Holdings, Inc. Announces Board Appointments
August 18, 2016 at 05:35 pm IST
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Organovo Holdings, Inc. announced that its board of directors has appointed two new members. Mark Kessel, co-founder and partner of Symphony Capital LLC, and Richard Maroun, executive partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners, will join Organovo’s board, effective immediately. The appointments increase the number of Organovo directors to seven. With their addition to the board, Kessel will become a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Science and Technology Committee, while Maroun will join the Audit and Compensation Committees. Mark Kessel is a partner of Symphony Capital, LLC, he co-founded in 2002. He is also Of Counsel at Shearman & Sterling and a member of the firm’s capital markets group. Previously, from 1971 to 2001, Mr. Kessel held various roles at Shearman & Sterling, including as managing partner leading the international law firm’s day-to-day operations. Mr. Kessel has previously served on several public biopharmaceutical company boards. Richard Maroun is an executive partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners. Before joining Frazier in 2015, Maroun was senior vice president and general counsel of Aptalis Pharmaceuticals from 2012 to 2014. He has also held numerous senior executive roles for APP Pharmaceuticals, Abraxis BioScience and American BioScience Inc. Mr. Maroun currently serves on the board of Leiter’s Enterprises, a private portfolio company of Frazier Healthcare Partners, and the Board of Trustees of John Carroll University.
Organovo Holdings, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. The Company is focused on developing FXR314 in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC), based on demonstration of clinical promise in three-dimensional (3D) human tissues, as well as preclinical data. Its segments include research and development (R&D) and Mosaic Cell Sciences (Mosaic). It is also focused on building high fidelity, 3D tissues that recapitulate key aspects of human disease. It uses its proprietary technology to build functional 3D human tissues that mimic key aspects of native human tissue composition, architecture, function, and disease. Its Mosaic division to serve as a key source of certain primary human cells it utilizes in its research and development efforts. Its 3D human tissue platform is multifaceted. Its NovoGen Bioprinters can also dispense pure hydrogel formulations, provided the physical properties of the hydrogel are compatible with the dispensing parameters.