Mara Aspinall, the founder and former CEO of Waltham, MA-based On-Q-ity, has moved on to become president of Ventana Medical Systems, an Arizona-based division of healthcare giant Roche that focuses on cancer diagnostics. The appointment was announced in a press release today and is effective next month.
Aspinall is well known in the diagnostics world, having previously served as president of the genetic testing unit of Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme. On-Q-ity, which started in 2009, focuses on molecular diagnostics for cancer. The startup’s website still lists Aspinall as a founder and director, but makes no mention of a successor (or search for one) yet.
Xconomy profiled On-Q-ity last summer and earlier this year, when the company formed a strategic alliance with LabCorp to help commercialize its technology for detecting circulating tumor cells in the blood.
“My career has been about asking what is the greatest need for patients? The greatest need for patients today is in increasing the efficacy of treatments available now,” Aspinall said at the time. “We’ve made such progress with new drugs, we need to use diagnostics to improve the information the physician has if we want to improve how we use those drugs.”
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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