Mark Litton has been appointed president and chief operating officer of Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALPN]]). Litton comes to the Seattle drug developer from Bothell, WA-based Alder BioPharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALDR]]), where he had been chief business officer and treasurer since its founding in 2004. Jay Venkatesan, who was Alpine Immune Sciences’s president, will continue to serve as a director of the company and resume his role as a managing partner at Alpine BioVentures. Alpine Immune Sciences, led by former Dendreon CEO Mitch Gold, is developing protein-based immunotherapies to treat cancer and autoimmune disorders, among other diseases.