September 28th, 2009

Genomeweb reports:

Shahram Hejazi and Marie Lindner have joined the new investment team of BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a state-created seed- and pre-seed investor in life sciences companies.

Hejazi is responsible for BioAdvance investments in device, diagnostics and imaging companies, as well as working with mid- to late-stage molecular imaging, life science tools and diagnostics companies already within the BioAdvance portfolio.

Hejazi was president of Kodak’s life science division (now Carestream Molecular Imaging), where he had global responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing and service for the division, which included the systems and the imaging agent businesses. Before Kodak, Hejazi was CEO of Zargis Medical, an early-stage medical device company that was spun off from Siemens. At Zargis he led the company’s efforts in areas ranging from raising capital and technology development to completion of several clinical trials, FDA approval and product launch. Previously, he was the global head of strategic business development for the medical business unit of Siemens.

Lindner works with therapeutic-focused companies in BioAdvance’s portfolio, providing their management teams with strategic advice, business, and regulatory/clinical strategy counsel. She also reviews companies applying for investments from the greenhouse.

Lindner previously served in senior executive roles with life sciences firms including Isolagen, Elan, SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis). She also served as vice president of strategic business development at accelerator BTG International, and co-founded Embera NeuroTherapeutics, a start-up biotech company focused on treatment of addiction.

Hejazi is also an FDA industry advisory panel member for molecular and clinical genetic devices, an advisory board member for Fox Chase Cancer Center, a board director at Alpha Innotech, and a board director for SibTech. Hejazi has a PhD in electrical engineering with an emphasis on biophysics from the State University of New York’s University at Buffalo, as well as executive business education from Stanford University.