• Stephen T.D. Dixon, executive vice president and CFO of Clarient (San Juan Capistrano, California), has re-signed those posts effective Friday to pursue a new professional opportunity. He has served in those positions for Clarient since December 2002. Clarient, a majority owned subsidiary of Safeguard Scientifics, provides technologies, services and support for the characterization, assessment and treatment of cancer via its Automated Cellular Imaging System.

• Robert Mignatti has joined Exagen Diagnostics (Albuquerque, New Mexico) as president and chief operating officer. Exagen CEO Jim McClintic, who joined the company in October, will continue to guide the company's strategic direction. Mignatti comes to Exagen with 33 years of laboratory and kit-based diagnostics experience, including senior management and sales roles at Esoterix, Allergy Testing Laboratory, Kallestad Diagnostics and Baxter International. Last year, McClintic and Mignatti led the sale of Esoterix to Laboratory Corp. of America for $150 million. Exagen Diagnostics discovers, validates and commercialize small sets of genomic markers for use in oncology, infectious disease and other indications.

• Indira Pottathil, PhD, has been appointed the first director of international marketing for Grant Life Sciences (Los Angeles). Since 1996, Pottathil has served as vice president of R&D at AccuDx, where she managed compliance efforts as well as development and production of in vitro diagnostic products. Grant Life Sciences develops products to detect and diagnose cervical cancer, including a non-invasive, point-of-care test. It also markets rapid tests for malaria, Dengue fever, HIV-1 and HIV-2 that were acquired from AccuDx.

• Patricia Bowman has joined Synova Healthcare (Media, Pennsylvania) as vice president, marketing. Bowman brings more than 15 years of marketing management experience to Synova, most recently as a consultant for companies like GlaxoSmithKline. Synova Healthcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Synova Healthcare Group, distributes rapid, non-invasive medical diagnostics to retail for over-the-counter use, and directly to healthcare providers for point-of-care use in the clinical setting.

• Janet Lankard has been appointed vice president of sales and technology collaborations for VisEn Medical (Woburn, Massachusetts), a newly created position to commercialize the company's Fluorescence Molecular Tomography system and optical imaging probe portfolio. Prior to joining VisEn, Lankard was vice president of sales and technical support for Quantum Dot.