• Scott Root has been named president and CEO of Astra Tech (Waltham, Massachusetts), the U.S. subsidiary of Astra Tech AB (M lndal Sweden), a manufacturer of dental implants and medical devices for surgery and urology. Root will also serve on the company's board. Root most recently was senior vice president of Straumann USA. Root joins Astra Tech as it prepares launch of its OsseoSpeed Dental Implant, an implant with a bone growth catalyst. Astra Tech AB, part of the AstraZeneca group, designs products for the dental implant and urology markets.

• Louis Glazer, MD, has been named chief health and science officer of Franklin Capital's (Santa Monica, California) newly formed subsidiary, Franklin Medical Products. Further fulfilling Franklin Capital's shift from radio and telecommunications to the medical products and healthcare industries, Franklin Medical Products will focus on developing and bringing to market products targeting patient safety. Glazer was appointed to Franklin Capital's board in October 2004. He also serves as a member of Ault Glazer Investment Management's advisory board and as an independent biotechnology and medical consultant. Until 2002, Glazer served as chief anesthesiologist and medical director for the Vitreo-Retinal Clinic (Memphis, Tennessee).

• Robert Saltmarsh has been appointed CFO of Nanogen (San Diego). Saltmarsh joined Nanogen as vice president of corporate development last September. In addition to participating in business development initiatives, he assumed oversight of all financial operations and investor relations for the company. Nanogen makes the NanoChip Molecular Biology Workstation, NanoChip Electronic Microarray and a suite of analyte specific reagents to develop tests to detect infectious diseases, drug toxicity and mutations associated with cancer, cardiovascular and genetic diseases.

• Northstar Neuroscience (Seattle), a privately held developer of medical devices for the treatment of neurological diseases and disorders, named Nawzer Mehta, PhD, vice president of clinical affairs and promoted Brad Gliner to vice president of research. Mehta most recently was director of clinical research for Medtronic Vascular. Gliner has been with Northstar since 1999.