• Frank Torti, MD, has been appointed principal deputy commissioner and first chief scientist for the FDA. The newly created chief scientist position stems from the FDA Amendments Act of 2007. Torti is currently serving as Charles L. Spurr Professor of Medicine, chair of the Department of Cancer Biology and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, North Carolina). He has served on and chaired a number of national health and medical committees. He currently serves on the National Institutes of Health's National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

• James McGowan has been named president/CEO of Sparta Systems (Holmdel, New Jersey), succeeding company founder Ran Flam, who will remain as chairman. In his last two positions, McGowan was president/CEO of EIS Software and Infinium Software. Sparta Systems specializes in quality and compliance management systems.