PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PathoQuest, a genomic expert for biologics testing and a leader in improving pathogen identification in clinical biological samples, today announced the expansion of its Executives Leadership Team with the addition of two individuals with significant expertise in the fields Quality Assurance/Regulatory Affairs and Bioinformatics. Violaine Mélen, M.S., will fill the newly created role of Head, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs and Stéphane Cruveiller, Ph.D. has been appointed the company’s Chief Technology Information Officer (CTIO). Their addition to the Executive Management Team will support the continued expansion of PathoQuest’s business efforts.
As Head of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, Violaine Mélen has overall responsibility for overseeing the maintenance of product quality and compliance in line with PathoQuest’s Quality Management System while also leading the development and execution of the company’s comprehensive regulatory strategies. She has over 12 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Clinical Affairs within the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, Ms. Mélen was responsible for implementing risk management procedures at Bio-Rad Laboratories, with a specific focus on infectious disease, to ensure compliance with regulations and standards for in-vitro diagnostic devices. Additionally, she had additional responsibilities for vigilance-related activities, working closely with various health authorities. Prior to the above, Ms. Mélen worked for Air Liquide Healthcare where she was a Regulatory Affairs Specialist with responsibilities for the registration of medicinal gases in Europe and a Medico Marketing Specialist in Spain. Previous to the above, Ms. Mélen was a Quality Control Manager at PANPHARMA where she managed the Control Laboratory for microbiological and analytical chemistry activities to ensure compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). Ms. Mélen has a Pharmacy degree specializing in Analytical Chemistry from Paris Descartes University and a Master’s Degrees in Quality Assurance Management for IV-DM, Biotechnology from the University of Angers.
As CTIO, Dr. Stéphane Cruveiller has responsibility for the technical aspects of PathoQuest’s proprietary bioinformatics pipeline and alignment information technology-related strategic development initiatives with the company’s business goals. He has 20 years of experience in the field of bioinformatics applied to genomics and is (co-)author of nearly 70 publications. Prior to joining PathoQuest, Dr. Cruveiller was Team Leader at the François Jacob Institute of Biology - Genoscope of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) at the Laboratory of Bioinformatics Analyses for Genomics and Metabolism (LABGeM). He has conducted custom analytical developments to support the scientific community’s efforts to annotate newly sequenced microbial genomes. Dr. Cruveiller’s experience in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data mining has led him to provide academic and industrial partners innovative services and tools for variant calling and differential gene expression analyses. He has also recently managed national microbial metagenomics projects in France. Dr. Cruveiller graduated from University Paris VII and holds a Ph.D. in Genome Analysis and Molecular Modeling. He completed his post-doctoral training at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy where he contributed to important discoveries on the structure, organization and evolution of the vertebrate genome.
“We are very pleased to add Violaine’s and Stephane’s experience and expertise to our Executive Leadership Team,” stated Jean-Francois Brepson, PathoQuest’s CEO. “Both of these individuals will provide significant contributions to our efforts as we continue to grow our NGS-based testing solution businesses and develop further enhancements to our offerings going forward.”
About iDTECT™ Blood
PathoQuest has developed iDTECT Blood, the first and only clinical CE IVD metagenomic test for infectious disease diagnosis. Using a single blood sample, the test provides clinicians and microbiologists with a culture-free method for detecting more than 1,200 bacterial or viral pathogens in a turn-around time of 48 hours. The test is run in expert microbiology laboratories, accredited for the method, which allows to minimize the time between sampling and laboratory processing, and to streamline the interactions and decision process between microbiologists and the treating clinical team.
About PathoQuest
PathoQuest, a spin out of Institut Pasteur, is a life sciences company offering a game changing metagenomics approach to improving pathogen detection in biological samples. PathoQuest’s technology combines a Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform and a proprietary sample preparation process which is applicable to several types of samples with a proprietary pathogen genome sequence database and automated analysis pipeline. The company’s solution provides microbiologists and clinicians with a comprehensive analysis covering all known clinically relevant human pathogens.
Based on the company’s technological platform, PathoQuest also offers biopharmaceutical companies a disruptive approach to secure production of biologics like vaccines and recombinant proteins. PathoQuest’s Biological Genomic Services are currently being utilized by several major biopharma companies. A strategic partnership has been recently signed in that field with Charles River Laboratories.
