Qiagen proposes two new supervisory board members

Qiagen has announced that Dr Vera Kallmeyer and Elizabeth Tallett have been nominated for election to its supervisory board.

The two life science sector veterans are being put forward as potential board members ahead of the company's annual general meeting on June 30th 2011, when shareholders will take a vote on their proposed appointment.

Dr Kallmeyer, a consulting professor in the department of neurosurgery at Stanford School of Medicine, has been suggested to join the company based on her long career in both the healthcare industry and academia.

Meanwhile, Ms Tallett is the former president of Transcell Technologies and Centocor Pharmaceuticals and would bring more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors to Qiagen.

Professor Dr Detlev Riesner, chairman of the supervisory board and co-founder of the company, said their knowledge would represent "valuable resources to Qiagen as we expand our leading position in sample and assay technologies and their use in research, applied markets and clinical diagnostics".

Earlier this month, the company agreed a new collaboration with Epigenomics that will see the firms create a new colorectal cancer blood test.