Addgene Announces Departure of Executive Director

May 10, 2021

Watertown, MA - Addgene, the global nonprofit biorepository that facilitates sharing of life science reagents, today announced the departure of Joanne Kamens, Ph.D., Addgene’s Executive Director.

“Over her 10 years of excellent service, Joanne has grown Addgene while fostering an inclusive culture,” said David Root, Ph.D., chair of the Addgene Board of Directors. “We deeply appreciate Joanne’s leadership of Addgene and her many accomplishments in bringing the organization to where we are today, and we wish her the very best in her future endeavors.”

“We want to thank Joanne for her many years of leadership of Addgene. It is difficult to articulate how much Joanne accomplished during her tenure, from bringing Addgene from a 20 person company to a 100 person company, to overseeing the distribution of over 1 million materials, to creating a fantastic place to work, even during a pandemic and as recognized countless times by the Boston Globe and others,” said cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer Melina Fan, Ph.D. “Addgene will continue to fulfill our mission of scientific sharing, building our existing and new services, and maintaining the work culture that our team members love. We look forward to the next 10 years of growth and innovation at Addgene as we work to create solutions for our scientific community.”

"It's been a fantastic decade of growth for Addgene and I'm so proud of the work we have accomplished, “said Joanne Kamens. “The Addgenies form the highest performing team I will likely ever work with so I know Addgene is poised to make an even bigger impact on the mission to accelerate science. I can't wait to watch how that goes!"

With Joanne's departure, Daniela Bourges-Waldegg, Ph.D., the Chief Technology Officer, will serve as Addgene’s interim Executive Director. She will be supported by Melina Fan and Andy Baltus, Ph.D., Addgene’s Chief Operating Officer. The Board of Directors and Addgene leadership have initiated a search for a new Executive Director for Addgene.

About Addgene

Addgene is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating scientific discoveries by operating a plasmid library for researchers. Addgene's collection contains 100,000 plasmids contributed by 4,600 research labs from around the world. Addgene also provides more than 600 ready-to-use AAV and lentivirus preparations of commonly requested plasmids as a service to scientists - saving them time and providing thorough quality control. Nearly 1.5 million plasmids have been distributed to 106 countries by Addgene - with over 750 item requests being fulfilled each day. By authenticating, storing, archiving, and distributing plasmids, virus, and their associated data, Addgene is creating a lasting resource for research and discovery scientists around the world.

For more information, please visit https://www.addgene.org.