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Illumina has named Phil Febbo, M.D., as its new chief medical officer, with responsibility for developing and carrying out the sequencing giant's medical strategy of advancing precision medicine by driving genomic testing into healthcare practice.
The appointment takes effect March 26.
Dr. Febbo previously served as CMO of Genomic Health, during a career that has included holding positions at leading institutions throughout the U.S. Before Genomic Health, Dr. Febbo was a professor of medicine and urology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where his laboratory focused on using genomics to understand the biology and clinical behavior of prostate cancer, and his clinical practice focused on genitourinary oncology.
While at UCSF, Dr. Febbo was the co-leader of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the program principal investigator of the Translational Research Program for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.
“Phil brings a wealth of clinical and scientific experience to Illumina, from understanding the genomic basis of common human cancers, to the development of clinical tests based on next generation sequencing,” Garret Hampton, Ph.D., Illumina’s EVP of clinical genomics, said yesterday in a statement. “We believe that his experience will ensure that Illumina is uniquely positioned to change medical practice with the use of genomics.”
At Illumina, Dr. Febbo succeeds Richard Klausner, M.D., who served as SVP and CMO and later chief opportunity officer from September 2013 to February 2016. Dr. Klausner was director of the NIH’s National Cancer Institute from 1995 to 2001.
Dr. Febbo received his M.D. degree at UCSF, and completed his internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After his fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he was an attending physician in the Genitourinary Oncology Center at Dana-Farber, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, and a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Todd Golub, M.D., at Dana-Farber, as well as the Whitehead Institute Center for Genomic Research of MIT (now the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard).
In 2004, Dr. Febbo moved to Duke University Medical Center’s Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy. He has been a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation since 2009.
