Celtaxsys, a San Francisco-based, private biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of drugs to treat inflammatory disorders through innate immunity, has appointed life sciences technology expert, Brett A. Premack, Ph.D., as chief technology officer.

Premack has more than 20 years experience providing strategic and technical analysis to drug development programs in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Most recently, he served as vice president, technology and strategic development at Qu Biologics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing immune modulators to treat cancer. Premack also worked at ChemoCentryx as the company's first director of technologies after serving for four years on the company's scientific advisory board. 

He has also held previous faculty, consulting and scientific dvisory roles at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, DNAX, Syntex Research, Roche Bioscience, Sirona Biochem, SuperGen Pharmaceuticals and Neurex.