Icagen, Inc. announced today that Dr. Chris Mathes has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer to help drive Icagen's expanding drug discovery and ion channel services business. Mathes will oversee sales, marketing and customer relations activities at Icagen and contribute to the forward looking and strategic guidance of Icagen as it seeks to become a global player in the Target-to-Lead (T2L) industry.

Dr. Mathes joins Icagen from Charles River Laboratories where he led North American business development efforts for discovery services. Richie Cunningham, CEO of Icagen, stated "Chris brings to Icagen an expertise in sales, marketing and business development with extensive experience in ion channels and the general drug discovery space. We welcome Chris and his ability to connect customers with our specialty services."

Prior to Charles River, Dr. Mathes was Chief Commercial Officer at ChanTest, a market leader in ion channel drug discovery and associated in vitro safety testing. Prior to ChanTest, he established and managed all aspects of the US subsidiary of Sophion Bioscience A/S (Denmark) and held positions of Vice President and General Manager.

Mathes earned a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995. In 2009, he earned an Executive M.B.A. degree from Rutgers University.

About Icagen, Inc. 

Icagen partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to offer industry-leading scientific expertise in early drug discovery. With over 20 years of leadership in the ion channel field, the Icagen team offers an extensive track record of success in advancing molecules from drug discovery to clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas and ion channel classes. Icagen's growing tool box comprises a broad range of cell lines and technologies for ion channel and transporter research, capped by the label-free XRpro® platform. XRpro® technology, based on X-ray fluorescence, is a novel method that enables high throughput assessment of ion channels and transporters, including challenging systems with high therapeutic interest. With the recent acquisition of the Tucson Innovation Center from Sanofi, Icagen now offers HTS and chemistry services for early discovery. For more information on our company, please visit our website at www.icagen.com.