GE Healthcare last week announced that Jean-Luc Vanderheyden has been named to the newly created position of leader for the company's Molecular Imaging business. In his new role, Vanderheyden will help guide GE's global molecular imaging strategy, the company said.

"GE is fortunate to work with academic and luminary leaders whose vision promises to expand the frontier of molecular imaging," said Vanderheyden, in a release.  "I am very excited to sharpen the focus on GE's collaborative research with the molecular imaging community and to continue driving GE's technological leadership in molecular imaging."

Vanderheyden will report to the as yet unnamed general manager of GE's Molecular Imaging business.

Vanderheyden is a former professor and research and development executive, and has served as the vice president of research and development for Theseus Imaging Corp. in Boston, where he designed and led the execution of a novel apoptosis (programmed cell death) imaging agent that reached phase II clinical studies. Previous to that, Vanderheyden was the director of nuclear medicine research and development for Mallinckrodt/Tyco Healthcare. He also was a visiting associate professor in Nuclear Medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School.