SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ViroLogic, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLGC) announced today that the Company has promoted Jeannette M. Whitcomb, Ph.D., to Vice President of Operations.

In her new role, Dr. Whitcomb will report directly to Chairman and CEO Bill Young. She will be responsible for the Company's clinical reference laboratory, process development, laboratory support, quality assurance and information technology. Dr. Whitcomb will also lead the ongoing effort to increase throughput and efficiency of ViroLogic's drug resistance assays.

"Jeannette has made a tremendous contribution to the progress we have made over the last year to streamline operations as we work toward our goal of achieving profitability as soon as possible," said Mr. Young.

The Company also announced that Nicholas S. Hellmann, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Research, will be leaving to pursue other opportunities. Dr. Hellmann will remain involved with ViroLogic going forward as a member of its Clinical Advisory Board. The Company will transition its clinical research and pharmaceutical business responsibilities to Christos J. Petropoulos, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development, Michael P. Bates, M.D., Senior Director of Clinical Research, and Kenneth N. Hitchner, Senior Director of Project Management.

Dr. Whitcomb joined ViroLogic as one of the first scientists in the Research and Development department in 1996 and transitioned to the Operations group in 2002. Prior to joining ViroLogic she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Stephen H. Hughes' lab at the National Cancer Institute -- Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center performing research on the molecular biology of human immunodeficiency virus and avian leukosis virus, replication, integration and post-transcriptional regulation of viral RNA. Before that, she was a Fogerty Fellow in Dr. Peter A. Cerutti's lab at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research in Lausanne, Switzerland, focused on the development of PCR and RT-PCR protocols for clinical diagnosis and epidemiology of viruses. Dr. Whitcomb received her B.S. in Biology from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

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