7 March 2019 - - US-based biomedical products company Cerus Corp. (NASDAQ: CERS) has appointed Jami Nachtsheim to its board of directors, the company said.

Nachtsheim currently serves on the board at Intuitive Surgical, the global market leader in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgical systems. Nachtsheim brings nearly four decades of commercial and marketing leadership experience to the Cerus board.

In connection with the appointment of Nachtsheim, the company also announced that Dr. Laurence Corash has chosen not to stand for reelection to the board of directors at the company's 2019 Annual Stockholder Meeting.

Corash, a founder of Cerus, has served on Cerus' Board since December 2002 and will continue in his role as chief scientific officer, as a member of the company's senior executive team, and leader of Cerus' government relations programme.

Nachtsheim has served on the board of Intuitive Surgical since April 2017.

Nachtsheim's other board experiences include FEI company from 2010 to 2016, Affymetrix from 2009 to 2016 and as chair from 2015 to 2016, and Southwall Technologies from 2003 to 2011.

Earlier in her career, Nachtsheim served in a range of senior leadership roles at Intel Corp. from 1980 until 2000, including corporate vice president of the sales and marketing group and director of worldwide marketing responsible for the Intel Inside programme.

Cerus Corp. is a biomedical products company focused in the field of blood transfusion safety.

The Intercept Blood System is designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections by inactivating a broad range of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that may be present in donated blood.

The nucleic acid targeting mechanism of action of the Intercept treatment is designed to inactivate established transfusion threats, such as hepatitis B and C, HIV, West Nile virus and bacteria, as well as emerging pathogens such as chikungunya, malaria and dengue.

Cerus currently markets and sells the Intercept Blood System for both platelets and plasma in the United States, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East and selected countries in other regions around the world.

The Intercept red blood cell system is in clinical development.