Genocea Biosciences, Inc. announced that Howard Mayer, M.D., senior vice president and head of global clinical development at Shire plc, has joined its board of directors. The company also announced that Kevin Bitterman, Ph.D., a partner at Polaris Partners, will retire as a member of the company's board of directors. Dr. Bitterman served on Genocea's board since the company's founding in 2006. Previously Dr. Mayer served as chief medical officer at EMD Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, since 2009. Prior to that, he held a variety of global roles at Pfizer Inc. including head of clinical development and medical affairs for Virology/Infectious Diseases. Prior to joining Pfizer, he served as director of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research at Bristol-Myers Squibb for five years.