Medical diagnostics company LipoScience (NASDAQ: LPDX) has a new top executive.

LipoScience announced that Howard Doran, former chief operating officer of Constitution Medical and a former  senior executive at Hologic, will become president and CEO of the Raleigh company effective Feb. 3. He will also be a member of LipoScience’s board of directors. Constitution was the developer of the Bloodhound Fully Integrated Hematology System, which was acquired by Roche Diagnostics last July.

LipoScience announced Doran’s appointment early Wednesday before the stock markets opened and investors appear to welcome the news. LipoScience’s stock rose 2.7 percent to $4.53 in mid-morning trading.

Doran will take over from interim CEO and board member Bob Greczyn, who took the temporary position last summer after former CEO Richard Brajer stepped down “to pursue other interests.”

 LipoScience has commercialized a personalized diagnostic that tests for cardiovascular disease risk. The tests measures the number of low-density lipoprotein particles in a blood sample. The company says its technology, which is based on nuclear magnetic resonance and is licensed from N.C. State University, offers a better measure of cardiovascular disease risk compared to the current standard of cholesterol tests.

Brajer had guided LipoScience through development of its technology, marketing approval from the Food and Drug Administration and an initial public stock offering last year. But the company had some stumbles trying to build sales for its diagnostic, in part due to challenges getting insurance companies to reimburse for the test. 

“My longstanding enthusiasm about the prospects for success at LipoScience increased during my tenure as interim Chief Executive Officer as a result of the opportunity I had to work directly with the company’s talented and dedicated employees,” said Greczyn, who remains a member of the board.

“I’m equally enthusiastic that the Board has attracted an accomplished executive like Howard who has demonstrated time and again an ability to establish reimbursement among different payors, as well as generate physician, laboratory and patient demand for innovative diagnostics. That experience, combined with his recent leadership in the product development arena with Constitution Medical and the Bloodhound System, makes Howard the ideal leader for LipoScience at this stage of its development. I look forward to working through a short executive transition period with Howard and continuing my role as an independent director and as chair of a new Board committee that will be focused on health systems and payor strategies.”