About Us

HemoGenix® is a privately held company located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. HemoGenix® was founded in March 2000 by Ivan N. Rich, PhD, an internationally recognized researcher in the field of developmental, experimental and applied clinical hematology. HemoGenix® was initially formed as a Contract Research Service Laboratory for the biopharmaceutical industry to test new drug candidates for their effect on stem and other primitive cells of the blood-forming system. HemoGenix® was the first company to provide true, high throughput screening and testing in vitro assays that provided a high degree of predictive value that can be directly extrapolated to the human situation. Virtually all the patented and proprietary assays developed by HemoGenix® have also been further developed into assay kits for in-house use that are produced, manufactured and sold around the world from the Colorado Springs facility. 

A Short Chronology of HemoGenix® Products

• Development of the first HALO® assay started in January 2002 with help from a SBIR grants from the National Cancer Insitute (NCI).
• HALO® assay for hemotoxicity testing launched at the Society of Toxicology meeting in San Francisco, CA in March 2002.
• The first HALO® Research Kit Platform was launched at the American Society of Hematology Meeting in December 2003.
• At the Society of Toxicology meeting in 2004, the first HALO® Hemotoxicity Kits and the OxyFLOW™ Platform were introduced.
• In December 2004, at the American Society of Hematology, the first in a series of assays for the cellular therapy field was introduced. The first assay was HALO®-96 SPC-QC (Stem and Progenitor Cell - Quality Control).  In addition, the first LUMENESC™ Kit Platform to detect Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) were also introduced.
• In March 2005, the HALO® Predictive Hemotoxicity Platform was unveiled at the Society of Toxicology.
• In December 2005, HemoGenix®, launched the LumiSTEM™ Platform.
• Shortly thereafter, the ComparaTOX™ Platform was launched introducing the concept of "In Vitro Cross-Platform Comparative Toxicity"
• In 2006, Suspension Expansion Culture (SEC) Technology was introduced for all HALO® assays. It also heralded the introduction of the first and only 384-well plate high throughput platform for hemotoxicity screening (HALO®-384 HT). 
• In December 2007, the first stem cell potency assay (HALO®-96 PQR) for umbilical cord blood was made commercially available.
• Between 2009 and 2010, several new in vitro assays were introduced by HemoGenix®. These included HALO®-96 PMT, LumiCLONE™, LumiSTEM™-iPS and LumiCYTE™ for hepatotoxicity.
• In addition, similar assays to HALO®-96 SPC-QC and HALO®-96 PQR for blood stem cell quality control and potency testing were introduced for the mesenchymal stem cell system, namely LUMENESC™-96 HuQC and LUMENESC™-96 PQR.
• The latest assay introduced to the hematopoietic cellular therapeutic field from the HemoGenix® Laboratories has been STEMpredict™. This is the fastest and most reliable blood stem cell growth, functionality and viability assay commercially available.
• In January 2012, HemoGenix® launched the largest number of new assays in its history. These included fluorescence and absorbance equivalent assays to its HALO® and LUMENESC™ platforms and a new assay platform for immune cells that incorporates all three proliferation readouts, bioluminecence, fluorescence and absorbance. 

In addition to performing contract service and producing assay kits for stem cell, basic and veterinary research, the biopharmaceutical industry and in vitro environmental testing and assays for cellular therapy, HemoGenix® is the exclusive distributor in the Americas and Asia for Pecon GmbH, Germany that produces The POC Tissue Culture Chamber Systems and numerous accessories for microscopes.

About the Founder & CEO

Scientific Advisory Board

Jo-Anna Reems, Ph.D., MT (ASCP), SBB

HemoGenix® welcomes Dr. Jo-Anna Reems as a specialist in Cellular Therapy to the Scientific Advisory Board. 

Dr. Reems currently holds three positions as Associate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, Investigator in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA and as Visiting Associate Professor at Colorado State University in Pueblo, CO. From 2007 to 2011, Dr. Reems was Scientific Director of Cellular Therapy at Puget Sound Blood Center in Seattle, WA. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO and went on to get her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO in 1992. Prior to starting her postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA in the field of hematopoietic regulators, she became a Specialist in Blood Banking at the American Red Cross in Norfolk, VA. In 1996, Dr. Reems took up the position of Scientific Director of Research at Blood Systems, Tempe, AZ and Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.

Dr. Reems is member of several societies including the International Society of Cellular Therapy (ISCT), American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), American Society of Hematology and the International Society of Hematology. She received the National Blood Foundation Scholar Award in 2000 from AABB and has been principal and co-investigator on many grants from the National Institutes of Health. She was also Project Director of one of the first public cord blood banks to receive funding from the Department of Health and Human Services for the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI) of the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program in 2006. She has made significant contributions at a regional, national and international level to the field of cord blood banking and is a Scientific Member of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (“BEST”). 

Dr. Reems has been an invited speaker at many scientific meetings and is also a reviewer for several journals including Transfusion, Stem Cells and Cytotherapy. Dr. Reems has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as many book chapters and reviews. 

Andrew Olaharski, Ph.D., DABT

Andrew Olaharski brings toxicological experience and knowledge to the HemoGenix® Scientific Advisory Board. 

Dr. Olaharski received his Ph.D in Environmental Toxicology from the University of California, Riverside in 2004 and was a postdoctoral researcher for several years in the Molecular Epidemiological and Toxicology Laboratory (METL) located at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Dr. Olaharski began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Roche, Palo Alto, where he worked as a discovery and investigative toxicologist. Over the next five years he was provided increasing roles and responsibilities, working at the Hoffmann-La Roche Basel, Switzerland and Nutley, NJ research and development sites, where he ultimately became a principal research scientist and head of the early safety representatives. He provided safety guidance to discovery project teams in the oncology, virology and inflammatory therapeutic areas, was instrumental in developing new techniques to better predict kinase-mediated genetic and bone marrow toxicities and directed the evaluation and implementation of novel in vitro assays. He is presently Associate Director in Non-Clinical Safety Evaluation at Elan Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco, CA. 

Andrew has authored or co-authored more than a dozen impactful articles, had his work highlighted on the cover of Toxicological Sciences, presented at national and international symposia and received numerous honors and awards, including the first prize for the Roche 3Rs Award for the development of a high throughput in vitro bone marrow assay. He is a member of the Society of Toxicology and is vice president elect for the Drug Discovery Toxicology Specialty Section of that society. He is a reviewer for many scientific journals, including Carcinogenesis, Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, Toxicology Letters and Toxicological Sciences He is a board certified toxicologist, having become a Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology in 2008.

John (Jack) A. Widness, M.D.

Dr. Jack Widness is Professor of Pediatrics at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Dr. Widness received his Bachelors at Amherst College in 1968 and his medical degree at Duke University Medical School in Durham, NC in 1972. After an internship at Duke in Pediatrics and later at the University of Pittsburgh (internal medicine), he went to Case Western Reserve University for his residency in pediatrics and Brown University as a Fellow in neonatology. He has been a visiting scientist at Ulleval Hospital in Oslo, Norway and at the University of Ulm, Germany for which he received a NIH Senior Fogerty Fellowship Award. 

Dr. Widness has held many academic position during his career including Instructor, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at Brown University in Providence, RI. Besides the Fogerty Award, he has received many other awards, honors and recognitions for outstanding achievements. He continues to teach and has supervised many graduate and post-doctoral students.Dr. Widness has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles and many book chapters and reviews. He has presented nearly 200 papers at scientific meetings and has been invited to present his work at more than 80 other lectures. He has been continuously funded by NIH (National Institutes of Health) since 1987 as well as other agencies and continues to work as co-investigator on several other federally-funded grants. He holds editorial board and reviewer positions and has served on many committees. 

Dr. Widness’s areas of interest include fetal and neonatal anemia and hypoxemia, erythropoietin (EPO) pharmacokinetics and dynamics during the perinatal period, iron metabolism and toxicity and red blood cell survival in the perinatal period. His extensive medical and research background, experience and expertise provides our company with significant insights. HemoGenix welcomes Jack Widness to the Scientific Advisory Board.

Links

AABB Supplier Guide for Test Kits

AABB Supplier Guide for Release and Potency Assays

AABB Supplier Guide for Cell Culture

AABB Supplier Guide for Laboratory Services

ISCT Cell Therapy Bioprocessing Tools and Reagents Database - Cell Culture Assays and Kits

(You must have ISCT member status to view this site)

Links to Other Online Souces about HemoGenix®

Business Week: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=8032932

SBIR Grants: http://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/180878; http://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/180874

ThomasNet News: http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/Screening-Platform-measures-stem-cell-hemotoxicity-488265

Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/research/highthroughput-in-vitro-hemotoxicity-testing-and-in-vitro-crossplatform-comparative-toxicity/

Bioscience Technology: http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/Archive/01/Stem-Cell-Hemotoxicity-Test-Kit/

The Free Dictionary by Farlex: http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/Archive/01/Stem-Cell-Hemotoxicity-Test-Kit/; http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+HALO+GLOBAL+PREDICTION+STEM+CELL+HEMOTOXICITY+PLATFORM+for+Drug...-a0129637169

PRNewsWire: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hemogenixr-launches-halotm-384ht-the-first-ever-high-throughput-predictive-stem-cell-hemotoxicity-screening-platform-56222387.html

HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-113184930.html

NewsRx: http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Blood-Weekly/2004-07-22/0722200433361BW.html

BioPortfolio: http://www.bioportfolio.com/corporate/company/25764/Hemogenix-Inc.html

ImmuneRegen: http://www.immuneregen.com/press79.php

GeorgiaBio: http://www.gabio.org/pr_details.aspx?subid=401

Neuromins.net: http://neuromics.net/weblog/post/873/

News-Medical.net: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100616/Vitro-HemoGenix-launch-new-stem-cell-testing-products-at-International-Society-for-Stem-Cell-Research-meeting.aspx

Manta: http://www.manta.com/c/mmd4dd8/hemogenix-inc

Partners

Alliance for Regenerative Medicine - HemoGenix® is now a member of this Alliance.

ArunA Biomedical, our co-marketing partner for human embryonic-derived neuronal and mesenchymal stem cells for toxicity testing.

Pecon, GmbH, supplier of tissue culture and microscope accessory articles and products in Germany.

Promega Corporation, our partner for supplying the GloMax®-96 Microplate Luminometer to our customers.

Vitro Diagnostics™ dba Vitro Biopharma™ our strategic partner for media and cells.