PITTSBURGH, Jan. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Helomics® Corporation (Helomics), a privately-held, healthcare company providing personalized medicine solutions for clients in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and biotech industries, today announced the addition of Marc Malandro PhD, CLP, RTTP, currently Vice President of Operations for Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to its Advisory Board. The addition of Dr. Malandro provides significant scientific and business expertise to Helomics as well as Helomics’ recently announced joint venture with Skyline Medical Inc (NASDAQ:SKLN) to build-out and commercialize the Helomics D-CHIP™ platform
Marc Malandro, PhD, CLP, RTTP was the founding director of the Innovation Institute and Vice Chancellor for Technology Management and Commercialization at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Malandro was responsible for leading the combination of the Office of Technology Management, the Office of Enterprise Development and the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence forming the Pitt Innovation Institute in 2013. Prior to The University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Malandro, who has a doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Florida, co-founded Sagres Discovery, a California-based systems biology company focused on the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer.
Marc S. Malandro, PhD, CLP, RTTP, commented, “I am delighted to be able to provide my insights and experience to help Helomics, an innovative Pittsburgh-grown company, as it executes its new strategy to use the rich data accumulated on patients with cancer to build out their D-CHIP™ platform.”
D-CHIP™ uses an AI-powered bioinformatics platform that combines drug response profiles from patient tumors along with molecular, genomic, biochemical and histopathology data with de-identified patient data. The actionable insights generated by D-CHIP will have a meaningful impact in precision medicine for the development of new therapies and diagnostics.
“We are very fortunate to have such a talented and accomplished industry leader such as Dr. Malandro on our Advisory Board,” stated Gerald J. Vardzel Jr., President and CEO of Helomics. “The scientific and business experience that Marc brings to us will be invaluable to our build –out and commercialization efforts of our D-CHIP™ platform.”
“As personalized medicine continues to evolve by tailoring therapies to an individual patient’s molecular data, it is critical to assemble the right industry experts to lead the way, having Dr. Malandro on our advisory team is a huge asset,” commented Mark Collins, Ph.D., Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at Helomics.
About Helomics Corporation
Helomics® is a precision diagnostic company and integrated clinical contract research organization whose mission is to improve patient care by partnering with pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and academic organizations to bring innovative clinical products and technologies to the marketplace. In addition to its proprietary precision diagnostics for oncology, Helomics offers boutique CRO services that leverage our patient-derived tumor models, coupled to a wide range of multi-omics assays (genomics, proteomics and biochemical), and a proprietary bioinformatics platform (D-CHIP) to provide a tailored solution to our client’s specific needs. Helomics has signed a joint venture term sheet with Skyline Medical Inc. (NASDAQ:SKLN), producer of the FDA-approved STREAMWAY® System for automated, direct-to-drain medical fluid disposal, to leverage the Helomics D-CHIP™ platform to develop and market new approaches for personalized cancer diagnosis and care.
Helomics® is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the company maintains state-of-the-art, CLIA-certified, clinical and research laboratories.
For more information, please visit: www.Helomics.com.
About Skyline Medical
Skyline Medical produces a fully automated, patented, FDA-cleared waste fluid disposal system that virtually eliminates staff exposure to blood, irrigation fluid and other potentially infectious fluids found in the healthcare environment. Antiquated manual fluid handling methods that require hand carrying and emptying filled fluid canisters present an exposure risk and potential liability. Skyline Medical's STREAMWAY System fully automates the collection, measurement and disposal of waste fluids and is designed to: 1) reduce overhead costs to hospitals and surgical centers; 2) improve compliance with OSHA and other regulatory agency safety guidelines; 3) improve efficiency in the operating room, and radiology and endoscopy departments, thereby leading to greater profitability; and 4) provide greater environmental stewardship by helping to eliminate the approximately 50 million potentially disease-infected canisters that go into landfills each year in the U.S. For additional information, please visit www.skylinemedical.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain of the matters discussed in this announcement contain forward-looking statements that involve material risks to and uncertainties in the Company's business that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements made herein. Such risks and uncertainties include risks related to the proposed joint ventures, including the need to negotiate the definitive agreements for the joint ventures; possible failure to realize anticipated benefits of the joint ventures; and costs of providing funding to the joint ventures. Other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company include, among other things, current negative operating cash flows and a need for additional funding to finance our operating plan; the terms of any further financing, which may be highly dilutive and may include onerous terms; unexpected costs and operating deficits, and lower than expected sales and revenues; uncertain willingness and ability of customers to adopt new technologies and other factors that may affect further market acceptance, if our product is not accepted by our potential customers, it is unlikely that we will ever become profitable; adverse economic conditions; adverse results of any legal proceedings; the volatility of our operating results and financial condition; inability to attract or retain qualified senior management personnel, including sales and marketing personnel; our ability to establish and maintain the proprietary nature of our technology through the patent process, as well as our ability to possibly license from others patents and patent applications necessary to develop products; the Company's ability to implement its long range business plan for various applications of its technology; the Company's ability to enter into agreements with any necessary marketing and/or distribution partners and with any strategic or joint venture partners; the impact of competition, the obtaining and maintenance of any necessary regulatory clearances applicable to applications of the Company's technology; and management of growth and other risks and uncertainties that may be detailed from time to time in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell securities and does not purport to be an analysis of the Company's financial position. See the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and subsequent reports and other filings at www.sec.gov.
Contacts:
Helomics
Gerald J. Vardzel Jr., Chief Executive Officer
(412) 432-1500
gvardzel@helomics.com
Investors
KCSA Strategic Communications
Elizabeth Barker
(212) 896-1203
skln@kcsa.com