OpGen Announces New Members to its Clinical Advisory Board
Adds leaders in infectious disease, antibiotic resistance and genetic analysis
GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OpGen, Inc.(NASDAQ:OPGN), a precision medicine company using molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics to combat infectious disease, announced that four new members have joined its Clinical Advisory Board (CAB). Joining the board are Debra A. Goff, Pharm.D., FCCP, Dag Harmsen, M.D., Stefan Riedel, M.D. Ph.D., D(ABMM), FCAP, and Morton Sommer, Ph.D. Returning CAB members include Attila Lorincz, Ph.D. and James W. Snyder, Ph.D., D(ABMM), FAAM.
Evan Jones, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OpGen, said, “We are thrilled with the composition of our Clinical Advisory Board and are fortunate to have access to these esteemed professionals from the U.S. and Europe for guidance and collaboration. The members’ deep knowledge and experience in infectious disease, antibiotic resistance and genetic analysis will support OpGen in achieving our mission to provide precision medicine solutions to combat infectious diseases with the power of bioinformatics and clinical diagnostics." Mr. Jones added, "The expertise of CAB members, along with their global perspectives will be invaluable to us.”
Background on its six members is as follows:
Debra A. Goff, Pharm.D., FCCP
Dr. Goff is an infectious disease specialist and past Program Director of the Infectious Diseases Residency at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. A founding member of the school’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Department of Pharmacy, Dr. Goff is actively involved in developing strategies to improve patient outcomes and control the escalating rate of antimicrobial resistance.
Dag Harmsen, M.D.
Dr. Harmsen is specialized in clinical microbiology and infectious disease epidemiology (Münster, Germany). He recently earned recognition for the first prospective application of benchtop next-generation sequencing genomics during Germany’s E. coli STEC 0104:H4 outbreak in 2011. During the past 20 years, he has been best known for delivering popular applied microbiology informatics solutions, such as spa-typing for MRSA with a global nomenclature SpaServer, or the MIRU-VNTRplus service for m. tuberculosis typing.
Attila Lorincz, Ph.D.
Dr. Lorincz is Director of the Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at the Queen Mary University of London. He co-founded Digene Corp. (now Qiagen NV), and served as Chief Scientific Officer based on his human papillomavirus (HPV) studies and research leading to the Hybrid Capture (HC) series of tests. HC2 was the first HPV test to be FDA-approved for cervical pre-cancer screening. Dr. Lorincz is currently leading a new discovery initiative in next-generation deep sequencing and in elucidating the comparative epigenomic systems of human cancers.
Stefan Riedel, M.D. Ph.D., D(ABMM), FCAP
Dr. Riedel is the Associate Medical Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratories at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His research is funded by industry and government grants and contracts; the research is focused on the diagnosis and management of sepsis as well as emerging antimicrobial resistance in gram-negative bacteria, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Enterobacteriacea and non-fermentative bacteria such as Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas. Dr. Riedel is a member of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Microbiology Resource Committee, which defines and monitors the state of the art and emerging technologies in clinical microbiology, and contributes to the standards of proficiency testing and quality assurance programs for clinical microbiology laboratories in the United States and other countries.
James W. Snyder, Ph.D., D(ABMM), FAAM
Dr. Snyder is Medical Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics laboratory at the University of Louisville Hospital, and is professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University’s School of Medicine. He is the representative from the American Society for Microbiology to the Laboratory Response Network (LRN) for Preparedness and Response to Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases, which is the nation's laboratory emergency response system founded by the American Association of Public Health Laboratories, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI. Dr. Snyder is editor of the LRN Sentinel Level Laboratory Testing Protocols and co-author of the Anthrax Sentinel Level Protocol.
Morton Sommer, Ph.D.
Dr. Sommer is Professor and Associate Scientific Director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark. His lab works on understanding and harnessing evolutionary processes and biological diversity. Among the first to use functional metagenomics and computational biology to map horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance genes between environmental reservoirs and human pathogens, his group recently discovered that antibiotic resistance evolution is frequently associated with collateral sensitivity cycling, in which drugs with compatible collateral sensitivity profiles are used sequentially to treat infection and select against drug resistance development.
Mr. Jones concluded, “We are honored by the involvement of these luminaries in the field as we work to deliver healthcare solutions that will revolutionize the management of global antibiotic stewardship and the treatment of life-threatening infections.”
Additional information about OpGen’s CAB may be found at on the Company’s website here.
About OpGen, Inc.
OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) is developing and deploying precision medicine tools to combat infectious disease in global healthcare settings, helping physicians improve patient outcomes by providing more rapid information about life threatening infections and decreasing the spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms. OpGen offers a full portfolio of in vitro diagnostic products and clinical laboratory services that employ state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics. Its QuickFISH® products are a suite of FDA-cleared and CE-marked diagnostics used to rapidly detect pathogens in positive blood cultures. Clinical laboratory services utilize the Acuitas® products, including the MDRO Gene Test, the Resistome Test, microbial Whole Genome Sequence Analysis, and Acuitas Lighthouse™ MDRO Management System designed to detect, type, track, and trend antibiotic resistant organisms in real-time. Learn more at www.opgen.com.
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