SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- bioAffinity Technologies, a privately held biotech company, today announced the members of its Scientific and Medical Advisory (SMA) Board who will provide independent expert advice and counsel on the Company’s research and development of innovative cancer diagnostics, including CyPath® Lung, a non-invasive test for the early detection of lung cancer.
“The caliber of the physicians and researchers who accepted our invitation to join our Scientific and Medical Advisory Board will accelerate the work of our own scientists to change the paradigm of cancer diagnostics and treatment,” bioAffinity President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Zannes said. “We have assembled the ‘dream team’ of dedicated physicians and scientists whose wide range of expertise in lung cancer literally begins at the cellular level.”
Previously, bioAffinity announced that M. Patricia Rivera, MD, Professor of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, would serve as chairperson of the bioAffinity SMA Board. Dr. Rivera is Co-Director of the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program and Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at UNC, specializing in the care of patients with lung cancer, immuno-compromised hosts, lung cancer screening, novel approaches for early detection of lung cancer in high-risk patients, chemotherapy and radiation-induced pneumonitis.
Joining Dr. Rivera on the SMA Board are:
- Neil Alexis, PhD, Principal Investigator at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology. Dr. Alexis focuses on the use of sputum as a primary sampling tool for measuring cellular, biochemical and genetic outcomes in the human airway. Dr. Alexis is a leading expert in the use of flow cytometry in the analysis of sputum.
- Pierre Massion, MD, Professor of Medicine, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Medicine at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Massion’s research emphasis is on lung tumorigenesis and genomic and proteomic approaches to identify molecular markers of lung neoplasia and to test those in multidisciplinary early detection strategies. He also is Co-Leader of Vanderbilt’s Cancer Health Outcomes and Control Research Program, and the Director of Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Initiative.
- Catherine Sears, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Sears is a physician scientist whose laboratory focuses on the impact of DNA damage and repair on the development of smoking-related lung cancers and on treatment response. She co-chairs the pulmonary oncology and lung cancer screening programs at the Indianapolis VA Medical Center, and her clinical and research interests focus on improving lung cancer screening and early lung cancer detection and treatment.
- Gerard Silvestri, MD, MS, FCCP, Professor of Medicine and Lung Cancer Pulmonologist at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Silvestri specializes in the evaluation, management and improvement of outcomes in lung cancer patients. He has experience in evaluating new technologies for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer. His research includes screening for lung cancer, how patients should be diagnosed and staged with the disease, and how to evaluate new technologies needed to diagnose and treat these patients.
- Martin Tammemägi, PhD, Professor of Health Sciences at Brock University. Dr. Tammemägi is well known for his work in cancer epidemiology with special interests in lung cancer screening and cancer risk prediction modeling. He was a co-investigator and remains active in the U.S. Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO), the U.S. National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and the Pan-Canadian Early Detection of Lung Cancer Study. He is an active associate member of the U.S. NIH NCI Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) lung group. He is Scientific Lead for Cancer Care Ontario’s Lung Cancer Screening Pilot for People at High Risk.
“The members of our Advisory Board are recognized leaders in the lung cancer field, especially as it relates to screening and early diagnosis when treatment options offer the best potential outcome,” said bioAffinity’s Chief Science and Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, Vivienne Rebel, MD, PhD. “We believe their groundbreaking work complements our mission to provide innovative products that have the potential to save thousands of lives every year.”
bioAffinity is currently conducting a test validation trial for CyPath® Lung, a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) for the diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer. The porphyrin-based CyPath® assay preferentially binds to cancer cells in bodily fluids, such as sputum, and causes them to fluoresce in contrast to non-cancer cells.
About bioAffinity Technologies, Inc.
bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. (www.bioaffinitytech.com) is a privately held development-stage company addressing the significant unmet need for non-invasive, early-stage cancer diagnosis and treatment. The Company develops proprietary in-vitro diagnostic tests and targeted cancer therapeutics using breakthrough technology that preferentially targets cancer cells. Research and optimization of its platform technology is conducted in bioAffinity Technologies’ laboratories at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA). The Company’s platform technology will be developed to diagnose, monitor and treat many cancers.
Contact: Maria Zannes, 505.400.9747