Our Team
Michael R. Loken, Ph.D.
President and Laboratory Director
Dr. Loken received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Biology Department at the John Hopkins University. He continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Genetics Department at Stanford University, working with Dr. L.A. Herzenberg on the first fluorescence activated cell sorter. After 5 years the faculty at the University of Chicago, Dr. Loken joined Becton Dickinson as one of the founding scientists at the Monoclonal Center. He began his studies of normal blood cell development in 1978 and continued this work throughout the time at Becton Dickinson. He developed many techniques in the field of flow cytometry to quantify multiple antibodies simultaneously. He has mapped antigen expression in normal bone marrow, carefully characterizing intensities and relationships of multiple cellular antigens. Dr. Loken and collaborators were the first to show that neoplastic cells are not a frozen state of normal maturation but exhibit aberrant antigen expression (see Innovations & inventions). Dr. Loken has 10 issued patents and has published over 175 scientific articles in the field of flow cytometry and hematology.
Dr. Loken was honored by the Sociedad Iberica de Citometria for his lifetime achievements in the field of flow cytometry with “Socio de Honor”. He has also been elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biologic Engineering. HematoLogics received the Mayor’s Award as one of the top ten small businesses in Seattle. He was certified in 1996 as High Complexity Laboratory Director (H-CLD), American Board of Bioanalysis. He is currently an Affiliate Scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
contact Dr. Loken
CAREER HISTORY
HematoLogics, Inc.
President, Laboratory Director, 1995-Present
Affiliate Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1993-Present
Cytometry Associates
Director Educational Division, 1991- 1995
Director Research and Development, 1993- 1995
BioLogics Consulting,
President, 1990-1991
Becton Dickinson Immunocytometry Systems,
Associate Scientific Director, Cytometry 1982-1990
University of Chicago, Department of Microbiology
Assistant Professor 1977-1982
AWARDS
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, College of Fellows, 2008
Socio de Honor by the Sociedad Iberica de Citometria
For Life Time Achievements in the Field of Flow Cytometry
Mayor’s Small Business Award
For Business Excellence
Top Ten Small Businesses in Seattle
EDUCATION
Certified: High Complexity Laboratory Director (H-CLD), American Board of Bioanalysis 1996
Stanford University, Department of Genetics, Postdoctoral Fellow 1973-1977
The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology, MA, PhD 1967-1969, 1971-1973
St. Olaf College, Departments of Chemistry and Biology, BA 1963-1967
Graduated: Honors with Distinction
Denise A. Wells, M.D
Medical Director
Dr. Wells is board certified in Laboratory Medicine with specialty training in Hematopathology. Drs. Wells’ and Loken’s professional approach, validated by clinical studies and participation in patient care, has moved flow cytometry from an adjunct analysis to a primary diagnostic tool. She has 17 years experience in flow cytometry and has published 28 scientific articles including developing a flow cytometric scoring system for myeloid and monocytic aberrancies to enhance diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in myelodysplastic syndrome.
contact Dr. Wells
Barbara K. Zehentner, Ph.D.
Director of Molecular Analysis
Dr. Zehentner received her masters degree in biotechnology from the Professional College in Weihenstephan, Germany and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University RWTH in Aachen, Germany, where she graduated Summa cum laude. Dr. Zehentner has ten years of experience in molecular assay development, working for Boehringer Mannheim and Roche Diagnostics, Germany, and from April 2000 until August 2004 for Corixa Corporation in Seattle. As a molecular diagnostics project leader, Dr. Zehentner, developed real-time RT-PCR multiplex assays for the detection of disseminated tumor cells in peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymph node tissue of breast, prostate, lung and lymphoma cancer patients. Dr. Zehentner has published several papers and reviews on detecting and monitoring circulating tumor cells using molecular assays.
-Detection of disseminated
tumor cells: strategies and diagnostic implications
Christine Stephenson, PhD, FACMG
Director of Clinical Cytogenetics
Updating biography. Will be available soon..
Lisa Eidenschink Brodersen, Ph.D.
Assistant Laboratory Director
Dr. Brodersen received her Ph.D. from the chemistry department at the University of Washington in Seattle. She transitioned to clinical laboratory medicine, completing her post-doctoral training with Drs’ Loken, Wells and Zehentner at Hematologics. Dr. Brodersen’s training is in utilizing flow cytometry as a diagnostic tool in hematologic malignancies, with additional training in molecular analysis. She has extensively trained with Dr. Loken in residual disease detection of AML and ALL. Antigen expression in normal individuals, the regulation of amounts of gene products and tumor heterogeneity in pediatric AML are her primary research interests.
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Kirk Bennington
Clinical Outreach Director
Kirk’s education started at Jacksonville University in Florida, majoring in biology, and playing varsity soccer. He received his BA in biology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County-Catonsville, MD. He then began working at the Biotech Research Laboratory and National Cancer Institute, Rockville/Bethesda, MD.-Research in cell transformation with tumor viruses, and the effect of microwave radiation on chromosome and FMR leukemia viruses with tumor development in mice. At the VA Hospital, Washington, DC he worked in surgical research studying optic neuritis. He studied shigella and clostridium toxins at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Institute of Research, Department of Biochemistry, Washington, DC.
Kirk became a sales representative of blood banking and HLA reagents at Hyland Blood Banking, Mid Atlantic Regional. The company was sold and became Accugenics Blood Banking where he became the Eastern Regional Manager. His duties included procurement of HLA antisera and rare cells types. This company was sold to Cooper Biomedical where he and three others developed a separate HLA division for organ and bone marrow transplant as well as paternity testing. This new very successful division was sold to Geometric Data (part of Smith Kline), and he became Eastern Sales Manager. The president of the company bought the division and formed Gen Trak, Inc. where he was the Eastern Regional Field Manager and then Director of Sales in the Philadelphia offices. They became the second largest HLA company in the country and introduced a new line of flow cytometry antibodies. During this time in the field he was recognized as the top representative in his division at Accugenics and Cooper Biomedical and had management positions with the others.
Developing a great interest in flow cytometry, Kirk trained at Cytometry Associates in Nashville, TN and joined them as the North Eastern Representative . He was recognized as the outstanding representative of 1995, and was given the task of building a technical sales force for flow cytometry.
At the request of the owner Kirk returned to Gen Trak to try and help save the company that was losing business due to changes in technology. The HLA business changed from serology to molecular and they lost the license to most of their flow cytometry antibodies so the company was sold. Kirk was asked to rejoin Cytometry Associates which was bought by Esoterix and finally Lab Corp (US Labs). He was again selling flow cytometry, molecular, cytogenetic and FISH testing. Here he was sales representative of the year several times and a million dollar producer. When Lab Corp decided the reps would be required to represent several different testing lines, he left and joined Hematologics. At Hematologics, Kirk believes he has found the real science of flow cytometry and not the cookie cutter approach of large laboratories as well as the true meaning of integrated results.