Workers

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 and his colleague, Dr Wells, were both invited to participate in the US-Canadian Consensus Conference on the Use of Flow Cytometry in Diagnosis of Leukemia and Lymphoma. Dr. Loken wrote significant sections of the National Committee for Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) document for CD4 enumeration. He was also an advisor for the NCCLS committee that wrote the document for phenotyping leukemia and lymphoma. Dr. Loken led the team that produced the training materials used to teach proper techniques of flow cytometry enumeration of lymphocyte subsets for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These training materials include slides, lecture notes, manuals as well as videos regarding the techniques for flow cytometry in the clinical laboratory. He has co-authored a book titled: “Flow Cytometry Principles for Clinical Laboratory Practice” Wiley-Liss, Inc, New York, 1995. Dr. Loken has 9 issued patents and has published over 150 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”. HematoLogics also 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, in 1996. He is currently an Affiliate Scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
contact Michael R. Loken, Ph.D

Denise A. Wells, M.D.
Medical Director

Dr. Wells received her M.D. from the University of Washington and continued her studies there in anatomic pathology, laboratory medicine, and 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. Dr. Wells is a Diplomat of the American Board of Pathology. She has 12 years experience in flow cytometry and has published 10 scientific articles (a mere mortal) including developing a flow cytometric scoring system for myeloid and monocytic aberrancies to enhance diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in myelodysplastic syndromes (24).
contact Denise A. Wells, M.D.

Keely M. Ghirardelli, MT(ASCP), MA
Medical Technologist and Director of Flow Cytometric Services

Ms. Ghirardelli received her Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology from the University of Utah. She continued her education at the University of Washington receiving her Masters Degree in Laboratory Medicine and conducted research in the comparative analysis of immunomicrospheres and flow cytometry. Her laboratory experience includes chemistry, microbiology, blood banking, and coagulation with special interests in hematopoietic morphology. She spent 5 years at the University of Washington in undergraduate teaching in hematology for medical technologists, doctoral students, and medical students and is currently on the Advisory Board for the medical technology program at Shoreline Community College.

John H. Fearing, A.A.
Director of Client Services

John received his associate of arts degree at the Art Institute of Atlanta and the Art Institute of Seattle. John is essentially in charge of synergy and default crisis management. He uses his extensive background in client services to facilitate communication between our clients and our staff. In addition, he oversees day to day operations.

Richard K. Bennington, B.S.
Laboratory Technician and Medical Informatics

Mr. Bennington received his Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Chico State University. In his 2 years at HematoLogics, Richard has designed and implemented a global patient information system for tracking specimens, patient data, flow cytometric data, and billing. He has also been instrumental in developing and validating advanced flow cytometric sorting techniques.

Wayne Fritschle, MT(ASCP)
Regulatory Ombudsman and Director of Quality Control and Quality Assurance

Mr. Fritschle received his bachelor of Science degrees in Microbiology and Medical Technology from the University of Washington. Laboratory experience includes clinical chemistry, coagulation, hematology and microbiology. Before coming to Hematologics, Wayne was the lead technologist in the Clinical Hematology laboratory at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Wayne is the director of compliance issues and instrument standardization for multiple laboratory sites both domestic and abroad.

Matthew Ainworth, B.A.
Executive Accounts Manager

Matt received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Seattle University and the Universidad Ibero Americana in Puebla, Mexico. Matt oversees billing and contractual negotiations for our clients, and is in charge of financial operations of the laboratory.

Kimberly Hunter, B.S., B.A.
Clinical Research Associate

Kim received bachelor’s degrees in both biochemistry and physics at Seattle University. She was a cytogenetics set-up technician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center before joining us. She completed her senior thesis at Hematologics on anti-CD22 conjugated with calicheamicin as an eliminator of B-cells in patients with lymphoma. She is presently researching B lymphoid progression and maturation.

Collette Wentzel, A.A.
Clinical Research Associate

Collette received an associates degree in biology from Green River Community College. She previously had a position in hematology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, then a research position in transplantation biology, testing drugs for immunosuppression in post stem cell transplant patients. She presently is studying T lymphoid subsets for post transplant patients with graft versus host disease and ulcerative colitis.

Joseph Perangeli, B.A.
Chief Literary Advisor

Joe received his bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing at Seattle University. He has been invaluable in editing scientific manuscripts and marketing literature at Hematologics. He is also responsible for client correspondence and processing billing for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

John A. Osth
Chief Operating Officer

John received his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy gaining a commission in the Navy. While in the Navy he also received a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

John has broad product development experience in the biomedical, bio-device and diagnostic arenas with concentration in the areas of immunology, cell biology and clinical diagnostics. His executive and operating experience includes marketing, manufacturing, R&D, finance and business development.

While president of Baxter’s Immunotherpy Division, the division developed an advanced blood separation bio-device, taking the product from design goals to approval to market in Europe in just over 2 years.

John is a member of the Board of the Samueli Foundation as well as the Marrow Foundation, the fundraising arm of the National Marrow Donor Program. He also serves on the Board of Directors of QuantumCor, Inc., Miragene Corp. and Chemokine Therapeutics Corp.

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.
-see pdf file.