News
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ALBANY, N.Y., September 3, 2024 (Newswire.com) - Humonix Biosciences, Inc., a leading specialty pharmaceutical research company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Thurein Htoo as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. The company also warmly welcomes Christie Markowitz as its newest board director.
Mr. Htoo steps into the role of Chairman of the Board following a distinguished tenure on the board and brings with him a wealth of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He currently serves as the chief executive officer of Qlaris Bio, a clinical stage ophthalmic biotechnology company, and has held leadership roles across both large and emerging biopharmaceutical organizations. His prior roles include chief business officer of Qrativ and head of business development and corporate strategy at Novelion, following nearly a decade at Pfizer. He succeeds Richard Frederick, who has been instrumental in guiding the Board through a period of significant growth and innovation. Mr. Frederick will continue to serve on the Board of Directors, ensuring continuity and strategic insight.
"I am deeply honored to take on this new role as Chairman of the Board at such a pivotal time for Humonix Bio," said Mr. Htoo. "I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Richard Frederick for his outstanding leadership and the invaluable guidance he provided to the company. His contributions have laid a solid foundation for our future success, and I am excited to build upon that as we continue to advance our mission to improve the translatability of research programs into potential future clinical successes using our human tissue-based 3D models."
Christie Markowitz joins the Board of Directors with over two decades of industry experience in the life sciences sector. She currently serves as the Principal and Founder of Markowitz Strategic Group, providing fractional C-suite strategic consulting to drive organizational performance and uphold the interests of stakeholders. Previously, Ms. Markowitz held commercial leadership roles at Novartis, Takeda, Shire, Endo Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, and Abbott.
“I am truly excited to have the opportunity to work closely with Mr. Htoo to deliver on our shared vision of establishing Humonix as the industry leader in human tissue-based 3D models and to advance our tremendous growth potential as an invaluable research partner to our clients,” said Karen Torrejon, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Humonix Bio. “I am also pleased to welcome Ms. Markowitz as the newest member of the Humonix Bio Board of Directors and look forward to leveraging her depth of commercial experience to reach our revenue goals and redefine success in the pharmaceutical research industry.”
About Humonix Bio
Humonix Biosciences, Inc. is a leading specialty pharmaceutical research company leveraging proprietary human tissue-based 3D models to reduce the risk of clinical trial failure, enhance drug development success, and reduce development cost. Humonix Bio’s platform mitigates investment risk by directly predicting the translatability of preclinical data into potential clinical effectiveness, which enables partners to validate lead programs and to screen and select amongst promising compounds and biologics.
For more information, please contact:
George TorrejonSenior Director
gtorrejon@humonixbio.com
(631) 487-5553
www.humonixbio.com -
Dr. Torrejon, the original founder of Humonix, replaces Kimberly Southern
ALBANY, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2024 / Humonix Biosciences, Inc. ("Humonix"), a specialty pharmaceutical research company focused on 3D human tissue models capable of mimicking disease states for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, today announced the appointment of Dr. Karen Torrejon as the new Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Torrejon, who originally founded the company in 2014, will now be leading the company as it transitions into a broader, science-driven platform expanding research offerings for industry clients.
Humonix's platform has been built upon a proprietary 3D human tissue-based system, originally introduced for the study of glaucoma under the Glauconix name, that has now scaled to encompass multiple disease entities including retinal vascular disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and renal fibrosis. As a partner to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Humonix serves to improve the drug development process by expediting the translation of preclinical research into human efficacy using validated human tissue models to predict potential future effect, reducing cost, and improving a program's probability of success. Importantly, Humonix's ex vivo system enriches the understanding of mechanisms underlying therapeutic efficacy while reducing the need for animal testing in line with the FDA's Modernization Act 2.0.
"I am excited to once again lead the company that I founded a decade ago as we now expand into broader disease models as Humonix Biosciences," said Dr. Torrejon. "I am grateful to Ms. Southern for having helped Glauconix gain a foothold in the contract research space, and I'm truly excited to propel this company forward as Humonix to expand our scientific platform systematically. Our ability to test compounds in human tissues ex vivo sets us apart in enabling the early selection of ideal candidates for further development."
"We would like to thank Ms. Southern for her exemplary service to the company," said Richard Frederick, Chairman of the Humonix Board. "We are thrilled to have Dr. Torrejon once again guiding Humonix as its scientific visionary. We look forward to expanding into new areas of research, enabling incredible value creation for industry partners and inevitably for patients, alike."
"The Board is truly excited to leverage Dr. Torrejon's unparalleled scientific prowess to lead Humonix," said Barbara Wirostko, MD, FARVO, Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Utah, Chief Medical Officer of Qlaris Bio, Inc., and Humonix Board Member. "The ability of this platform to translate preclinical research into clinical efficacy offers immense opportunities to clients and ultimately to patients."
About Humonix Biosciences, Inc.
Humonix Biosciences, Inc. was founded in 2014 in Albany, New York, with the aim to develop 3D human tissue models to mimic diseases in an ex vivo preclinical system. Humonix is focused on reducing the need to rely upon animal testing to predict the translation of preclinical drug or biologic efficacy to humans. Humonix Biosciences' investors include Excell Partners, Eastern New York Angels and private equity investors as well. For more information, please visit www.humonixbio.com.Media Contact
George Torrejon
gtorrejon@humonixbio.com
(631) 487-5553Contact Information
George Torrejon
Senior Director
gtorrejon@humonixbio.com
(631) 487-5553SOURCE: Humonix Biosciences Inc
View the original press release on newswire.com.
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Specialty pharmaceutical research company’s new retinal vascular dysfunction model can have a major impact on research and development of new drugs for retinal vascular diseases.
ALBANY, N.Y., September 26, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Humonix Biosciences, Inc., has developed a new 3D human tissue model, called the retinal vascular dysfunction model.
Humonix’s new model is a physiologically relevant 3D model of the blood-retinal barrier. This model expresses key physiological and biological characteristics, providing a platform for testing therapies related to retinal vascular dysfunction.
Humonix’s new model incorporates two cell types, whereas most current in vitro models utilize a single cell type, thereby missing important determinants of barrier function. Humonix’s retinal vascular dysfunction model can recapitulate organ-specific vascular dysfunction, and therefore be applied to diseases such as macular edema and diabetic retinopathy.
This novel model can aid in the drug development process and expedite progress of life-changing therapies for patients living with retinal vascular diseases.
"During discussions with key opinion leaders and drug developers, we saw a trend that in vitro models and, to a certain extent, animal models are not good at narrowing down the best clinical candidates. The significant lack of models of the blood-retinal barrier that incorporate human retinal cells and mimic the pathophysiology of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema hampers the chances of identifying high-potential candidates to move forward in the drug development pipeline. We at Humonix are proud to have engineered a 3D human tissue model of the blood-retinal barrier that can accelerate the development of new and improved therapies."
- Karen Torrejon, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Humonix
"A reproducible and approachable model of the blood-retinal barrier needs to be more complex than a monolayer of cells; interactions between endothelial cells and pericytes are central to the development and maintenance of barrier function, a fact well recapitulated in the Humonix model."
- Patricia A. D’Amore, PhD, MBA, Associate Chief for Basic and Translational Research, Mass Eye and Ear and Humonix Scientific Advisor
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Specialty pharmaceutical research company celebrates the launch of a new service offering and with it, a brand refresh.
ALBANY, N.Y., July 11, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Glauconix Biosciences, Inc. is now Humonix Biosciences, Inc.
What began as a specialization in glaucoma therapeutics has become a launchpad for developing new fibrotic and vascular 3D human tissue models. The company is proud to announce a new retinal vascular dysfunction 3D model proven to express key physiological and biological characteristics. The new model can help along all aspects of the drug development process and expedite drug development by utilizing 3D human tissue, which has greater translatability and quicker turnaround times than other more traditional pre-clinical testing methods.
Now that the company has expanded beyond glaucoma and successfully proven that the platform technology can support various cell types, the company has changed its name to Humonix Biosciences. This move is reflective of a larger breadth of service offerings and a vision to expand the 3D human tissue systems to address other diseases in the body.
"This is a very exciting time for us as we move closer to our vision to make all fibrotic and vascular diseases treatable. We are making good on our commitment to our customers to relentlessly innovate and create new opportunities for breakthrough therapies to succeed." - Kimberly Southern, Chief Executive Officer, Humonix
"It's a transformational time for Humonix as they expand their industry-leading platform technology to address the significant unmet need in the marketplace for validated fibrotic and vascular 3D tissue models. I'm excited to continue supporting the company and looking forward to seeing what comes next!" - Robert Dempsey, Chief Executive Officer, President, AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc and Humonix Board Member