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Iris BioTechnologies Welcomes New Board Member and Key Employees

2015-01-27 20:23 ET - News Release

SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/28/15

Iris BioTechnologies Inc. (OTCQB: IRSB), a life sciences company poised to set new personalized medicine standards for precision diagnosis and therapy, is pleased to welcome Dr. Douglas Hendren, Dr. John Hearst, Dr. Frank Chuang, and Gayle Murray to our team at a very exciting time in the growth of our company. In the State of the Union speech on January 20, 2015, President Obama said, "Personalized medicine represents a revolutionary and exciting change in the fundamental approach and practice of medicine."

Douglas Hendren, M.D., MBA, was elected to the Iris Board of Directors along with existing board members Simon Chin and Grace Osborne at the Iris annual shareholders meeting. Dr. Hendren served as Medical and Business Strategy Advisor since October 2013. Doug was a partner at Humboldt Orthopedics. He was a founding partner of Hess Orthopaedics, a managing partner, designer and the first director of the Hess surgical facility. Dr. Hendren obtained a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Doug also completed the Harvard Orthopaedic Program and received an M.B.A. from Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

John Hearst, Ph.D., has been appointed to the newly created position of Director of Clinical Chemistry. John is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley. He was previously the Founding Director and Vice President for New Science Opportunities at Cerus Corporation. The Hearst Lab at U.C. Berkeley started out doing biophysical structure studies of DNA, looking at the elasticity of DNA and the physical processes of DNA transcription and replication. Dr. Hearst attracted students who wanted to work on the cutting edge.

Dr. Hearst mentored 65 graduate students, including Dr. Thomas Cech, who became a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and the President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Hearst received his B.E. from Yale University and Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology. John was Director of Chemical Biodynamics Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Recipient of Berkeley Citation, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Hearst also received the Mortimer M. Bortin Award for Outstanding Research in Bone Marrow Transplant.

Frank Chuang, Ph.D., M.D., has been appointed to the newly created position of Director of Clinical Applications. In this role, he will have broad responsibilities in clinical translation research and launching new products. Dr. Chuang received his B.S. in Bioengineering from U.C. Berkeley and Ph.D., M.D. in Biophysics and Immunobiology from City University of New York and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He previously worked at Cornell Hospital for Special Surgery in rheumatologic disease, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in their Medical Technology Program, and the Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Davis. Dr. Chuang's research experience includes advanced biodetection technologies and in vitro diagnostics. As a faculty member in Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and Associate Director of Center for Biophotonics in the UC Davis Health System, Frank has been leading the development of new technologies for medical and other life science applications.

Gayle Murray has been appointed to the newly created position of Director of Marketing. As Iris prepares for product launch through its subsidiary, Iris Wellness Labs, Gayle will play a key role in both traditional as well as social media marketing. Ms. Murray received her B.A. in Biological Sciences from U. C. Santa Barbara. She is a sales and marketing management professional with 20+ years experience developing and leading major accounts and fundraising programs. She was previously the U. C. Davis Account Executive with J. A. Majors Company, which is the largest medical book distributor in the United States. She managed sales and marketing activities for the University's Medical, Veterinary and Nursing Schools, both in Sacramento and Davis. Gayle is also experienced in industry tradeshows, contract negotiations, promotions, product merchandising, inventory management, customer service, and new employee training.

"Iris is focused on launching personalized precision medical products and services for cancer diagnostics, blood testing, and IVF applications. Having received six patents on our Nano-biochip™ and BioWindows™ Artificial Intelligence System for Genetic Analysis, and with the addition of outstanding people who have a passion for making a difference in helping people through precision medicine, we have positioned ourselves well to offer our solution to the World," said Simon Chin, founder, president and chief executive officer. "We welcome Doug, John, Frank, and Gayle to our growing team, as we prepare for dynamic growth."

As of January 1, 2015, hospitals, medical clinics, surgery centers, and other medical providers are required by law to have electronic medical records in HL7 format. Unlike the pdf format, HL7 is a friendly format for data extraction into the Iris BioWindows System, which will expedite the process in enabling personalized precision medicine. In this year's State of the Union speech, President Obama announced his "Precision Medicine Initiative," and he is expected to detail the program in his fiscal 2016 budget, to be released on February 2, 2015. The effort is likely to receive support from both parties.

This is an exciting time for personalized precision medicine. During the week of the Annual J. P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Foundation Medicine shares have more than doubled in value on January 12, 2015, after the news of Roche to acquire approximately fifty-percent of the company for more than $1 billion. On January 7, 2015 at CES 2015, the biggest consumer technology show in the world, the world's first Genome Browser on a Mobile Phone was introduced at AT&T on the Blackberry Passport. In 2009, Iris launched "Health Passport" in our BioWindows 2.0 Informatics System for Personalized and Targeted Medicine.

Dr. Ralph Snyderman, often described as the father of personalized medicine, said, "Personalized medicine has the potential to transform our health care system, which consumes almost $3 trillion a year, 80 percent of it for preventable diseases." We believe that the true value of Iris shares will be realized after launching our products for medical, research, and consumer applications. Iris shares are not yet traded on the NASDAQ market. It is currently traded on the OTCBB market where trading volume is thin and stock prices are volatile. During the past year, Iris stock price range was between $0.15 and $4.50. Iris currently has approximately 15 million shares.

Each person is biologically unique. If breast cancer or other disease strikes, who will you call to make sure that you get the right, unique diagnostic in order for your physician to offer you the right medical treatment that will work best for you? We believe that in the future you may think of Iris first.

About Iris BioTechnologies

Iris BioTechnologies Inc. (OTCQB: IRSB) is a life sciences company focused on personalized precision medicine to provide you and your physicians the information to choose the best medical treatment regimen available before treatment begins. Iris enables precision healthcare. We analyze the totality of who you are, by looking at a combination of things including your DNA, family medical history, life style, and environmental exposure. Iris offers the best approach to cancer treatment through (1) actionable integration of molecular profiling with clinical decision-making, (2) precision analysis of potential cancer recurrence and chemotherapy effectiveness, and (3) correlating to targeted therapies and therapies in clinical trials. The Iris Nano-Biochip™ product pipeline includes: Quick Blood Tests, CancerChip™, PrenatalChip™, NeuroChip™ (Alzheimer's and Parkinson diseases), MetabolicChip™ (Diabetes), CardioChip™, and Chips for veterinary, agricultural (e.g., biofuel development), environmental, and other applications. The Iris BioWindows™ artificial intelligence system provides big data and analysis for clinical applications, drug development, and stem cell research. For further information, please visit the Iris website at www.irisbiotech.com.

Iris BioTechnologies Inc.
Simon Chin
408-806-7149
President and CEO
simonchin@irisbiotech.com

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