Management

Wen-Tien Chen, Ph.D., Founder & President, brings over 35 years of experience in the area of cancer metastasis and is an acknowledged international expert on the subject. He graduated with a PhD in Genetics, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Yale and has been Research Professor of Medical Oncology at Stony Brook University since 1998 and was previously the Director of the Tumor Invasion and Metastasis Program at Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center from 1984 to 1998. In addition, he maintains a close relationship with the Stony Brook University Medical Center, which provides high-tech facilities and professional expertise to Vitatex. Vitatex benefits greatly from Dr. Chen’s network, experience and expertise. The CAM technology, developed by Dr. Chen and exclusively licensed from Stony Brook University to Vitatex, is at the forefront of the CTC field.

Qiang Zhao, MD, Director, Medical Research, has managed the Vitatex subcontract lab through more than 10 years of clinical studies. She has extensive experience in developing experimental protocols for the isolation and detection of tumor cells in blood, ascites and tumors, as well as cellular and molecular biology techniques. This capability facilitates our research aims to the development of new clinical tools to improve the collection, processing, handling, and storage of tumor cells present in clinical samples.

Huan Dong, PhD, Director, Product Research, has extensive experience in the development of new reagents, flow cytometry and high resolution imaging cytometry techniques. He contributed significantly to the results showing applications of cultured iCTCs and immune cells in CTC drug resistance (CDR) testing in vitro. After a tenure as Research Scientist in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, SUNY at Stony Brook for three years, he joined Vitatex in January 2010.

Shaun Tulley, PhD, Director, Quality Management, has had 2+ years of managing Quality Control / Assurance of developing and existing reagents and tools. He has published papers on genes regulating tumor invasion and metastasis and the SOP of Vita-Assay™ use. He has extensive experience with techniques used in molecular and cellular biology with a strong background in normal/ cancer-cell signaling including experience in aberrant gene transcription in cancer all of which allowed him to formulate novel iCTC stem-cell/progrenitor cell culture conditions using the Vita-Assay™ system.

Che Chen, Director, Operations, has 10+ years of experience in company operations including grant & contract applications, website management, and manufacturing/sales of Vita-Cap™ tubes and Vita-Assay™ plates.

Vitatex researchers Qiang Zhao (first from right), Wen-Tien Chen (second from right), Huan Dong (second from left), and Shaun Tulley (first from left) at a Long Island Manufacture Conference.

Che Chen (first from left) and Wen-Tien Chen (first from right) at Vitatex manufacture facility.