DermTech Adds Allan C. Halpern, MD, Chief of Dermatology at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, to Company's Melanoma Advisory Board

LA JOLLA, Calif., March 5  /PRNewswire/ -- DermTech, a biotechnology company developing molecular diagnostics for the early detection of melanoma and other diseases, today announced that Allan C. Halpern, MD, has joined DermTech's Melanoma Advisory Board.  Dr. Halpern is Chief of Dermatology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and widely recognized as an expert in the early detection and management of melanoma in high-risk individuals.

"We are delighted and honored to welcome Dr. Halpern to our Melanoma Advisory Board," said George Schwartz, CEO, DermTech.  "Dr. Halpern is a world leader in the area of melanoma and strategies for improved diagnosis and prevention of this disease that, if identified early, has an extremely high cure rate.  DermTech will clearly benefit from his significant experience as we move toward clinical trials of our novel, non-invasive molecular diagnostic product for melanoma early detection."

"I am looking forward to working with the company and the outstanding panel of dermatologists and melanoma experts already on this advisory board," said Allan Halpern, MD.   Other Melanoma Advisory Board members include: Boris Bastian, MD, David Polsky, MD, PhD, and Harold S. Rabinovitz, MD.

Allan Halpern, MD, is a board-certified internist and dermatologist.  In addition to his role as Chief of Dermatology at MSKCC, he is co-leader of the Center's Melanoma Disease Management Team, which incorporates the expertise of doctors in surgery, medical oncology, clinical immunology, dermatology, pathology, and radiation oncology to diagnose and treat melanoma.   He pioneered the use of digital whole-body photography to assist in the detection of changing moles in patients with dysplastic nevi (large, irregular colored or shaped moles).  Currently, his research is focused on epidemiologic (population-based) studies with a subset of this research devoted to the study of the genetic and environmental factors that influence the development of moles in children and adolescents.  Dr. Halpern received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and completed his Dermatology residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  He has presented and published extensively on melanoma detection.

About DermTech:

Headquartered in La Jolla, California, DermTech International is focused on the development and validation of molecular tests using specimens obtained from the skin. The company's proprietary Epidermal Genetic Information Retrieval (EGIR(TM)) technology is in clinical studies to evaluate its potential as a non-invasive diagnostic for melanoma and other major diseases. It is also being studied in the context of tracking treatment efficacy for a variety of dermatologic and other conditions, including the effects of drugs on skin at the molecular level in advance of observable clinical results. DermTech is actively pursuing research using EGIR(TM) and its applications in the areas of melanoma, prostate cancer and various skin disorders, such as psoriasis. For additional information visit http://www.dermtech.com/.

  Contacts:
  DermTech
  George Schwartz
  CEO
  858.450.4222

  For DermTech
  Jennifer Larson
  415.409.2729
  jlarson@labfive.com


DermTech