New addition to Rheonix leadership adds expertise in infectious diseases and global epidemic response
ITHACA, N.Y. — Rheonix Inc., an innovative leader in highly multiplexed pathogen detection, announced the appointment of Stephen J. Thomas, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer and member of the Rheonix Board of Directors.
"I am delighted to welcome Dr. Thomas to the Rheonix Board and as our Chief Medical Officer," said Greg Galvin, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rheonix. "His extensive experience leading U.S. government responses to emerging and epidemic infectious diseases will be invaluable to Rheonix as we continue to build our clinical diagnostic portfolio."
Dr. Thomas is a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He directs the Institute for Global Health and Translational Science and is the interim Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Dr. Thomas also cares for patients as part of the Upstate Department of Medicine. Prior to joining Upstate, Dr. Thomas spent 20 years in the U.S. Army serving at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and
completed his military career as the institute’s Deputy Commander for Operations. Dr. Thomas specializes in the study of viruses and vaccine development and spent more than five years of his early career living and working in Thailand. Between 2014 and 2016, he played key leadership roles in the U.S. government response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak and MERS-CoV and Zika epidemics and was instrumental in the development and advancement of vaccines for each. Currently, he is the global coordinating principal investigator for Pfizer’s phase 1/2/3 COVID vaccine trial. Dr. Thomas earned his Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University and his medical degree from Albany Medical College, and completed his Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"I am very excited for the opportunity to work with Rheonix and support the development of their infectious diseases testing platform," said Dr. Thomas. "COVID has reinforced how important high-quality and accessible testing is to pandemic preparedness and response."
About Rheonix:
The Rheonix Encompass workstations enable highly multiplexed sample-to-answer molecular testing for use in clinical, research and applied testing laboratories. Rheonix’s clinical assays include the Rheonix COVID-19™ MDx Assay for use under FDA emergency use authorization and the STI TriPlex™ Assay for the detection of sexually transmitted infections in male urine. Applied testing solutions include the Beer SpoilerAlert™ Assay, the most comprehensive beer spoilage panel available and the Listeria PatternAlert™ Assay, a rapid method for Listeria strain typing. For more information, visit www.rheonix.com.
