A Cutting Edge Molecular Technologies Initiative in Armenia

PASADENA — Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA) lecture titled “A Cutting Edge Molecular Technologies Initiative in Armenia” will be held in Pasadena on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 7:30 pm at Parsons Corp. 100 W. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91124 with the participation of Dr. Frieda Jordan, Dr. Vergine Madelian and Mr. Armond Mehdikhani.

The unique genetic makeup of Armenians makes it nearly impossible for Armenian patients struck with many blood diseases, including leukemia and lymphoma, to find suitable matches for transplants among the existing international registries. As a result, a great number of Armenians lose their lives due to the lack of compatible donors. The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) was founded with the mission of ensuring that every ethnic Armenian and non-Armenian struck with a life threatening blood-related illness is able to find hope. ABMDR recruits its donors from all over the world. ABMDR has established a state of the art Stem Cell Harvest Center in Yerevan, a cryopreservation and cord blood banking, and molecular diagnostic tests, including mutation and flow cytometry analyses, for many diseases. Presenters will outline ABMDR activities and technical issues related to testing and matching donors and patients.

Dr. Frieda Jordan graduated from Kings College, London with a BS and a PhD in Biochemistry. She holds a Certificate of Management from Middlesex University, London, and a Certified Histocompatibility Specialist certification from the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. She is the Director of DNA Molecular Typing at Foundation Laboratory in Los Angeles. As co-founder and president of the ABMDR, Dr. Jordan educates communities throughout the world about the importance of bone marrow donor registries, identifies patients in need, and recruits donors for transplants that will save the lives of patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases. She chairs ABMDR’s “Support Group” for patients and their families, and serves as a Laboratory Inspector for the European Federation of Immunogenetics. In recognition of her work, Dr. Jordan has received numerous awards.

Dr. Vergine Madelian spent over 30 years as a Senior Research Scientist and Director of Protein-Protein Interaction Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center of Laboratories and Research, NY. In the past 10 years she has been a lecturer in Cell and Molecular Biology as well as Microbiology at California State University, Northridge. She has authored several book chapters, over 60 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, and hundreds of articles at national and international scientific conferences. She received her BS from the American University of Beirut, her MS from Adelphi University in NY, her PhD from the University of Massachusetts. She is a Board member of the ABMDR, serves as the Board’s Secretary, and heads its Outreach and Education program.

Mr. Armond Mehdikhani is the Assistant Department Administrator, Laboratory and Pathology Services at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. He holds a BS Biochemistry from UCLA, is certified as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, CLS, MT (ASCP) from Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and holds an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University. He has authored scientific papers and made presentations in the field of cord blood stem cell preservation. For the last six years, he has been on the Board of Advisors and Board of Directors of the ABMDR, and has played a key role in setting up stem cell cryopreservation and cord blood banking facility in Armenia.