Omnyx is Hiring!

Mamar Gelaye

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times

UPMC/GE Healthcare-owned digital pathology firm in growth mode

Digital pathology company Omnyx LLC is planning to hire 10 people this year, a 12 percent increase in its workforce, as the Strip District-based company makes the shift from a development to commercial company.

“We’re in exciting times,” CEO Mamar Gelaye said. “It’s really a time of innovation and focus.”

“We want to improve outcomes.”

The Strip District company is developing products that digitize pathology slides, making it easier than using conventional glass specimen slides to share, store and evaluate for the presence of disease.

Omnyx employs 85 people and plans to add 10 more this year, Gelaye said, as the company gears up for growth.

Omnyx is a joint venture of UPMC and GE Healthcare, which was created in 2008.

Omnyx received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2014 for a system to identify the overproduction of the HER2 protein in breast cancer cells. Some 232,670 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually and identification of the protein allows doctors to treat the patient with newer drugs that specifically target the protein overproduction process, which causes the disease.

“We achieved regulatory clearances, but it also gives clinicians a personal sense of confidence in using the technology,” Gelaye said. “It’s a hometown company that’s going global.”

Falling data storage costs and advancements in file compression technology have helped Omnyx overcome an early hurdle with the handling and storage of huge data files. The company’s technology is speeding pathology’s transition to a digital platform from tissue specimens mounted on glass slides, which had been a pathology standard for more than a century.

Separately, Omnyx is partnering with Oklahoma City-based Argent Global Services for aid in training and software use. The consultant is used by a number of industries, including clinical and pathology labs to improve productivity, use of lab space and other issues.

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times

Omnyx website