News

  • November 2012 :  Innovative Technology Development Foundation (ITDF), a not for profit 501(c)3 public charity, was organized to work alongside pHLOGISTIX LLC for TBI and neurodegenerative disorders.
  • In 2011-12, pHLOGISTIX made a business decision to incorporate companion diagnostics (CDx), a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry because of the emphasis on personalized medicine, into its business strategy. The basis for this was the growing public awareness of the impact of concussion in everyday life.
  • June 2013: pHLOGISTIX Founder, Barry Festoff, gave a presentation on June 4 to the Sports Medicine Concussion Group, Doctors Hospital/ Health System in Miami, Florida. The title of the lecture was Sports-Related Concussion and Development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: Diagnostics, Prevention and Treatment.
  • November 2013: pHLOGISTIX LLC entered into a partnership with Heart To Heart Network, Inc. (Abhi Ray, MHA, MS, MBA and Stanley A. Edlavitch, Ph.D., M.A., F.A.C.E), pHLOGISTIX LLC in response to a request for information (RFI) to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Department of Defense. We proposed to provide our combined expertise integrated in an innovative Neuro-Predictive Analysis Framework with development of an intelligent network that will promote scientific collaboration to accelerate discovery in brain science in military and civilian populations alike. The project will include the application of state-of-the art approaches to functional analysis of brain networks for understanding human cognitive decision making, dynamics of plasticity and learning, and precise, quantitative characterizations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)/TBI at the battlefield, sports field or accident site. The platform will permit dynamic integration of data (genetic, proteomic, imaging, physiologic, structural, clinical, functional outcome). Other consultants, such as CROs, academic laboratories, etc., including expertise in NexTGen sequencing, phosphoproteomics and neurobehavioral testing, will be added as needed.
  • January 2014: pHLOGISTIX LLC received notice of our utility patent pending from the USPO for the mitochondrial analytes detection system for concussion and PCS and also for the handheld device. An addendum is being submitted for the disposable cassettes to be used with the handheld device.
  • January 2014: pHLOGISTIX LLC submitted a proposal, along with Heart To Heart Network, Inc. (HtoH) to the Sprint Techstars Mobile Health Accelerator invitation.
  • February 2014: In collaboration with HtoH, pHLOGISTIX LLC submitted a proposal to the GE-NFL Head Health Challenge 2. This proposal, entitled “Point-of-Injury Blood Biomarkers for Concussion Linked to Neuro-Predictive Analysis Framework Monitoring to Prevent CTE”, is truly an innovative objective approach to monitoring and identifying trauma. In particular, our Neuro-Predictive Analysis framework, coupled with our game-changing point-of-injury diagnostic, will open up new research collaborative avenues with academic, government and industry colleagues alike.
  • March 2014: pHLOGISTIX LLC was invited to present at the 15th annual InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum, a venture capital conference that showcased around 50 companies from throughout the Midwest in three industry tracks of life sciences, technology and food/ag/bioenergy. In the past 14 years InvestMidwest has helped to generate over
$1 billion of investment.
  • November 2015: The founder Dr. Festoff visited potential investors in New York City to discuss the initial pre-series A financing for PHLOGISTIX.
  • December 2015: Dr. Festoff and Abigail Hausman met with the Executive Director of the Brain Injury Association (BIA) of Kansas and Missouri and the incoming new president of that organization.  December 9th, Dr. Festoff gave a seminar at KC Digital Drive in the MARC space in downtown Kansas City.  December 11th, Dr. Festoff met with Cerner Capital at the North Kansas City Cerner campus where he discussed financing with Grant Chapin, Bill Gish and Tyler Rust.  December 23rd, Festoff met with Brenda Bott and her student, Shannon, from the Shawnee Mission School district to discuss a student project on concussion using saliva specimens from mice injured in the MRIGlobal project.
  • January 2016: Innovative Technologies Development Foundation (ITDF; ITDfound.org), a non-profit partner of PHLOGISTIX, screened the movie “Concussion”, starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, on January 9th at Cinemark Palace at the Plaza Kansas City.  Dr. Festoff, founder PHLOGISTIX, In conjunction with Mr. Jerome Van Wert, OM Film Fest, gave a 30 minute Q&A about concussion, CTE and need for increased awareness and point-of-injury diagnostic tools.  January 25th, Dr. Festoff attended the Keystone Symposium in Santa Fe New Mexico on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He presented data both in a poster and a workshop talk on Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns (DAMPs) and the potential use of such as biomarkers for concussion, TBI, conversion to CTE and Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Festoff met with Mr. Steven Gluckstern, CEO of Rio Grande Neurosciences and his colleagues, Drs. Sean Hagberg, PhD, Michael Weisend, PhD and Blake Gurfein, PhD, to discuss potential partnership with PHLOGISTIX.
  • February 2016: Dr. Festoff met with Richard Suminski, PhD, of the NDRI, to discuss mutual areas of interest at Company offices in the ECJC.  February 3rd, PHLOGISTIX, in conjunction with Dr. Luca Cucullo, PhD, and his colleagues in Amarillo at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Blood Brain Barrier Research Institute (BBBRI) received good criticism on an NIH STTR application submitted August 2015. Although not funded, the Company received positive feedback that will strengthen a revised application.  February 5th, Dr. Festoff met with Dr. Nash Boutross, Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and Dr. Stanley Edlavitch, Heart To Heart Network to discuss mutual areas of interest.  Dr. Festoff and Dr. Tom Grant, Company consultant, met with Dr. Claire Croutch at MRIGlobal to discuss protocol for upcoming mouse repetitive concussion study. Dr. Festoff met with Mr. Frank Uryasz, CEO, Drug Free Sports of Kansas City, to discuss areas of mutual interest.  February 15th, Dr. Festoff and Mr. Vivek Velagapudi, volunteer, attended the NIA Alzheimer’s Symposium featuring the members of the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Sen. Jerry Moran at the KU Clinical Research Center in Fairway, KS.  Dr. Festoff and Dr. Grant met with Dr. Croutch and colleagues at MRIGlobal to finalize mouse concussion study protocol and review possible student from KUMC master’s in science program to work on study with us.  Dr. Festoff, representing ITDF, met with Julie Scott, PhD, JD, to review modifying ITDF mission and new BOD membership drive.  Dr. Rick Suminski agrees to serve as interim Chief Scientific officer (CSO) of Company and to plan studies on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in firefighters and first responders.  Dr. Festoff presented funding opportunities in PHLOGISTIX to Mr. Matt Ferguson of TIFEC (The Ilig Family Enterprise Office) in Leawood, KS.
  • March 2016: Dr. Festoff met with Ms. Suzi Kimmelman Edwards and Mr. Lester Rosenkrantz, Cameron Associates of New York City, in West Palm Beach, FL to discuss the Company and funding possibilities.  Dr. Festoff met and had dinner with Mr. Stephen Ross, President of the Miami Dolphins NFL football team and Related Companies of New York City and elsewhere at his home in Palm Beach, FL to discuss opportunities to move Company forward.  Dr. Festoff met with Carl Alving, MD, noted HIV vaccine researcher from Walter Reed Institute of Research and member of Company’s Scientific Advisory Committee in Key Biscayne, FL. Dr. Festoff attended his 50th medical school reunion of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Coconut Grove, FL.
  • August 2016: PHLOGISTIX Founder, Dr. Festoff, published a paper in the August 2016 issue of the Journal of Neuroinflammation with colleagues Drs. Luca Cucullo and Ravi Sajji of the Texas Tech University Heath Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Pharmacy at Amarillo, TX. The article was the result of work by PHLOGISTIX and the Blood Brain Research Center of TTUHSC, in association with KUMC,showing clear evidence that damage-associated molecules (DAMPs), amyloid beta peptide (A) and high mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1), are elevated in the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum. This suggest their potential use as biomarkers in preclinical AD diagnosis in at-risk populations. These would include genetics-at–risk, age-at- risk and head injury-at-risk cohorts.  Since publication, the web-based Altmetrics,
    a metrics and qualitative database complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics has scored this article https://www.altmetric.com/details/10815432#score Compared to these this article has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it’s in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
  • October 19-21, 2016: Dr. Festoff, PHLOGISTIX founder, presented a paper and poster entitled “Clinical biomarkers of blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction and progression to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease” at The Lancet Neurology Conference Preclinical neurodegenerative disease: towards prevention and early diagnosis.