Hematopathology Experts

Raul C. Braylan, M.D.

Director, Hematopathology Services

Dr. Braylan was previously chief of the hematopathology section of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida, College of Medicine. Recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on flow cytometry in hematolymphoid neoplasia, he is credited with establishing standardization in flow cytometry clinical utility, data analysis, and reporting through his work on both the U.S. Canadian Consensus and 2006 Bethesda International Conference Recommendations for flow cytometric immunophenotyping.

Dr. Braylan has published more than 150 peer reviewed papers, books and chapters. In his role as former director of the Hematopathology Training Fellowship Program at the University of Florida, he has been responsible for the training of pathologists both nationally and internationally. Dr. Braylan is a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), American Society of Hematology (ASH), Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP), International Society for Analytical Cytology (ISAC), Society for Hematopathology (SH), Clinical Cytometry Society (CCS) and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP).

  • M.D., Buenos Aires Medical School, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Rotating Internship Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, IL
  • Resident, Pathology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, IL
  • Resident, Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
  • Resident, Pathology, Memorial Hospital for Cancer/Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY
  • Senior Staff Fellow, Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Michael Miller, D.O., FCAP, FASCP

Medical Co-Director of Hematopathology

Dr. Michael L. Miller's experience includes The Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he was Head of the Section of Hematopathology for many years. He subsequently became Director of Clinical Pathology and Professor of Pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he also served as the Medical Director of Pathology at the Zale Lipshy University Hospital, and Medical Director of the Veripath Reference Laboratory. Most recently he was in private practice at UniPath in Denver.

Dr. Miller is a graduate of the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, MO. He completed a rotating internship at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, VA and his residency training in pathology at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA. He received his Fellowship training in Hematopathology at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Miller is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and the subspecialty of hematopathology.

Dr. Miller's special interests include leukemias, lymphomas, and coagulation.

Dr. Miller is a Fellow of The College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and a member of the American Society of Hematology.

  • D.O., University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kansas City, MO.
  • Internship, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA
  • Resident, Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA
  • Fellow, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH
Qingmei Xie, M.D.

Hematopathologist

Dr. Xie previously served as Assistant Professor and Hematopathologist at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was also the Director of Flow Cytometry. Prior to this, she served as Staff Scientist with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, Department of Pathology and Immunology. Dr. Xie is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and hematopathology. She is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the American Society for Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), as well as a member of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP).

  • M.D., Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, China
  • Resident, Pathology, Department of Pathology, Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha, NE
  • Fellow, Hematopathology, Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY
Parag J. Patel, D.O.

Hematopathology Fellowship, Loyola University
Pathology Residency,
Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center

Marilyn Owens, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Senior Vice President, Operations

Dr. Owens is responsible for laboratory development and operations. Throughout her 35 year career in the laboratory industry, she has established and managed 13 laboratories over a broad range of scientific specialties (including anatomic pathology, flow cytometry, cytogenetics, FISH, and molecular pathology) and integrated four acquisitions. She has taught business strategy and laboratory applications in oncology and infectious disease at the graduate level.

Dr. Owens was previously senior vice president of laboratory and operations at IMPATH and vice president of technology and development at Genzyme Genetics after the acquisition of IMPATH. As a founding member of the Nichols Institute, Dr. Owens established 10 esoteric testing laboratories, and also served in various leadership roles at Chiron Vaccines and Therapeutics (Now Novartis), Cytometry Associates (Estoerix, LabCorp), and in a variety of consulting engagements with hospital and reference laboratories and in vitro diagnostics companies.

  • B.S., Microbiology, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
  • M.S., Microbiology, California State University, Long Beach
  • Ph.D., Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
  • M.B.A., Strategy and Management, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
Wendy L. Flejter, Ph.D., FACMG

Director, Genetics, Hematopathology Services

Dr. Flejter has over 25 years of clinical experience in genetics and molecular diagnostics and is board certified in Clinical Cytogenetics, and a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG.) She most recently was the vice president of laboratory operations for Artemis Health, Inc. Previously she served as the executive director of cytogenetics for Esoterix Oncology, Inc. and LabCorp, as well director of the Cytogenetics Laboratory for Dianon Systems, Inc.

  • B.S., General Biology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
  • M.S., Human Physiology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
  • Ph.D., Human Genetics, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
  • Fellow, Research Associate, Genetics, University of Michigan Human Genome Center, Ann Arbor, MI
  • Assistant Professor, Co-Director Cytogenetics & Molecular Cytogenetics Laboratories, Department of Pediatrics/Section on Medical Genetics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
  • Assistant Professor, Assistant Director Cytogenetics Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics/Division of Medical Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
  • Assistant Medical Director Cytogenetics Laboratory, Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP), Salt Lake City, UT
  • Assistant Director, Molecular Cytogenetics Core Imaging Facility, Eccles Institute for Human Genetics and the Huntsman Cancer Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Matthew J. McGinniss, Ph.D., F.A.C.M.G

Director, Molecular Diagnostics

Dr. McGinniss joined Caris with synergistic experience in laboratory operations, assay development and validation, quality improvement and assurance, and resource management.

Previously, he was the executive director for Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. in San Diego, CA. He also served as part-time laboratory director of Molecular Genetics at the University of California San Diego Division of Medical Genetics after leaving Quest Diagnostics as senior director of Molecular Genetics. Prior to this he spent three years at Sequenom in San Diego and was also the principal molecular geneticist at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Dr. McGinniss is a diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry (ABCC) in Molecular Diagnostics as well as American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) in Clinical Molecular Genetics. He is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) and is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP), the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt certification.

  • B.A., Zoology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
  • M.S., Zoology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
  • Ph.D., Cell Biology (Genetics), University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, MD
David Loesch, M.D.

Director, Oncology, Clinical Trials and Services

Before coming to Caris, Dr. Loesch was a practicing medical oncologist with Central Indiana Cancer Centers (CICC) for over 18 years. In addition to his clinical practice with CICC, he was the primary investigator and scientific director of the Indiana Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization chartered by the hematologists and oncologists of Central Indiana Cancer Centers.

Dr. Loesch has made significant contributions in the area of breast cancer research and has served as co-chairman of the Breast Cancer Committees for the US Oncology (USO) Network and the Hoosier Oncology Group. In 2006, he was bestowed the Indiana Breast Cancer Alliance Medical Researcher ‘Excellence’ Award and in 2007 was named the Indiana Breast Cancer Researcher of the Year by the Indiana Breast Cancer Coalition.

He has had numerous abstracts accepted by the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) as well as being extensively published for his research on chemotherapy in breast cancer and for hormone-refractory prostate cancer. He is currently a member of ASCO and the American College of Physicians (ACP). He is a diplomate in both internal medicine and medical oncology.

 

  • B. Math, Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
  • M.D. University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN
  • Internship West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV
  • Resident, University of Iowa Affiliate Program at Methodist Medical Center and Des Moines
  • Veteran’s Administration Hospital, Des Moines, IA
  • Fellow, University of Texas Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston, TX
  • Fellow, Medical Oncology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Robert J. Penny, M.D., Ph.D.

Senior Advisor, Molecular Pathology

Dr. Penny is a co-founder and has served as the medical director of the Molecular Profiling Institute, now known as Caris MPI. He is also a co-founder of the International Genomics Consortium (IGC), the chief medical and operating officer of IGC, and the executive director of their national expression project for oncology (expO). Dr. Penny is the principal investigator for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project and chairs the NIH Biospecimen, Biomolecule and Production Working Group.

He has established two national esoteric reference medical laboratories, a national tissue bank and analysis center, and a national genomics program, as well as heading up genomic strategies for AmeriPath, one of the largest providers of anatomic pathology in the United States. Dr. Penny is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and hematopathology.

  • B.S., University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • M.S., Genetics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • Ph.D., Genetics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • M.D., University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Resident, University of California, San Diego, CA
  • Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Resident, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
  • Chief Resident, Clinical Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
  • Fellow, Surgical Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
  • Fellow, Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA