Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of the startup lab testing company, Theranos, will make a presentation at the 68th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Philadelphia. For the first time, Holmes will present data that clearly lays out how Theranos’s technology works to process the full range of laboratory tests from a few drops of blood.
In a session titled “Theranos Science & Technology: the miniaturization of lab testing”, Holmes is expected to describe the company’s lab testing framework, which consists of a finger-stick blood collection and storage device, technologies for processing small volume samples in a centralized setting, and a compact fully-integrated and automated field-deployable diagnostic testing platform.
In addition, Holmes will present reproducibility and correlation data for various tests comparing Theranos’ capillary collection and storage device with traditional venipuncture methods. She will also discuss methodology employed for the company’s diagnostic testing platform, and share data to demonstrate the precision and accuracy of its chemistry, immunochemistry, hematology, and molecular assays (traditionally performed on separate instruments) using Theranos’ analytical testing platform, including a novel molecular test for the Zika virus.
Following Holmes’ presentation, there will be a moderator-led question-and-answer session featuring questions submitted in real-time by members of the audience. The moderator panel will include AACC President, Patti Jones, PhD; and AACC members Y.M. Dennis Lo, DM, DPhil, and Stephen Master, MD, PhD. This interactive session, which takes place on August 1 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., is not part of the accredited educational program, and as such will not receive Continuing Medical Education or ACCENT credit.
Holmes’ appearance does not reflect an endorsement of Theranos or its technology by AACC, and Theranos has not provided any financial contribution to AACC in exchange for the invitation to speak, nor has it provided any sponsorship monies or other forms of grants to AACC.
At the time AACC announced Holmes’ upcoming appearance, AACC CEO Janet B. Kreizman stated, “There is no better place to present Theranos’ technology than at the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting, where leaders in laboratory medicine can evaluate Ms. Holmes’ data and research. AACC members have been asking for this information since Theranos launched, and we are thrilled that Ms. Holmes is presenting the science behind the technology for the first time at AACC, the premier scientific forum for laboratory medicine.”