CARLSBAD--- Yulex Corporation Attracts World's Leading Latex Allergy Experts to Advisory Board
Pioneering work to develop and market the first and only domestic source of natural rubber latex for hypoallergenic medical devices and specialty consumer products is being done by materials science company Yulex Corporation. Recognizing Yulex's potential, four of the world's leading latex allergy experts will participate in a Scientific Advisory Board to contribute their scientific and medical knowledge to the company's ongoing product development.
"Yulex Natural Rubber Latex(TM) protects the health of tropical latex allergy sufferers by providing a safe and natural alternative to the traditional source for latex, which is tropical rubber tree plantations," says Jeff Martin, president and chief executive officer of Yulex Corporation. "The advisory board's scientific and medical oversight is a great benefit and will help us bring to market this promising new source of latex."
The members of the newly established Scientific Advisory Board are Dr. Katrina Cornish, Ph.D., Dr. Robert G. Hamilton, Ph.D., Dr. Hans-Peter Rihs, and Dr. Ronald Simon.
Dr. Katrina Cornish, Ph.D., senior vice president of research and development at Yulex, and leading U.S. scientific expert on Guayule cultivation and domestic latex production, chairs the Scientific Advisory Board. She is the sole inventor of process and product patents to produce hypoallergenic natural rubber latex and products from Guayule.
Dr. Robert G. Hamilton, Ph.D., of the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, is an expert in assessing allergic disease by laboratory-based methods. He has studied and published extensively on allergic reactions to drugs such as insulin and penicillin, insect venom, foods such as grapes, and most recently, natural rubber latex. He chaired the Latex Allergy Committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology from 2003 to 2004.
Dr. Hans-Peter Rihs heads the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Institute of Occupational Medicine of the Berufsgenossenschaften (BGFA) in Bochum, Germany. Dr. Rihs' main field is molecular biology. Other fields include latex research, recombinant allergens and IgE diagnostics.
Dr. Ronald Simon heads the Division of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Department of Molecular & Experimental Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute as well as various boards and committees.
Yulex (www.yulex.com) is a materials science company producing a domestic source of natural rubber derived from the desert plant known as Guayule. The company, along with industrial strategic partners, is currently developing technology to extract other specialty chemicals and biofuels from the desert plant. Yulex, a privately-held company, was founded in 1997 and is based in Carlsbad, California.