Kim G. Hankey, PhD

Ph.D. Medical Pathology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

B.S. Medical Technology, University of Maryland at Baltimore, MD

Dr. Hankey is a licensed medical technologist and Certified Histocompatibility Specialist with a doctorate in Medical Pathology and 30 years of scientific experience in contract research/clinical laboratory organizations and academics. She initially specialized in the fields of immunogenetics (forensic and transplantation), immunohematology and forensic molecular biology where she developed analytical methods and managed the associated clinical laboratories at Maryland Medical Metpath (now Quest Diagnostics) and the American Red Cross National Histocompatibility Laboratory. After 14 years of private sector service, Dr. Hankey moved to academia to pursue a doctoral degree and study immunopathology and thymopoiesis in the context of chemo- and radio-therapy. Dr. Hankey has effectively collaborated with clinicians, scientists, regulatory administrators and technicians on a variety of projects involving the development and implementation of immune-based methods to fight cancer. These included the invention and patenting of a vaccine adjuvant derived from human lymphocytes; the development and validation of GMP-compliant cellular immunotherapy applications using human dendritic cells with or without activated T cells; and the exploration of techniques to expand human natural killer cells in a closed-culture setting for treatment of minimal residual disease in leukemia. Other research, development and validation efforts involved ligand-binding and cell-based assays for GLP-compliant bioanalytical analysis of large molecule biologics. Such efforts were applied to pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity studies of medical countermeasures of radiation injury in animals. This includes the design and implementation of instrument validation plans (IQ/OQ/PQ) used to support GLP-regulated non-clinical studies. Dr. Hankey served as Study Director for a GLP-compliant efficacy study of the growth factor, Neulasta®, to mitigate the hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS). The results of this study led to FDA approval of Neulasta® for treatment of H-ARS in the event of a radiological incident. Dr. Hankey's current studies focus on gastrointestinal injury after radiation exposure in order to define the natural sequence of tissue injury and subsequent repair. Current effort is placed on analysis of changes in the GI innate immune response after radiation injury.

radiation injury, medical countermeasures, animal models, cellular immunotherapy, immunogenetics, dendritic cells, NK cells, thymopoiesis, GxP

Cui W, Bennett AW, Zhang P, Barrow KR, Kearney SR, Hankey KG, Taylor-Howell C, Gibbs AM, Smith CP, MacVittie TJ. (2016) A non-human primate model of radiation-induced cachexia. Sci Rep. 6, 23612. doi: 10.1038/srep23612

Zhang P, Cui W, Hankey KG, Gibbs A, Smith CP, Taylor-Howell C, Kearney SR, Macvittie TJ. (2015) Increased expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in multiple organs after exposure of nonhuman primates (NHP) to lethal doses of irradiation. Health Phys. 109, 374-90. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000343

Farese AM, Hankey KG, Cohen MV, MacVittie TJ. (2015) Lymphoid and myeloid recovery in rhesus macaques following total body x-irradiation. Health Phys. 109, 414-26. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000348

Jones JW, Bennett A, Carter CL, Tudor G, Hankey KG, Farese AM, Booth C, MacVittie TJ, Kane MA. (2015) Citrulline as a biomarker in the nonhuman primate total- and partial-body irradiation: correlation of circulating citrulline to acute and prolonged gastrointestinal injury. Health Phys. 109, 440-51. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000347

Hankey KG, Farese AM, Blaauw EC, Gibbs AM, Smith CP, Katz BP, Tong Y, Prado KL, MacVittie TJ. (2015) Pegfilgrastim Improves Survival of Lethally Irradiated Nonhuman Primates. Radiat Res. 18, 643-655. doi: 10.1667/RR13940.