Dmitry Ovcharenko's headshot
Dmitry Ovcharenko

Dmitriy Ovcharenko (Russian: Дмитрий Овчаренко) is a founder and CEO of Altogen Labs (since 2009), a GLP-compliant contract research organization (CRO) in Austin, Texas focusing on cancer research and providing a wide range of preclinical laboratory research services (testing efficacy and safety of novel cancer medicines), as well as pharmacology/toxicology studies to pharma and biotechnology industry (Global Health & Pharma publications about Altogen Labs: Medical Discovery and Innovation / Preclinical Contract Research Studies). Scientists at Altogen Labs perform gene silencing (RNAi) and xenograft preclinical studies in collaboration with cancer research centers. Altogen Labs bioremediation products (oil-degrading bacteria) and services are used for environmental remediation by oil and gas industry worldwide. Dmitriy Ovcharenko is also a founder of Altogen Chemicals, a manufacturer and worldwide distributor of biochemicals, organic and inorganic chemicals, including ultra-pure hexachlorodisilane (HCDS) used in several high tech industries including semiconductor and solar energy.

Previously, Dmitriy Ovcharenko worked as research scientist at following organizations: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Edwad M. Rubin Laboratory), Ambion (David Brown Laboratory, now Mirna Therapeutics), Asuragen (Matt Winkler), and Terapio (Curt Bilby). Dmitriy also worked as a consultant at Sante Ventures and ATMI (now Entegris). Dmitriy is a cell and molecular biologist by training, holding degrees in biology, chemistry, ecology, and pharmacology, expert in RNA interference (RNAi) and preclinical research. Dmitriy performed undergraduate and graduate studies at Novosibirsk State University (1996-2000, 2000-2002) and conducted his doctoral work at University of Texas at Austin (2004-2008). Dmitriy’s main research insterest is anticancer therapeutical application of RNAi, including microRNA – small molecules that regulate gene expression of networks of oncogenes. Therapeutical application of microRNA and siRNA oligonucleotides (a part of RNAi phemomena that won 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine) holds promise for generation of novel gene-targeted medicines against many uncurable diseases (read more).

Dmitriy is a member of the following professional organizations: American Association for Cancer Research, American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, American Society for Cell Biology, and affiliated with following research journals: Cancer Research Journal, Nucleic Acid Research, and Gene Therapy Journal.

Recent press releases:
  1. Laboratory Testing of Known Compounds for Cancer Treatment Efficacy
  2. GMP Grade Liver Targeted Transfection Reagent for In Vivo Delivery of Biomolecules
Publications:
  1. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Friedrich Stölzel, David Poitz, Fernando Fierro, Markus Schaich, Andreas Neubauer, Kevin Kelnar, Timothy Davison, Carsten Müller-Tidow, Christian Thiede, Martin Bornhäuser, Gerhard Ehninger, David Brown, Thomas Illmer. miR-10a overexpression is associated with NPM1 mutations and Mdm4 downregulation in intermediate-risk acute myeloid leukemia. Experimental Hematology, 39(10):1030-1042 (2011)
  2. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. Two dichloric compounds inhibit in vivo U87 xenograft tumor growth. Cancer Biology & Therapy. 2019. PMID: 31234707. doi.org/10.1080/15384047.2019.1632131
  3. Dario Boffelli, Jon McAuliffe, Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Keith D. Lewis, I. Ovcharenko, Lior Pachter, Edward Rubin. Phylogenetic Shadowing of Primate Sequences to Find Functional Regions of the Human Genome. Science 299, (5611): p.1391-1394
    (2003)
  4. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Kevin Kelnar, Charles Johnson, Nan Leng, David Brown. Genome-scale microRNA and small interfering RNA screens identify small RNA modulators of TRAIL-induced apoptosis pathway. Cancer Research 67(22):10782-10788 (2007)
  5. Abdulgader Baoum, Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Cory Berkland. Calcium condensed cell penetrating peptide complexes offer highly efficient, low toxicity gene silencing. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 427(1):134-142 (2012)
  6. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Richard Jarvis, Scott Hunicke-Smith, Kevin Kelnar, David Brown. High-throughput RNAi screening in vitro: From cell lines to primary cells. RNA 11: p.985-993 (2005)
  7.  Johnson CD, Esquela-Kerscher A, Stefani G, Byrom M, Kelnar K, Ovcharenko D, Wilson M, Wang X, Shelton J, Shingara J, Chin L, Brown D, Slack FJ. The let-7 microRNA represses cell proliferation pathways in human cells. Cancer Research 67(16):7713-7722 (2007)
  8. Teichler S, Illmer T, Roemhild J, Ovcharenko D, Stiewe T, Neubauer A. MicroRNA29a regulates the expression of the nuclear oncogene Ski. Blood, 118(7):1899-1902 (2011)
  9. Tong Z, Wu X, Ovcharenko D, Zhu J, Chen CS, Kehrer JP. Neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin as a survival factor. Biochemical Journal, 391:441-448 (2005)
  10. Sachse C., Krausz E., Kronke A., Hannus M., Walsh A., Grabner A., Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Dorris D., Trudel C., Sonnichsen B., Echeverri C. High throughput RNAi strategies for target discovery and validation by using synthetic siRNAs: functional genomics investigations of biological pathways. Methods in Enzymology 392: p.242-277 (2005)
  11.  Gabriela Loots, Michaela Kneissel, Hansjoerg Keller, Myma Baptist, Jessie Chang, Nicole Collette, Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Ingrid Plajzer-Frick, Edward Rubin. Genomic deletion of a long-range bone enhancer misregulates sclerostin in Van Buchem disease. Genome Research 15: p.928-935 (2005)
  12. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Maurine Young. Design and optimise: The art of RNA interference. (2006)
  13. Sirotkin A, Ovcharenko D, Benco A, Mlyncek M. Protein kinases controlling PCNA and p53 expression in human ovarian cells. Funct Integr Genomics 9:185-195 (2009)
  14. Sirotkin AV, Lauková M, Ovcharenko D, Brenaut P, Mlyncek M. Identification of microRNAs controlling human ovarian cell proliferation and apoptosis. Journal of Cell Physiology 223:49-56 (2010)
  15. Labourier E, Ovcharenko D, Shelton J, Kelnar K, Davison T, Illmer T, Brown D. Expression Profiling and Functional Studies Reveal a Potential Role for microRNAs in Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (2006)
  16. Sirotkin AV, Ovcharenko D, Grossmann R, Laukova M, Mlyncek M. Identification of microRNAs controlling human ovarian cell steroidogenesis via a genome-scale screen. Journal of Cell Physiology 219:415-20 (2009)
  17. Sirotkin AV, Ovcharenko D, Mlyncek M. Identification of protein kinases that control ovarian hormone release by selective siRNAs. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology 44:45-53 (2010)
  18. Sirotkin AV, Kisova G, Brenaut P, Ovcharenko D, Grossmann R, Mlyncek M. Involvement of microRNA Mir15a in control of human ovarian granulosa cell proliferation, apoptosis, steroidogenesis, and response to FSH. Microrna 3(1):29-36 (2014)
  19.  Sirotkin AV, Alexa R, Kisova G, Harrath AH, Alwasel S, Ovcharenko D, Mlyncek M. MicroRNAs control transcription factor NF-kB (p65) expression in human ovarian cells. Funct Integr Genomics 15(3):271-5 (2015)
  20. Romanenko G, Ovcharenko D, Vasilevskii S. Structure of 2,4,4,5,5‐pentamethyl‐2‐imidazoline‐1‐oxyl‐3‐oxide. Journal of Structural Chemistry 44: p.314-317 (2003)
Patents:
  1. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. Methods and compositions involving miRNA and miRNA inhibitor molecules. USA patent number #7,960,359 (2011)
  2. Dmitriy Ovcharenko. miR-10 regulated genes and pathways as targets for therapeutic intervention. USA patent number 12,340,329 (2010)
  3. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. Methods and compositions involving miRNA and miRNA inhibitor molecules. USA patent 11,837,490 (2010)
  4. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. System and method for electroporating a sample. USA patent number 7,393,681 (2008)
  5. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. MicroRNAs Differentially expressed in leukemia and uses thereof. USA patent 11,953,606 (2007)
  6. Dmitriy Ovcharenko et al. System and method for electroporating a sample. USA patent number 6,897,069 (2005)
Selected Conference Presentations:
  1. Dmitriy Ovcharenko. Role of microRNAs in human acute myeloid leukemia (AML). American Association for Cancer Research (2007)
  2. Dmitriy Ovcharenko. High throughput in vitro RNAi screening: From cell lines to primary cells. AACR 96th Annual Meeting, Cellular and Molecular Biology Symposium, Anaheim, CA (2005)
  3. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Richard Jarvis. High Throughput In Vitro RNAi Screening: From Cell Lines To Primary Cells. Twelfth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Drug Delivery Systems (2005)
  4. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Thomas Illmer, Jeffrey Shelton, Emmanuel Labourier, David Brown. Expression profiling and functional studies reveal a potential role for microRNAs in human acute myeloid leukemia. The American Society of Cell Biology, San Francisco, CA (2005)
  5. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Kevin Kelnar, Angie Cheng, David Wang, Lance Ford. The use of miRNA and siRNA libraries to identify genes involved in the regulation of hTERT transcription. The American Society of Cell Biology, San Francisco, CA (2005)
  6. Dmitriy Ovcharenko. High throughput in vitro RNAi screening: From cell lines to primary cells. Experimental Biology (FASEB),San Diego, CA (2005)
  7. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Richard Jarvis. High Throughput In Vitro RNAi Screening: From Cell Lines To Primary Cells. Twelfth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Drug Delivery Systems (2005)
  8. Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Kevin Kelnar, Richard Jarvis. Efficient Delivery of siRNA to Primary Cells and Hard-to-Transfect Cell lines. Gene Delivery 3rd Annual International Conference (2003)
Trade Journal Publications:
  1. Ovcharenko D. et al. Effective delivery of functional siRNAs into cells. Pharmaceutical Discovery, Current Applications in RNAi, p.21-26 (2005)
  2.  Ovcharenko D. et al. High throughput siRNA delivery in vitro: From cell lines to primary cells. Ambion TechNotes 12,(2): p.11-13 (2005)
  3. Ovcharenko D. et al. High throughput siRNA electroporation. Ambion TechNotes 12,(1):p.14-15 (2005)
  4. Ovcharenko D. et al. Deliver siRNAs into primary cells. Ambion TechNotes 12,(1):p.16-17 (2005)
  5. Brown D. et al. Precursor miRNAs for successful miRNA functional studies. Ambion TechNotes 12,(1):p. 3-5 (2005)
  6. Beauchamp L. et al. Got small RNA? Ambion TechNotes 12,(1):p.6-7 (2005)
  7. Ovcharenko D. et al. Delivering siRNAs to difficult cell types. Ambion TechNotes 11,(3):p. 14-15 (2004)
  8. Ovcharenko D. et al. Efficient delivery of siRNAs to human primary cells. Ambion TechNotes 10,(5):p.15-16 (2003)