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Friday, July 10, 2015

Lab manager to be honored by international clinical research society

INDIANAPOLIS – Dawn R. Wagenknecht, MS, CHS, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Technologist Award by the American Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics (ASHI).

Wagenknecht, manager of the HLA-Vascular Biology Laboratory at Franciscan St. Francis Health, is recognized for her outstanding contributions in her field, ASHI officials said. The work she and others perform in their lab supports services provided at the hospital’s Indiana Blood and Marrow Transplantation program – the first of its kind to treat blood cancer in Indiana.

An Indianapolis resident, Wagenknecht joined the HLA lab in 1999 and has been involved in numerous clinical and research projects during her career. She was science adviser for the  team, led by her late husband Dr. John McIntyre, which pioneered Redox-Reactive Reagents. They developed a tool kit that enhanced the standards for diagnosing autoimmune diseases and new biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, and future risk assessments for cancer and diabetes.

Widely published in professional journals and a frequent lecturer on topics in her field, Wagenknecht has been recognized in the past for her research, including a Young Investigator Award presented by the International Symposium on Antiphospholipid Antibodies.

Wagenknecht will be presented with the Outstanding Technologist Award at ASHI’s annual meeting in Savannah, Georgia next October.

Wagenknecht received her bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Southern Illinois University and later earned her master’s in biology from Purdue University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in oral biology at the Indiana University School of Dentistry.


ASHI is a not-for-profit association of clinical and research professionals including immunologists, geneticists, molecular biologists, transplant physicians and surgeons, pathologists and technologists.