BOTHELL, Wash., April 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLFS), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade cell and tissue hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media and a related cloud hosted biologistics cold chain management app for smart shippers, today announced that Karen Foster will join the Company as Vice President of Operations effective April 13, 2016. She was previously Vice President of Laboratory Operations and Site Leader at ViaCord, LLC, a family cord blood bank, and subsidiary of PerkinElmer Inc.

Over a 25-year career, Ms. Foster has managed manufacturing and quality operations in several capacities and over a 13-year span, helped build ViaCord into the second largest private cord blood bank in the US. She has an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (specialization in Operations Management), an M.S. in Zoology from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (specialization in Microbiology) and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Michigan Technological University.

Ms. Foster also holds several quality credentials including Six Sigma Green Belt, American Society of Quality, Certified Quality Manager/Operations Excellence, Six Sigma Black Belt Training, Lean Certification in Progress, and AABB Assessor.

Mike Rice, BioLife's President & CEO, said, "I am extremely pleased to have Karen join our team. She is completely quality process-oriented and customer focused.  With her experience and expertise, I expect Karen to play a large role in the efficient scale up of our biopreservation media manufacturing and biologistex fulfillment operations."

Ms. Foster commented by stating, "Through BioLife's supplier relationship with ViaCord, I have followed the Company's growth and progress for several years and have always been impressed with the team's focus on quality and customer service.  It's clear why BioLife's biopreservation media products are embedded in over 200 customer clinical validation projects and clinical trials for new cellular therapies.  I look forward to joining an excellent team and to managing a production environment of continuous quality improvement, while exceeding customer expectations.  I'm also very excited to participate in the growth and market adoption of evo™ and biologistex™, which represent an opportunity to provide even more value to our customers."

About BioLife Solutions:

Our proprietary HypoThermosol^® and CryoStor^® biopreservation media products are critical enabling reagents used in the biobanking, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine markets. Our products are serum-free and protein-free, fully defined, and are formulated to reduce preservation-induced cell damage and death.  These products provide commercial companies and clinical researchers significant improvement in shelf life and post-preservation viability and function of cells, tissues, and organs.  Our related biologistex cloud hosted biologistics cold chain management app for smart shippers offers enhanced track, trace, and notification services for shipments of time and temperature sensitive biologic materials. We also perform contract aseptic media formulation, fill, and finish services. For more information please visit www.biolifesolutions.com, and follow BioLife on Twitter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements concerning Ms. Foster joining BioLife, potential scale up of operations, quality improvements, customer satisfaction, growth, business opportunities, the utility of and market for BioLife's products and services and delivery of value to customers. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including among other things, uncertainty regarding market adoption of products; uncertainty regarding the performance of customers' clinical trials; market volatility; competition; litigation; and those other factors described in our risk factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained herein or to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof, other than as may be required by applicable law.

Media & Investor Relations
Roderick de Greef
Interim Chief Financial Officer
(425) 686-6002
mrice@biolifesolutions.com

SOURCE BioLife Solutions, Inc.