Brian Druker, Co-inventor, Gleevec
Brian Druker, Co-inventor, Gleevec
Brian Druker M.D., Director of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research, OHSU, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute After having trained in oncology at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Druker then returned to the lab to begin his research career studying the regulation of the growth of cancer cells and the practical application to cancer therapies. His work was instrumental in the development of Gleevec, a drug that targets the molecular defect in chronic myeloid leukemia. After completing a series of preclinical studies, Dr. Druker spearheaded the highly successful clinical trials of imatinib for CML. Imatinib is currently FDA approved for CML and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. His role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic have resulted in numerous awards for Dr. Druker, including the John J. Kenney Award from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the AACR-Richard, and many others.
George Church, Co-developer, Human Genome Project
George Church, Co-developer, Human Genome Project
George Church, Ph.D. Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard and MIT With Walter Gilbert he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984 and helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 while he was a Research Scientist at newly-formed Biogen Inc. He invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags,homologous recombination methods,and DNA array synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing & software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence, (the human pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994. He initiated the Personal Genome Project (PGP) in 2005 and research on synthetic biology. He is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard & MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI) Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard, MIT & Washington University. He has been advisor to 22 companies, most recently co-founding (with Joseph Jacobson, Jay Keasling, and Drew Endy) Codon Devices, a biotech startup dedicated to synthetic biology and (with Chris Somerville) founding LS9, which is focused on biofuels. He is a senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology.
Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, FDA
Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, FDA
Janet Woodcock is the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Woodcock has shown dedication to personalized medicine by fast-tracking individualized treatments through the FDA approval process and by encouraging collaboration between the regulatory and industry arenas. During her tenure, both of the individualized treatments Xalkori and Zelboraf received FDA approval paired with companion diagnostics. Dr. Woodcock has led many of FDA’s drug initiatives. She introduced the concept of risk management in 2000 as a new approach to drug safety. Since 2002, she has led the “Pharmaceutical Quality for the 21st Century Initiative,” FDA’s highly successful effort to modernize drug manufacturing and its regulation. In 2004, she introduced FDA’s “Critical Path” Initiative, which is designed to move medical discoveries from the laboratory to consumers more efficiently. Most recently, Dr. Woodcock launched the “Safety First” and “Safe Use” initiatives designed to improve drug safety management within and outside FDA, respectively. Dr. Woodcock previously served as FDA’s deputy commissioner and chief medical officer. She also led CDER as director from 1994–2005. Prior to joining CDER, Dr. Woodcock oversaw approval of the first biotechnology-based treatments for multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis in her position as director of the Office of Therapeutics Research and Review in FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Dr. Woodcock received her medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School, and her undergraduate degree from Bucknell University. She has held teaching appointments at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California at San Francisco. She joined FDA in 1986.
Kary Banks Mullis, Nobel laureate & Inventor of PCR
Kary Banks Mullis, Nobel laureate & Inventor of PCR
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the UC Berkeley, after which Dr. Mullis became a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric cardiology at the University of Kansas Medical School. In 1977, he began two years of postdoctoral work in pharmaceutical chemistry at the UCSF. Dr. Mullis then joined the Cetus Corporation, where, for seven years, he conducted research on oligonucleotide synthesis and invented the polymerase chain reaction. Dr. Mullis received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993, for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a method of amplifying DNA which multiplies a single, microscopic strand of the genetic material billions of times within hours. Among his many other awards, Dr. Mullis was also awarded the Japan Prize in 1993 for the PCR invention and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1998.
Lawrence Corey, M.D., President & Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Lawrence Corey, M.D., President & Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Lawrence Corey is president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He also is principal investigator of the Hutchinson Center-based HIV Vaccine Trials Network, an international collaboration of scientists and institutions that combines clinical trials and laboratory-based studies to accelerate the development of HIV vaccines. At UW, Corey is a professor of laboratory medicine and medicine, adjunct professor of pediatrics and microbiology, and holder of the Lawrence Corey Endowed Chair in Medical Virology. He is also an infectious disease physician at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., President, Institute for Systems Biology
Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., President, Institute for Systems Biology
Dr. Hood’s research has focused on fundamental biology (immunity, evolution, genomics) and on bringing engineering to biology through the development of five instruments; the DNA and protein sequencers and synthesizers and the ink-jet oligonucleotide synthesizer (making DNA arrays) for deciphering the various types of biological information (DNA, RNA, proteins and systems). These instruments constitute the technological foundation for modern molecular biology and genomics. He has applied these technologies to diverse fields including immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, molecular evolution and systems medicine. Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Hood is one of only 7 (of more than 6000 members) scientists elected to all three academies (NAS, NAE and IOM). Dr. Hood has also played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and Rosetta. He is currently pioneering systems medicine and the systems approach to disease and has recently cofounded the company Integrated Diagnostics—that hopefully will become a platform company for P4 medicine.
Philip R. Lee, Former Director of Health Services, USAID
Philip R. Lee, Former Director of Health Services, USAID
Dr. Philip R. Lee is Senior Scholar, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and Professor Emeritus of Social Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He has been a member of the UCSF faculty since 1969. He retired in 1993 and resumed active Emeritus status in 1997. From July 1993 through January 1997, he served as Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Before going to Washington, Dr. Lee served as Director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies, which he founded with Lewis Butler, JD at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1972. He served as chancellor of UCSF from 1969 to 1972. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty he was Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1965 to 1969, and was Director of Health Services in the Agency for International Development from 1963 to 1965. A native of San Francisco, Dr. Lee received his M.D. from Stanford in 1948 and an M.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1955. He is the author or co-author of 145 articles in the health field, and he has co-authored numerous books, including “Pills, Profits and Politics”; “Primary Care in a Specialized World”; “Exercise and Health”; “Pills and the Public Purse”; “Prescriptions for Death: the Drugging of the Third World”; “Drugs and the Elderly: Clinical, Social, and Policy Perspectives”; and “Bad Medicine”. He has edited two books, one (The Nation's Health) is in its seventh edition. While at UCSF, his research and teaching endeavors in the field of health policy focused on physician payment, prescription drugs, reproductive health policy, health manpower and AIDS-related issues. His current research is focused on diversity in medical education, where the primary focus is a case study of Stanford and UCSF medical schools since 1960. He has just completed a study of Medicare and prescription drugs. Throughout his career he has served (officially and unofficially) as advisor and mentor for countless fellows and students who have gone on to important positions in government, academia and the private sector.
Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University
Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University
Ralph Snyderman, MD is Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine. He served as Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University from 1989 to July 2004 and led the transition of this excellent medical center into an internationally recognized leader of academic medicine. He oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the most successful integrated academic health systems in the country, and served as its first President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Snyderman has played a leading role in the conception and development of Personalized Health Care, an evolving model of national health care delivery. He was amongst the first to envision and articulate the need to move the current focus of health care from the treatment of disease-events to personalized, predictive, preventive, and participatory care that is focused on the patient. Dr. Snyderman is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his contributions to research and to developing more rationale models of health care. In 2012, he received the David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges who referred to Snyderman as “the father of personalized medicine.”
