Allen Roses, director of the Deane Drug Discovery Institute at the Duke University School of Medicine, received this year’s Award for Public Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.
Roses received the award for his leadership in the field of pharmacogenomics through his work at GlaxoSmithKline and at Duke. From 1997 to 2008, Roses was senior vice president for genetics research and pharmacogenetics at GSK.
During his tenure at GSK, Roses' group conducted research that linked HLA-B*5701 genes to hypersensitivity reactions with the drug Ziagen (abacavir). In 1992, Roses led a team of researchers who identified APOE as a major susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Roses' latest Alzheimer's research suggests that long, repeated sequences of the TOMM40 rs10524523 poly-T polymorphism, which is in linkage disequilibrium with APOE alleles, may be able to predict whether a person over 60 years old will develop the disease within a five- to seven-year window. Advancing this research, Roses is also working on developing a preventative Alzheimer's drug with a pharmacogenetic test that identifies which patients are at high risk for developing the disease (PGx Reporter 07/14/10).
Additionally, Muin Khoury, director of CDC's Office of Public Health Genomics, received IPIT's Award for Patient Service, and Mary Relling, chair of the department of pharmaceutical sciences at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was awarded the Award for Clinical Service.
Former Genome Canada President and CEO Martin Godbout has been appointed chairman of MethylGene's board of directors. Godbout, who held the top post at Genome Canada between 2000 and 2009, has served as a member of MethylGene's board since 2002. He also has been senior VP of BioCapital and president and GM of Société Innovatech Québec.