H. Robert Horvitz, Ph.D. - 2002 Nobel Laureate Joins GenPath Pharmaceuticals' Scientific Advisory Board.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2003 GenPath Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a discover and developer of drugs to treat cancer and other diseases, announced today that Dr. H. Robert Horvitz H. Robert Horvitz (born May 8, 1947) is an American biologist best known for his research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. He is currently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is Professor of Biology and a member of the McGovern Institute for , the David H. Koch David Hamilton Koch (born 1940) is one of the billionaire co-owners (with older brother Charles) and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate with major oil and gas holdings that is the largest privately held company in the United States. Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, , has joined the GenPath Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Horvitz shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Drs. Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston Sir John Edward Sulston PhD, FRS (born March 27, 1942) was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963. He joined the Chemistry Department in Cambridge, gained his PhD for research in nucleotide chemistry and devoted his scientific life to biological research, for their pioneering work in establishing C. elegans as an important experimental developmental model and exploiting it for studying programmed cell death pro·grammed cell death n. See apoptosis. programmed cell death proposed system of cell death, often including poly(ADP)-ribosylation, ensures that a cell will not survive if it is so badly damaged that its recovery would harm the (apoptosis). Dr. Horvitz is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI), nonprofit medical research organization founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and largly funded from proceeds of the 1984–85 sale of Hughes Aircraft. Headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md. ; Neurobiologist (Neurology) and Geneticist (Medicine) at the Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Health care The major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, widely regarded as one of the best health care centers in the world ; and a Member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a research and teaching center, which conducts Integrated Research in neuroscience, molecular neurobiology, cognitive science, computation and related areas. . In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Horvitz has received numerous other awards for his accomplishments, including the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health (1995); the Ciba-Drew Award for Biomedical Science (1996); the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize (1998); the Gairdner Foundation International Award The Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; (Toronto, Canada, 1999); the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology (2000); the Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America is a non-exclusive association of genetics researchers and educators, and the publisher of the peer-reviewed journal Genetics. The Genetics Society of America was established in 1931. Medal (2001); the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience (2001); the Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences (2002); the Peter Gruber Foundation Genetics Prize (2002); and the American Cancer Society American Cancer Society, n.pr established in 1913, this national volunteer-based health organization is committed to the elimination of cancer through prevention and treatment and to diminishing cancer suffering through advocacy, scholarship, research, Medal of Honor (2002). Dr. Horvitz joins the distinguished group of key scientific advisors for the Company including, Lynda Chin, MD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Tyler Jacks, PhD MIT Center for Cancer Research (co-chairs); Ron DePinho, MD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Lewis Cantley, PhD, Harvard Medical School; Richard Klausner, MD, formerly with the National Cancer Institute; Raju Kucherlapati, PhD, Harvard-Partners Center of Genetics and Genomics, David Livingston, MD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Edward M. Scolnick, MD, President Emeritus Merck Research Laboratories. "I am delighted that Bob has joined our Scientific Advisory Board. GenPath has been very fortunate to be able to attract such a stellar group of science advisors to the company so early in its development. These people have already contributed in a big way to the formulation of our scientific strategy. Bob brings a unique talent to the group which begins with a great intuition on experimental design at the most basic science level of how cellular pathways control decisions that cells make between life and death and extends all the way to strategies relating to how the company might integrate science and corporate strategies. I am very much looking forward to working with Bob over the coming years," commented Dr. Steven Clark, Chief Scientific Officer. "I have been very impressed by the scientific approach GenPath has taken to research and drug discovery in cancer. I am delighted to be working with such a high quality organization." said Dr. Horvitz, "and look forward to helping GenPath develop into a first-rate pharmaceutical company." About GenPath GenPath employs powerful, proprietary genetic model systems to discover and develop drugs against essential targets critical to the origin, maintenance, and spread of malignant tumors. This novel, high-throughput in-vivo pathway technology platform enables the rapid functional prioritization of only the most relevant drug targets, thus dramatically improving the efficiency of drug discovery. In addition, when coupled with high-throughput genomics and bioinformatics, this platform is designed to enhance drug development through the identification of novel biomarkers for both exposure and efficacy endpoints to guide clinical development. Beyond oncology, GenPath's technologies are broadly applicable to other disease states, including cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.genpathpharma.com. |
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