Humanizing Drug Discovery

On November 9 2016, David Altshuler, Executive Vice President, Global Research and Chief Scientific Officer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, gave the Centre for Personalised Medicine’s Annual Lecture; ‘Humanizing Drug Discovery”. Dr Altshuler joined Vertex in 2015. He leads Vertex’s research efforts aimed at discovering new medicines for the treatment of serious diseases and oversees the company’s five research sites in the United States, Canada and Europe. A physician and human geneticist, Dr Altshuler was one of the four founding members of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as Deputy Director and Chief Academic Officer as well as Director of Medical and Population Genetics. He was Professor of Genetics and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Biology at MIT (adjunct), and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. His scientific research was focused on creating a scientific foundation of genomic methods used to discover and validate new drug targets, with a specific focus on type 2 diabetes. Dr Altshuler has received numerous awards for his research and clinical activities related to human genetics including, most recently, the Champion of Change: Open Science Award from the White House, the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the American Diabetes Association and the Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, among other organizations. He has served on advisory boards for many leading institutions including the National Institutes of Health, The Wellcome Trust, The American Society of Human Genetics, Eisai Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. Dr Altshuler served on Vertex’s Board of Directors from 2012 – 2014.