Scientific Advisory Board
Genomed's Advisory Boards
The discovery of disease-causing genes and translation of this knowledge into routine clinical practice will revolutionize medicine. Instead of being hospital-based and largely futile, medicine will become truly effective at prevention of diseases for the first time. To accomplish this transformation will require the best minds in the business. GenoMed recognizes that it will have to rely heavily on the talents of distinguished advisors to accomplish such a transformation. The Company has created two Advisory Boards, one for science and ethics, and the other for business development.
I. Scientific Advisory Board
Chair: David W. Moskowitz MD (physician-scientist who identified angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) as a "master" disease gene; President and CEO of GenoMed; St. Louis, MO)
Sergei Danilov, M.D., Ph.D., Dr.Sci.
Dr. Danilov is one of the half-dozen or so world experts on the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE). Between 1986 and 1993, while Deputy Director of the Cell Biology Department of the National Cardiology Research Center in Moscow, Russia, he developed over a dozen monoclonal antibodies against ACE. He used these antibodies to probe the role of ACE in normal physiology and disease. Dr. Danilov is the author of over 80 journal articles, of which 56 relate to ACE.
Frank Johnson MD
Dr. Johnson is a leading academic surgeon with special expertise in cancer surgery. He is currently Professor of Surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine, and Chief of Surgery at the St. Louis VA Medical Center.
Dr. Johnson received both his undergraduate degree (with Phi Beta Kappa honors) and his M.D. degree from the University of Minnesota. He then trained in general and oncologic surgery at UCLA, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Colorado in Denver. He spent four years as a Surgical Research Fellow, first at the University of California, San Francisco, and then at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. His surgical training was interrupted for two years in 1969-71. He spent those two years on active duty as a Navy surgeon, in part with the First Marine Division in DaNang, Vietnam, for which he received the Bronze Star and the Navy Commendation Medal.
Dr. Johnson is the author of over 200 journal articles and a dozen books and book chapters. He has been featured in 14 videos demonstrating advanced surgical techniques, and he received an award for excellence in student teaching for three years in a row at St. Louis University School of Medicine. He is on the editorial boards of 6 surgical journals, and a member of 31 professional societies, including serving as co-founder of the Children�s Heart Fund in Minneapolis, a non-profit organization now known as Children�s Heart Link. As a Visiting Professor supported by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1986-87 and by the Central Surgical Association Foundation in 1995, he has taught at more than a dozen of the finest surgical hospitals in England, Wales, Italy, and the Netherlands. In 1982, he was a Visiting Professor in Brazil. His scientific interests range from the molecular aspects of cancer to the cost of cancer surgery.
Masakazu Kobayashi, Ph.D.
Dr. Kobayashi is the Senior Vice President and Director of Research at Fujisawa Research Institute of America and has been employed with the Institute since 1970. Dr. Kobayashi is considered an expert within the fields of organic chemistry, signal transduction, and immunology.
Dr. Kobayashi received his Ph.D. from Kwansei Gakuin University and diversified his studies into Biochemistry and Immunology at the University of California - Irvine. Dr. Kobayashi was a lecturer in the Neuroscience Department at the University of Okayama in Japan, and has served as an abstract reviewer for the International Society of Transplantation since 1996.
Jason Moore, Ph.D.
Dr. Moore received his training in Applied Statistics (M.A.) and Human Genetics (M.S., Ph.D.) at the University of Michigan with a focus on the genetic epidemiology of common, complex diseases such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Now an Assistant Professor in the Program in Genetics at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in the Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Moore has established himself as a leader in the development and application of cutting-edge statistical and computational methods for identifying genes that influence the risk of common diseases only through complex interactions with other genes and environmental factors. Dr. Moore recently received the 2001 James V. Neel Young Investigator award from the International Genetic Epidemiology Society in connection with his work in this area. His current work includes the development of the Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) approach that was used in the first study to demonstrate interactions between more than three single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a common, complex human disease -- sporadic breast cancer. The development of machine learning and pattern recognition approaches such as MDR and the establishment of a 110-processor supercomputer have positioned Dr. Moore to lead efforts to identify combinations of single-nucleotide polymorphisms from among thousands of candidates in order to better predict the risk of common disease such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, and diabetes.
Scott Williams, Ph.D.
Dr. Williams is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, with appointments in both the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Program in Human Genetics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr. Williams is an expert in human genomics who has extensive knowledge of population genetics, genetic epidemiology, molecular genetics, and computing techniques. He has written over 35 articles in the human genomics field which have appeared in various publications, including "Combinations of variations in multiple genes are associated with hypertension," published in the Hypertension Journal during 2000. In 1997, Mr. Williams became Co- Director of Meharry Medical College's Computational Biology Core Facility and began directing a study to find hypertension genes among African American patients, as well as patients from Ghana.
Werner Dubitzky, Ph.D.
Werner Dubitzky received his BSc degree in electrical and communication engineering from the Augsburg University of Applied Science, Germany, in 1991 and his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and machine learning from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK, in 1997. From January 2000 to December 2001 he spearheaded the data mining developments at the Intelligent Bioinformatics Systems Group at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. Since January 2002 he has held the Chair of Bioinformatics at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Life and Health Science, at the University of Ulster at Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK. He is Head of the Bioinformatics Research Group at the same institute. His current research interests include bioinformatics, systems biology, data and text mining, data warehousing, and grid technology.
A. ELSI Committee
ELSI stands for "Ethical, Legal and Social Implications" and was first coined by the Human Genome Project at the urging of Dr. James Watson. Five percent of funding for the Human Genome Project, which discovered the sequence of the human genome, was set aside for research on the ethical, legal, and social implications of such a discovery. The implications of human genomics were meant to be addressed at the same time as the science. In the same spirit, GenoMed has identified national experts in ethics and health law to help advise the Company on the ethical, cultural, legal, and other social implications of its own research.
Members of the ELSI Committee include the following:
Chair: Dennis A. Robbins PhD, MPH (Founder, Integrated Decisions Ethics, Alternatives and Solutions, Phoenix AZ)
David Sundwall MD (head of American Clinical Laboratory Association, Washington, DC; former Director of the Indian Health Service)
Sylvia Johnson PhD (Director of Healthcare Research, UAW, Detroit, MI)
Sherry Dacso PhD, JD (healthcare lawyer with PhD in genetics, TX)
David W. Moskowitz MD (GenoMed, Inc., St. Louis, MO) ex officio
II. Business Development Advisory Board
GenoMed's Business Development Advisory Board creates the architecture to ensure improved access and availability of genomic technology to the populace. Until now, medicine has battled disease symptoms late in the natural course of chronic diseases without knowing the genetic causes of various diseases, as well as the patient's own genetic predisposition to disease. Knowledge can transform the battle to the patient's advantage, especially when safe, effective treatment can be given before symptoms arise.
Currently, a robust business model for preventive medicine is lacking. Almost by definition, disease prevention takes several years to see a return on investment (ROI). Accordingly, disease prevention is a hard sell to health plans when employer groups and patients switch health plans every few years in search of cheaper premiums. Without prevention, healthcare premiums will continue to skyrocket.
GenoMed's Business Development Advisory Board assists the Company to introduce Next Generation DMTM, which offers financial incentives for physicians to deliver effective, genomics-based preventive medicine.
Committee Members
Chair: Dennis A. Robbins PhD, MPH (Founder, Integrated Decisions Ethics, Alternatives and Solutions, Phoenix AZ)
Joel V. Brill MD (Founder, Predictive Modelling, LLC, American Gastroenterological Association representative to the American Medical Association; expert in coding in reimbursement; Phoenix, AZ)
David W. Moskowitz MD (GenoMed, Inc., St. Louis, MO) ex officio
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