October 6, 2010
Muin J. Khoury, MD, PhD, founding director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics, is this year’s recipient of the Award for Patient Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Khoury founded the office in 1997 with the vision of using genomic knowledge to prevent disease and improve health across the all stages of life.
“While the Human Genome Project boasts genomic discoveries, scientists have not been able to replicate many of them,” Khoury says. “In the next ten years, one of our goals is to engage, educate, and empower consumers and health-care providers in evidence-based genomic knowledge and applications. Translating the knowledge we are gaining from gene discoveries will be critical for realizing the potential of personalized health care.”
The role of the office is to assess the impact of advances in human genetics and the Human Genome Project on public health and disease prevention, and it serves as the national focus for integrating genomics into public health research and programs for disease prevention and health promotion. Khoury has developed a number of successful national and international initiatives to translate advances in genomics and related technologies into recommendations and actions that improve health and prevent disease throughout the life stages.
The IPIT patient-service award honors a person who has made significant contributions to empowering patients and who champions patient focus in the advancement of rational drug therapy.
“One of our objectives is to find and validate the relationships between our genome and most health and disease indicators,” says Howard McLeod, PharmD, director of IPIT. “Muin’s leadership in emphasizing evidence-based decision making in achieving this goal will shape the future of how medicine is translated from the bench and clinical trials into practice, thus providing patients with individual health care based on their genomics and personal situations.”
McLeod will present the award to Khoury during a ceremony on October 12 at 4:00 p.m. in seminar room 1131 in the Bioinformatics Building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Khoury will present a seminar entitled, “Genomic Medicine: Dealing with Insufficient Evidence” with a reception immediately following.
Muin J. Khoury, MD, PhD
Khoury is the founding director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics. He has developed a number of successful national and international initiatives to translate advances in genomics and related technologies into recommendations and actions that improve health and prevent disease throughout the life stages. Examples of collaborative initiatives that Khoury started are the Human Genome Epidemiology Network, known as HuGENet, the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention initiative. and the Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention Network.
Khoury received his bachelor of science in biology/chemistry from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and his medical degree and pediatrics training from the same institution. He received a doctorate in human genetics/genetic epidemiology and training in medical genetics from Johns Hopkins University. He is board certified in medical genetics.
For more information about projects in CDC’s Office of Public Health Genomics, please visit www.cdc.gov/genomics.
UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy
The institute was formed in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a collaborative effort with the School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the School of Nursing and with support from the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how genetic variation among individuals contributes to differences in the way people respond to medicines.
Leadership in key areas of pharmacogenomic research is fostered by contiguous office and laboratory space that bolster collaboration and enable the development of comprehensive research investigations and treatment tools. IPIT also offers the services of core facilities in molecular genomics, cellular phenotyping, and bioinformatics to add to the excellent core facilities already existing at UNC.
For more information, visit www.ipit.unc.edu.
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