Liewei Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic professor of Pharmacology, received the highly prestigious Leon I. Goldberg Early Investigator Award for her pharmacogenomics research. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how a patient’s genes affect the body’s response to medication.
She is the second Mayo Clinic faculty member to have received the award by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic professor of Pharmacology and Medicine, received the award in 1999.
Serving in many roles, Dr. Wang is the associate director of the Pharmacogenomics Program within the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and co-principal investigator for National Institutes of Health Pharmacogenomics Research Network. She earned a medical degree from Fudan University Medical School in China and a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from the Mayo Graduate School.
Dr. Wang’s research interests have always been focused on the area of pharmacogenomics which aims to identify:
“My ultimate research goal is to select the right drug, the right dose and the right time for every patient,” explains Dr. Wang. “This is why pharmacogenomics is such a critical component of Precision Medicine,”
As part of her pharmacogenomics research, Dr. Wang’s group has been working on applying the latest technologies to identify and understand how biomarkers might predict and contribute to how an individual respond’s to a particular drug, , especially drugs used to treat cancer. Biomarkers are substances in the body that can be used to measure health or disease. These biomarkers can be found in tissue, blood, urine and other body fluids.
“Understanding underlying mechanisms might allow us to design better treatment regimens or even new drugs,” says Dr. Wang. “Our program has developed a series of model systems to help functionally validate those biomarkers.”
Highlights of Dr. Wang’s pharmacogenomics research
Join us to learn more about pharmacogenomics
Attend the 2016 Individualizing Medicine Conference: Advancing Care Through Genomics. Hosted by the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, the conference will be held in Rochester, Minnesota on October 5–6, 2016.
The conference focuses on integrating the promise of genomic medicine into better patient care. Experts in the field will offer updates on cancer research, on the latest discoveries in pharmacogenomics and what is happening with the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative.
Focused breakout sessions and case studies will go into the details of research and their application to every day care in areas such as epigenomics, the microbiome, biomarker discovery and more. Experts in the field will be on hand to share their insights and experience.
For a complete schedule, visit the conference website.
For a complete list of speakers, visit the conference speakers.
Follow conference developments on the Center for Individualized Medicine blog; on Facebook; or on Twitter, at @MayoClinicCIM and #CIMCon16 .
You may also learn more about the conference on our video blog series, “Story by Story.” Eric Matey, Pharm.D., R.Ph., the Center for Individualized Medicine pharmacist, answers questions about PGx testing.
Tags: American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, biomarkers, center for individualized medicine, Dr. James Ingle, Dr. Judy Boughey, Dr. Liewei Wang, Dr. Matthew Goetz, Dr. Richard Weinshilboum, Leon I. Goldberg Early Investigator Award, mayo clinic, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, pharmacogenomics, Uncategorized