How We May Benefit From the Work of One Prof. Joseph Schlessinger

On September 30, 2009 in Uncategorized

Dr. Joseph Schlessinger is the present chairman of the department of Pharmacology at Yale University, one of the premier universities in the US and the world in general. Previously he was the chair of the department of Pharmacology at New York University and also as the director of the NYU Skirball research facility.

Prof. Schlessinger is regarded as the ‘father’ of Signal Transduction, an area of investigation crucial for cancer research (and other fields). This research has already resulted in him receiving numerous awards, including the esteemed Dan David award (in 2006), and has led to the development of several drugs for the treatment of several types of cancers.

PubMed, the premier resource for academic publications contains 450 publications for Prof. Schlessinger. In 2003, the English newspaper The Guardian created a list of the greatest scientists of our times, or the “Giants of Science”, and placed Schlessinger at number 14, a great honor.

In addition to his academic work, Prof. Schlessinger actively participates and starts biotech companies. His first company, which he co-founded with Dr. Axel Ullrich) was called Sugen, and created a drug by the name of Sutent for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor. This drug was approved by the FDA in 2006 in less than 6 months which marks the first time that the FDA has made an exception and had approved a new drug for two different conditions concurrently. The drug was so potent it was considered immoral not to give it to sick patients.

Later on Dr. Schlessinger co-founded Plexxikon, a company which aims, by using novel methods, to rapidly develop multiple types of drugs for treating multiple diseases.

It is our hope that Prof. Schlessinger continues doing this ground-breaking research, as we all may gain from it one day, it gives hope to ill people, and cam be said to make the world a healthier place.

Comments (0)