Table of Contents
Caskey Director-Elect of Molecular Medicine Institute
C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., has been appointed director and CEO-elect of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM), part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Caskey began Jan. 1 to serve as chief operating officer of the IMM.
C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., right, talks with Institute of Medicine
President
Harvey Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D., before Fineberg’s
keynote address Dec. 5
at The Academy of Medicine,
Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST).
Caskey was
outgoing president of TAMEST. Photo by Scott Merville
Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., holder of the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Physiology and Medicine, continues as the institute’s director and CEO and as director of its Research Center for Cell Signaling. Murad also will lead a new institutional advisory board made up of selected IMM faculty and community leaders.
“Dr. Caskey is a distinguished scientist with a highly respected record of accomplishment in his research field, as well as success in his private-sector enterprises,” said UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D. “In his new role, Dr. Caskey will be responsible for the daily operations of the IMM, as well as helping to develop research programs and helping to recruit additional world-class scientists to our institution. We are delighted to have Dr. Caskey join Dr. Murad and Dr. Irma Gigli in a new management structure that will achieve even greater success for the IMM.”
Long-Time Colleagues
Murad and Caskey have been scientific colleagues for more than 37 years. “I am very pleased that Tom Caskey has recently joined our current management team in the IMM,” Murad said. “After our past three years of fund raising to establish a new home for the IMM, it is indeed exciting to see the building nearing completion and the increased pace of recruitment beginning. Tom brings some fresh ideas and perspectives to help us continue to recruit senior and junior scientists who will permit us to understand some important diseases through their molecular research approaches.”
Caskey was founding director of Houston-based Cogene Biotech Ventures and Cogene Ventures, venture capital funds supporting early-stage biotechnology and life sciences companies. The Cogene Biotech Ventures fund, founded in March 2000, invests in companies that utilize genome technology to enable drug discovery in high growth therapeutic specialties such as cancer, neurology and the metabolic diseases of obesity and diabetes.
“Dr. Caskey’s appointment comes at a time when the UT Health Science Center has raised $200 million in its New Frontiers Campaign, chaired by Beth Robertson and co-chaired by Ben Love, and will open the new Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building by this summer,” Willerson said. “Now, working collaboratively, Drs. Murad, Caskey and Gigli are poised to move to the next level of fundraising.”
Irma Gigli, M.D., is deputy director and director of the Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases at the IMM. She also is the holder of the Hans J. Müller-Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D., Chair in Immunology.
Caskey has received numerous academic and industry -related honors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He has served as president of the American Society of Human Genetics, the Human Genome Organization and The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas.
Since 2004, Caskey has served as an adjunct professor and an original member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the IMM.
“I have enjoyed my collaboration with the Institute of Molecular Medicine during the past two years and look forward to joining Drs. Murad and Gigli in the leadership team as we continue to build this important program,” Caskey said. “These are exciting times in molecular medicine, and the confidence and support Dr. Willerson and the leadership of the IMM have expressed is most appreciated.”
Genetic Research
“It is our objective to use the power of genetics to determine the mechanism of disease causation and develop therapeutic counter measures,” he said.
Caskey served as senior vice president for human genetics and vaccines discovery at Merck Research Laboratories from 1994 to 2000 and as president of the Merck Genome Research Institute from 1998 to 2000.
His genetic research documented the universality of the genetic code, identified the genetic basis of 10 major heritable diseases, opened the understanding of triplet repeat diseases (Fragile X, myotonic dystrophy and others), developed a method of DNA-based personal identification now used worldwide for forensic studies, and developed a viral vector vaccine for HIV.
He received the Distinguished Texas Geneticist Award from the Texas Genetics Society in 1998 and serves on Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Council on Science and Biotechnology, which makes funding recommendations for the $200 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
He served on the Intramural Human Genome Projects Special Review Committee of the National Institutes of Health, on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Medical Association and Science, and as editor of the Annual Review of Medicine. He has been a member of many medical societies and advisory boards throughout his career. He also serves on the boards of several corporations.
Caskey earned his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina. He is board certified in internal medicine, clinical genetics, metabolic diseases and molecular diagnostics.
He serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine.