This Week's DSS - “Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Drug Therapy”

The next Distinguished Scientist Seminar will be presented by Dr. Richard Weinshilboum on Oct. 22, 2009, at 4 p.m. in theMedical Sciences Building auditorium. His seminar is titled, “Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Drug Therapy.”

Currently, Dr. Weinshilboum serves as the Mary Low and John H. Dasburg Professor of Cancer Genomics, as well as the director for the division of clinical pharmacology at the Mayo Medical School.

Dr. Weinshilboum is a nationally recognized leader in the field of pharmacogenetics, the study of the role of inheritance in individual variations in drug response and in the occurrence of adverse drug reactions.

Dr. Weinshilboum’s laboratory studies the pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics of enzymes that catalyze the metabolism of drugs, other xenobiotics, neurotransmitters and hormones with a focus on drugs used to treat cancer and neuropsychiatric disease.

Dr. Weinshilboum received a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry and zoology from the University of Kansas, and a medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical School. He did his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed fellowships at the NIH in the laboratory of Julius Axelrod and Tubingen University in Germany.

For more information on Dr. Weinshilboum’s research, visit http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/staff/weinshilboum_rm.cfm .

For additional information, contact Natalie Kent at 461-1548.

Dr. David Laycock Joins USA Physicians Group

Dr. David G. Laycock recently joined the University of South Alabama Physicians Group. Dr. Laycock, a well-known pediatrician in Mobile, will see patients at USA Knollwood Physicians Group and the USA Student Health Center.

From 1997 to 2009, Dr. Laycock served as staff pediatrician and president of Mobile Pediatrics, Inc. He also served as chief of pediatric services at Prime Health of Alabama in Mobile. Prior to these appointments, he was an assistant professor of pediatrics at USA.

Dr. Laycock is a graduate of Saint Procopius College in Lisle, Ill., where he received his bachelor of science degree in biology.

He earned his medical degree from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and completed his internship and his pediatric residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C. Following his residency, Dr. Laycock participated at the post-graduate level in a fellowship program in medical genetics at USA.

Dr. Laycock is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is now accepting patients at Knollwood Physicians Group. To make an appointment, call (251) 660-5437.