This award continues Agilent's support of the research Hamner scientists are conducting on drug induced liver injury (Hamner, 2011). Dr. Watkins' studies involve mouse genetic models, patients who have experienced or are experiencing DILI, and patient-specific liver culture models derived from stem cells.
"There is an industry-wide need for new predictive tools that will assess the safety of drug compounds much earlier in the drug-development process," said Dr. Watkins, who also chairs the , funded by the National Institutes of Health. "By integrating a variety of preclinical biological research applications using genetic and genomic data, we hope to better anticipate and prevent patients' possible adverse reactions to bio-pharmaceutical treatment." Using Agilent's nuclear magnetic resonance technology, SurePrint G3 microarray platform, and other , Watkins and his team hope to further elucidate the causes of drug-induced liver injury. "Patients' susceptibility to adverse reactions appears to involve genetic makeup but is also associated with non-genetic factors, such as age, nutrition and drug interactions," said Dr. Watkins. "We are excited about the progress we are making in understanding this problem, and I am honored to receive the Agilent Thought Leader Award in support of our efforts." "Drug-induced liver injury is a primary reason why some promising new drug candidates fail during clinical development and why other drugs are pulled off the market," said Dr. John Fjeldsted, Agilent's senior director for LC/MS research and development and executive sponsor of this award. "We are delighted with the excellent research that Hamner scientists have produced and are very pleased to now recognize Dr. Watkins as an Agilent Thought Leader," he added. "We believe the results of pan-omic studies of drug induced liver damage will make a significant contribution to the understanding of metabolomic, proteomic and genetic associations and lead to more certain toxicity testing in multiple markets."About the Agilent Thought Leader Award
The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances of influential thought leaders in the life sciences and chemical analysis industries. Information about previous award recipients is available at Agilent's Thought Leader Program website.
About the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences
The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences is a non-profit translational biomedical research institute located on an open, multidisciplinary campus in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. Building upon 35 years of research excellence in toxicology, Hamner scientists and medical professionals focus on drug and chemical safety in collaboration with academic, industry, and government partners. Novel technologies used at the Hamner include genomic and bioinformatics approaches for improving toxicity testing, in silico models for predictive toxicology, in vitro models that utilize human cells or cell lines to evaluate perturbations of cellular responses and in vivo models to elucidate genes that play a role in susceptibility to drug-induced toxicities. For more information, visit .