Fox goes to Warren
March 2007MRC Clinical Research Fellow Dr Richard Warren has become one of a handful of non-US researchers to win the Everett C Fox Prize for best oral scientific presentation, at the American Academy of Dermatology’s Residents and Fellows Symposium.
Richard, who is supervised by Professors Chris Griffiths at the Dermatology Centre and Jane Worthington at the arc Epidemiology Unit, won the award for his presentation on optimising methotrexate therapy for psoriasis patients using pharmacogenetics.
“The drug Methotrexate is used to treat severe psoriasis, but doesn’t work in all patients and in some can cause severe unwanted side effects,” he explained. “Pharmacogenetics looks at variation in drug response related to differences in an individual's genetic make-up, to see if this might influence either response or adverse events.
“The ultimate aim is to allow more directed therapy, and predict which patients suit which drugs. Clearly this could be very important when applied to a drug like methotrexate which has potentially life-threatening side effects.”
