The Department of Biology is hosting Vertex Day today, Wednesday, Sept. 30. Dr. Mark Murcko — the vice president, chief technology officer and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. — will speak at 11 a.m. in the Broad Institute auditorium (NE30-Room 1154) on "Hype versus reality in pharmaceutical R&D."
Murcko is responsible for the strategic evaluation, identification and integration of new, disruptive technologies into worldwide research and development. Joining Vertex as a founding scientist in 1990, he started the company's molecular modeling, bioinformatics, IS and chemoinformatics groups.
He is a co-inventor of Vertex's first two marketed drugs, Agenerase and Lexiva, both HIV protease inhibitors. From 1987-1990, he was at Merck, where he helped discover multiple clinical candidates against cardiovascular and ocular diseases, including inhibitors of the enzyme carbonic anhydrase for the treatment of glaucoma.
For more information contact Linda Earle at lkn[at]mit.edu or 617-324-2297; or visit http://web.mit.edu/biology/www/giving/vertexday09.html.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif (left) leads Prime Minister David Cameron on a lab tour.Photo: Dominick Reuter
British Prime Minister David Cameron visits MIT
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