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Clinical
Laboratory
News
ediTorial sTaff
editor—Nancy Sasavage, PhD
senior editors—John Bell, Phil Kibak,
Deborah Levenson
Managing editor—Bill Malone
business sTaff
v.p. strategic initiatives and
business development—Joseph Perrone, ScD
circulation Manager—Mickie Napoleoni
board of ediTors
chair—Jack A. Maggiore, PhD,
BioSafe Laboratories, Chicago, Ill.
Members—Nikola Baumann, PhD,
University of Illinois Medical Center at
Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
Thomas Daly, MD,
Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Ind.
David Grenache, PhD, University of Utah and
ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Elia M. Mears, MS, MT (ASCP), SM
Chabert Medical Center, Houma, La.
Alan T. Remaley, MD, PhD,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
aacc officers
president—Larry A. Broussard, PhD
president-elect—Barbara Goldsmith, PhD
Treasurer—Ann Gronowski, PhD
secretary—Anthony W. Butch, PhD
past-president—Gary L. Myers, PhD
adverTisinG sales
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525 Washington Blvd, Ste. 3310
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Phone: (201) 653-4777, Fax: (201) 653-5705
E-mail: aacc@scherago.com
president—H.L. Burklund
vice president sales—Jack Ryan
Marketing director—Steven A. Hamburger
Traffic Manager—Roni Jackling
subscripTions
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ediTorial correspondence
Nancy Sasavage, PhD, Editor
Clinical Laboratory News
1850 K Street, NW, Suite 625
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 835-8725 or (800) 892-1400
Fax: (202) 835-8725
E-mail: nsasavage@aacc.org
Contents copyright © 2008 by the American
Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.,
except as noted. Printed in the U.S.A.
Clinical Laboratory News (ISSN 0161-9640)
is the authoritative source for timely analysis
of issues and trends affecting clinical
laboratories, clinical laboratorians, and the
practice of clinical laboratory science.
P l e n a ry SPeaker SP ot l i g h t
sunday’s plenary speaker,
p. roy vagelos, Md
P. Roy Vagelos, MD, is Chairman of Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Tarrytown,
N.Y.) and Theravance, Inc. (South San
Francisco, Calif.). In addition to his business
activities, he is an active alumnus of
Columbia University School of Medicine.
Dr. Vagelos chairs a board of visitors at
Columbia that advises the Dean on strategies
and issues. He joined pharmaceutical
giant Merck & Co. in 1975 as Senior Vice
President of Research and became President
of its research division one year later.
In 1982 he became Senior Vice President of
the company, and in 1984 he was elected to
the Board of Directors and became Merck’s
Executive Vice President. He served as
Chairman from 1986-1994.
Monday’s plenary speaker,
elizabeth h. blackburn, phd
Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, in 1985 discovered
telomerase, an enzyme associated with
uncontrolled proliferation of cells. Seen in
as many as 90% of all cancers, telomerase
is considered by many to be an ideal target
for developing broadly effective anti-cancer
drugs. First identified in human tumors in
the mid-1990s, telomerase replenishes the
ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, known
as telomeres, in a process that guards against
the scrambling of genetic information.
The UCSF professor’s lab also discovered
that chemical inhibitors of telomerase
cause human cell telomeres to shorten and
that certain mutant telomerases impair
cell division. Blackburn and her team are
now applying these finding to an anticancer
strategy in human breast, prostate, and
bladder cancer cells.
P. Roy Vagelos, MD
The changing pharmaceutical industry
sunday, july 27, 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
current position: Chairman, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and
Theravance, Inc.
education: Columbia University, New York, N.Y., MD; Internship and
residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
previous positions: Senior Surgeon and Head of Section of Biochemistry,
National Heart Institute, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Md.); Chair,
Department of Biological Chemistry, and Director, Division of Biology and
Biochemistry, Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, Mo.);
Chief Executive Officer, Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, N.J.).
Dr. Vangelos’s contributions have earned
him numerous awards and honors. In 1972
he was elected to the National Academy of
Sciences and the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. Other awards he has received
include: the Lawrence A. Wien Prize
in Social Responsibility from Columbia
University, the C. Walter Nichols Award
from the Stern School of Business of New
York University, the National Academy of
Science Award for Chemistry in Service to
Society, the Prince Mahidol Award from
the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation
(Bangkok,Thailand), the Othmer Gold
Medal from the Chemical Heritage Foundation,
and the Bower Award in Business
Leadership from the Franklin Institute.
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD
Telomerase and Telomere biology
Monday, july 21, 8:45 p.m.–10:15 a.m.
In addition, he has received 14 honorary
degrees.
In his plenary talk, Dr. Vagelos will address
the ups and downs of the pharmaceutical
industry, from its “golden age” of the
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, to being an industry
“in a funk.” During its golden age, the
industry was extolled for its accomplishments
in increasing lifespan and improving
overall quality of life. But results of a 2004
Harris Poll indicated that people regarded
the industry negatively, putting it on a par
with tobacco and oil companies. Dr. Vagelos
believes the industry is going through a
pause as it ushers in an important new age
of discovery in functional genomics and
personalized medicine. cln
current position: Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology,
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California,
San Francisco; and Non-Resident Fellow, Salk Institute
education: PhD, University of Cambridge, 1975
previous positions: Department Chair, Department of Microbiology and
Immunology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); Faculty
Member, Department of Molecular Biology, University of California at
Berkeley
Blackburn was previously Chair of the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
at the University of California
San Francisco and is currently a faculty
member in UCSF’s Department of Biochemistry
and Physics. Prior to her work
at UCSF, she was a faculty member in the
Department of Molecular Biology at the
University of California at Berkeley. She
is also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Salk
Institute.
Blackburn is a member of the Institute
of Medicine and is an elected Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
the Royal Society of London, the American
Academy of Microbiology, and the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science. She has served on Genetics Society
of America board of directors and is a
past president of the American Society for
Cell Biology. Named California Scientist of
the Year in 1999, Blackburn has received
several prestigious awards, most recently
the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Medicine
in 2004 and the 26th Annual Bristol-Myers
Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement
in Cancer Research, among many
others. She also shared the 2006 Lasker
Award for Basic Medical Research for her
work on telomerases.
In her plenary lecture, Blackburn will
discuss current findings about telomerase
activity and its role in aging and cancers.
She will explain the function of telomerase,
correlate long and short telomere length to
human diseases, and assess the evidence
that supports the idea that telomerase is
necessary for cell division. cln
CliniCal laboratory news speCiaL eDiTion 3