Vertex appoints david altshuler, m.d., ph.d., to its board of
directors
Cambridge, mass.--(business wire)--vertex pharmaceuticals incorporated (nasdaq: vrtx) today announced that david altshuler, m.d., ph.d., joined its board of directors as an independent director. dr. altshuler was appointed to the class of directors whose term expires in 2015. with the addition of dr. altshuler, the vertex board consists of 9 members. “david’s unique scientific experience with human genetics coupled with his background as a practicing physician will provide our board with strong scientific and medical direction as we both advance our broad pipeline of later-stage medicines and focus on early-stage research activities,” said jeffrey leiden, m.d., ph.d., chair, president and chief executive officer of vertex. “i welcome david to our board and look forward to his contributions at this exciting time for our company.” dr. altshuler is a professor of genetics and medicine at harvard medical school, where he has served on the faculty since 2000. he is also one of the four founding members of the broad institute of harvard university and the massachusetts institute of technology. trained as a clinical endocrinologist and a human geneticist, dr. altshuler’s clinical work is focused on characterizing patterns of variation in human genetics and applying this information to help isolate the genetic contribution to common diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. through his work with multiple public-private partnerships, including the snp consortium, the international haplotype map project and the 1000 genomes project, dr. altshuler has helped further the scientific community’s understanding of dna sequence variation in the human genome and its contribution to the development of specific diseases. at the broad institute, he has directed its program in medical and population genetics since 2003 and has served as chief academic officer since 2009. he is also on the faculty of massachusetts general hospital’s department of molecular biology, the diabetes unit of the department of medicine and the center for human genetic research. dr. altshuler has received numerous awards for his research and clinical activities related to human genetics, including the stephen krane award from massachusetts general hospital, which recognized him as the department of medicine’s top young investigator, the 2011 curt stern award of the american society of human genetics given for outstanding scientific achievements in the last 10 years and the richard and susan smith pinnacle award of the american diabetes association, which recognized his research into the contributing genetic cause of diabetes. he is a member of the american society for clinical investigation, the association of american physicians and the us institute of medicine. in 2010, dr. altshuler was elected to the board of directors of the american society of human genetics. he has served on advisory boards for many leading institutions, government organizations and nonprofit foundations, including the national institutes of health, the doris duke charitable foundation, the juvenile diabetes research foundation, the wellcome trust and merck research laboratories. dr. altshuler received his b.s. from the massachusetts institute of technology, a ph.d. from harvard university and his m.d. from harvard medical school. he completed his internship, residency and clinical fellowship training at massachusetts general hospital. about vertex vertex creates new possibilities in medicine. our team discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies so people with serious diseases can lead better lives. vertex scientists and our collaborators are working on new medicines to cure or significantly advance the treatment of hepatitis c, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy and other life-threatening diseases. founded more than 20 years ago in cambridge, ma, we now have ongoing worldwide research programs and sites in the u.s., u.k. and canada. today, vertex has more than 2,000 employees around the world, and science magazine named vertex number one on its 2011 list of top employers in the life sciences. vertex's press releases are available at www.vrtx.com. (vrtx-gen) photos/multimedia gallery available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50288689&lang=en
