Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 1/11/2018 7:52:34 AMTravis J. O’Brien, PhD, Associate Professor, George Washington University, Pharmacology and Physiology, Washington, DC
Dr. O’Brien originally worked in the area of chemical carcinogenesis/toxicology with a focus on DNA damage and repair. Over the past 10 + years, his research interests have slowly drifted towards clinical pharmacology, specifically pharmacogenomics. He is actively involved in improving pharmacogenomics education for undergraduate MS, PhD, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, MD, and PharmD programs. He has known about ASCPT for quite some time through reading CTS. His colleagues regularly attend the Annual Meeting and have routinely suggested that he both join ASCPT and attend the Meeting. Dr. Arthur Harralson, the Chair of the Department of Pharmacogenomics/Associate Dean for Research and Professor at the Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy, referred Dr. O’Brien to join ASCPT.
Through attendance at the Annual Meeting, Dr. O’Brien hopes to gain greater exposure to cutting-edge research in clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, and translational medicine. He also looks forward to forming new connections and to the new interactions that will come from attending the meeting.
Dr. O’Brien describes clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenomics as “the low hanging fruit of precision medicine.” He believes that the discovery of novel, predictive biomarkers for drug action and toxicity can be readily translated into clinical practice and thus have a greater opportunity for direct impact on clinical care. He believes that being a part of this effort is both challenging and highly rewarding. His current work focuses on indentifying novel, clinically actionable genetic factors that are predictive of drug outcome. He and his colleagues hope that these novel biomarkers will make it from bench-to-bedside in a timely manner, since they offer the possibility of both improving patient care and reducing healthcare costs.
Over the past several years, Dr. O’Brien has been fortunate to establish collaborations with a group of scientists that he describes as extremely talented. He has collaborated with Drs. Minoli Perera and Arthur Harralson on pharmacogenomics in underserved minority populations. Their current work involves the establishment of the African American Pharmacogenomics Consortium (ACCOuNT) which is a National Institute on Minority Health and Health-Disparities-funded collaborative consortium aimed at accelerating the pace of pharmacogenomic discovery and translation in African Americans. It is a multicenter study directed by Dr. Perera with recruitment sites in both Chicago and Washington, DC. In Washington, DC, in collaboration with Dr. Norman Lee, their research is aimed at identifying splice variants that are associated with antithrombotic treatment outcomes.
