Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 2/1/2019 12:00:00 AM

Harold Bernstein, MD, PhD, Vice President & Head, Translational Medicine, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Boston, MA

About 6 years ago, Dr. Bernstein moved from an academic career in translational medicine to industry. Now he holds a leadership role at Vertex Pharmaceuticals as Head of Translational Medicine. He joined ASCPT because he thought “it was time to formally engage with [his] professional colleagues.” He learned about the ASCPT Annual Meeting and the Journal Family when he joined the ranks of drug developers. Two Vertex colleagues, Brenda Cirincione, PhD, who leads the Clinical Pharmacology group, and Sarah Robertson, PharmD, another leader within the Clinical Pharmacology group and an associate editor for Clinical and Translational Science (CTS), highlighted the benefits of ASCPT. He looks forward to improving and increasing interactions and collaboration with professional colleagues within industry and academia, with networking as the major benefit ASCPT will contribute to his career. 

After receiving his undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Harvard University, Dr. Bernstein went on to study biomedical science, human genetics, and medicine at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, earning his MPhil, PhD, and MD. His residency, a clinical fellowship, and postdoctoral program followed at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). From there he went into an academic career at UCSF where he served as an attending physician in Pediatric Heart Failure and Cardiovascular Genetics Clinics. He also served as a professor of pediatrics. In 2013, he left UCSF for Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York where he served as attending physician. He also became an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. He continues to serve in this capacity there in addition to his role at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

For Dr. Bernstein, bringing more transformative medicines to patients by making early decisions about new potential therapies is what interests him most about the field of clinical pharmacology and translational medicine. He works at a company that develops drugs for patients with deadly diseases who have no other therapeutic options.