Urs A. Meyer

Life

Meyer is professor emeritus of pharmacology. He obtained his M.D. at the University of Zurich in 1967 and worked as assistant professor in clinical pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1974, he became Head of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of Zurich. From 1983 to 2008, Meyer carried out research and taught as professor of pharmacology at the Biozentrum University of Basel, where he also acted as Chairman. He has served in various World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health functions and was president of the Clinical Section of the Swiss National Science Foundation.[1]

Work

Meyer is best known for his research in the field of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. He investigated the influence of environmental and genetic factors on drug action. Meyer recognized defects in the enzymes of heme biosynthesis to be the cause of porphyrias and discovered how drugs can precipitate acute hepatic porphyria. He identified genetic variants in the enzymes of the human cytochrome P450 system and showed that they explain the variable clinical response to drugs. Genetic variants of N-acetyltransferase were also discovered in his laboratory. Furthermore, Meyer contributed to the molecular mechanism by which drugs activate transcription factors such as nuclear receptors and thereby regulate the expression of drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters.[2]

Awards and honors
  • 1974: Cloëtta Prize[3]
  • 1978: Award of the Anita Saurer Foundation
  • 1991: Rawls–Palmer Award for Progress in Medicine of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics[4]
  • 2004: Robert Pfleger Research Award[5]
  • 2004: R. T. Williams Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics

References
  1. "Curriculum Vitae". Ursmeyer.biozentrum.unibas.ch. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  2. "List of projects and selected publications". Ursmeyer.biozentrum.unibas.ch. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  3. "Cloëtta Prize". Cloetta-stiftung.ch. Archived from the original on 2013-09-24. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  4. "Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award". Ascpt.org. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  5. "Robert Pfleger Research Award". Pfleger-stiftung.de. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.