Houston Scientists Join Brown Foundation IMM as Adjunct Faculty

Two distinguished Houston scientists have been appointed adjunct professors at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and at its Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, announced the university’s president, James T. Willerson, M.D.

C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., and Neal F. Lane, Ph.D., were invited to serve as adjunct professors by Willerson and Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., Nobel laureate and director of the Brown Foundation IMM and its Research Center for Cellular Signaling. Caskey and Lane also will work with the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brown Foundation IMM.

“These two scientists have highly respected records of distinguished accomplishments in their respective fields, and we highly value their ability to help us in developing research programs and recruiting top scientists to our institution in the areas we plan to pursue in the fight against mankind’s most persistent diseases,” Willerson said.

Caskey is president and chief executive officer of Cogene Biotech Ventures, a life sciences and medical technology venture capital firm based in Houston. The fund, founded in March 2000, invests in companies that utilize genome technology to enable drug discovery in high growth therapeutic specialties such as cancer, neurology and the metabolic diseases of obesity and diabetes.

Caskey previously served as senior vice president for human genetics and vaccines discovery at Merck Research Laboratories and president of the Merck Genome Research Institute. He has received numerous academic and industry-related honors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is past president of American Society of Human Genetics and the Human Genome Organization.

Caskey earned his medical degree from Duke University and also serves as an adjunct professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

Lane is the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly University Professor at Rice University. He also is a senior fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. He served as assistant to the President for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from August 1998-January 2001. He was director of the National Science Foundation from October 1993- August 1998. Before entering federal service, Lane was provost and professor of physics at Rice.

Lane has received numerous awards and honorary degrees. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for Advancement of Science. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oklahoma.

—By David Bates, Public Affairs