A Legacy of Innovation: The Max Noureddine Exit Interview, Part Two

January 7, 2011 · Leave a comment

Prateek Peres-da-Silva, an intern at Thought Leader Select and student at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, recently sat down with Dr. Maher “Max” Noureddine, Thought Leader Select’s departing chief scientific officer, to discuss his achievements at the company, as well as his vision for the non-profit he is launching to improve the professional lives of health care providers. Peres-da-Silva is a junior at UNC, double-majoring in business and biochemistry.

Prateek Peres-da-Silva: In part one of the interview, we talked about your work for Thought Leader Select. For the rest of our conversation, I’d like to hear your take on the future. What are your plans for the new year?

Max Noureddine: I stepped down from my position with Thought Leader Select to focus completely on establishing and running a new non-profit entity, which I have named The Institute for Advanced Career Development (IACD).

Prateek Peres-da-Silva:  In some of our previous conversations, you have mentioned that there will be several mentoring programs, aimed at educating healthcare and legal professionals, set up under the institute’s umbrella.  Can you tell us more about these programs?

Max Noureddine: One of the immediate objectives of the IACD is to provide healthcare professionals and scientific researchers with training and mentorship on how to shape their careers to become effective leaders in their areas of specialty. The sustained, ... read more »

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Companion Diagnostics – Partnering for Personalized Medicine

September 15, 2010 · 3 comments

Industry Insights from Paul Meade, M. Sc, MPH

When the Human Genome Project was finally completed with the mapping of the genetic sequences of our DNA, there were many predictions about how the face of medicine would change forever. We would finally figure out how to cure diseases linked to genetic aberrations, find ways to enhance our interaction with the environment, and develop medicines that are tailored to fit our unique genome. But a decade later, we are all aware of just how painfully slow progress has been to date. However, one area that is advancing steadily is the use of companion diagnostics.

Everyone was quick to point to Herceptin and the prototype example of a diagnostic test that was required to be use prior to prescribing this chemotherapeutic agent for women with breast cancer that over-expressed the HER2/neu gene. But now there are more examples of such companion diagnostics, and the list continues to grow.

What does all this mean for the future of medicine, and the interaction among the diagnostic and biopharmaceutical companies? When we can go to a physician’s office, be correctly diagnosed, and then given a medicine to take knowing in advance that we will have a high probability of responding, without suffering from annoying side effects, then we will have personalized medicine.

Does that mean that people will have ... read more »

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