Washington, DC - December 11, 2009 — The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) today announced the appointments of Clay Marsh, M.D., Executive Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and Director of the Center for Critical Care, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, and Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of the Ignite Institute, to its Board of Directors.

The PMC, an educational and advocacy group dedicated to advancing the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine, represents more than 170 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and information technology companies, as well as major academic centers and governmental agencies.

"Clay Marsh is not only a noted scientist and physician, but is leading the way in putting personalized medicine into clinical practice," said Wayne Rosenkrans, PMC's chairman. "Dietrich Stephan is a widely recognized visionary in molecular medicine who helped develop diagnostic tests and therapies for many different subtypes of common diseases and is a leader in the field of 'translational medicine.' The addition of both these distinguished scientists to our board will expand our ability to help providers and the public make personalized medicine a greater part of health care."

Dr. Marsh, senior associate vice president for research in the Office of Health Sciences and vice dean for research in the College of Medicine, leads the planning and growth of Ohio State University Medical Center's research programs. He led the effort to make the Medical Center a national leader in personalized health care.

"I am very excited to be more closely involved with the PMC to join its efforts to transform medicine," Dr. Marsh said. "Our opportunities to improve health care delivery and offer more precise and personalized medicine are at an unprecedented level. However, to realize the great potential of leveraging advances in genetics, genomics and systems approaches to health care, we will need to fundamentally change our health care system, including reimbursement to providers, improving access to health care and transitioning our longitudinal health care focus from disease to health. The PMC is ideally positioned to facilitate the needed changes in policy, ethics, legal and culture that will accelerate advancing personalized health care to our citizens."

Dr. Marsh earned his medical degree from West Virginia State University and completed his residency in internal medicine at Ohio State, where he served as chief resident. He joined the Ohio State faculty in 1993 and holds appointments in four academic departments. His research, funded since 1991, currently focuses on the mechanisms underlying mononuclear phagocyte-induced inflammation. He heads the Ohio State University for Personalized Health Care, which incorporates knowledge of an individual's genetic information as well as environmental, behavioral and cultural factors into clinical practice to improve patient care.

Dr. Stephan founded the Ignite Institute this year in an effort to change the medical paradigm from reactive and generalized to proactive and personalized through the implementation of molecularly informed, tactical solutions. He has founded a number of companies, including Navigenics, Amnestix, and Aeuon, Inc. He served as Senior Investigator and Founding Chairman of the Department of Neurogenomics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Ariz., and later moved into the role of Deputy Director of Discovery Research.

"This is a critical time in personalized medicine," Dr. Stephan said. "It is a privilege to work with the PMC to address current issues in the personalized medicine space. By addressing these issues at the policy level, I think we will see a more robust health care ecosystem in which personalized medicine can thrive."

Dr. Stephan has held faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University and the University of Arizona. He received a B.S. in Biology/Biochemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Human Molecular Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He has completed a fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Contact:
Elizabeth Schwinn (eschwinn@personalizedmedicinecoalition.org)
Communications Director
Personalized Medicine Coalition
(202) 589-1770

About the Personalized Medicine Coalition
The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider, and payer communities, seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. For more information on the Personalized Medicine Coalition, please visit www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org.

About the Center for Personalized Care
The Ohio State University Center for Personalized Health Care facilitates and advocates for the creation and practice of health care methods that combine an individual's genetic information with environmental, behavioral and cultural factors, producing a tailored approach to the maintenance of good health and the prevention of disease. For more information, contact Wendy Philips, Program Director, Research Communications, wendy.philips@osumc.edu, (614) 293-5755.

About Ignite Institute
The Ignite Institute is a new non-profit institute based in the National Capital region. Ignite is the first entity to fully integrate biomedical research, development, commercialization and clinical care. The Institute is specifically focused on creating and applying the latest biomedical and technological innovations to enable truly individualized health care. With its partners, the Institute aims to elevate the quality health care and to transform health care delivery into a highly efficient, effective and affordable endeavor. For more information, visit www.igniteinstitute.org or contact Liza Morris, liza.morris@fkhealth.com, (202) 251-8287.