Gualberto Ruano
Encyclopedia
Dr. Gualberto Ruaño, MD
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

, PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

, is a pioneer in the field of personalized medicine and the inventor of molecular diagnostic systems used worldwide for the management of viral diseases. Ruaño is President and Founder of Genomas, a genetics-related company and now the bio-tech anchor of Hartford Hospital
Hartford Hospital
Hartford Hospital is an acute care hospital located in the South End of Hartford, Connecticut. The hospital was formed in 1854 after the State of Connecticut granted a charter for the Formation of Hartford Hospital following a boiler explosion and resulting fire at the Fales and Grey Car Works...

’s Genetic Research Center; he also serves as Director of genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 research at the Center.

Early years

Ruaño, who was born and raised in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Originally founded as "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria" it is also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" , "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" , or "Ciudad del Mangó"...

, came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to study medicine. He attended Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 where he obtained his baccalaureate degree, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Ruaño also attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 and his thesis was "A PCR-Based Paradigm for the Analysis of DNA Sequence Variation.

Genomas, Inc.

Ruaño founded Genomas in 2003. Dr. Ruaño had previously founded Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 1997 as the pioneer company in pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity...

. He served as Genaissance's CEO and Chief Scientific Officer. As CEO he led the IPO of the company in 2000 (NASDAQ: GNSC), which successfully raised $90 million, and to R&D partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 companies furthering the field with visibility. As CSO, he developed fundamental technology for genetic associations based on gene haplotypes. Prior to that, at Bios Laboratories since 1992, he invented the Coupled Amplification and Sequencing (CAS) System (U.S. patent 5,427,911) for the rapid determination of sequence variation and now used for infectious disease pharmacogenomics. Marketed worldwide by Bayer Diagnostics as Trugene, this technology was the first pharmacogenomic diagnostic system approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is a leading example of personalized medicine in practice.

Research

Dr. Ruaño's clinical research interests revolve around physiogenomics and nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

. His public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...

 activities center on the implementation of genomics
Genomics
Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

 in personalized medicine from both regulatory and reimbursement perspectives. He was elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering is a nonprofit institution that provides unbiased, expert advice on science- and technology-related issues to Connecticut state government and other institutions....

 in April 2004, noted for his contributions to personalized medicine at the national level, and serves as the Chairman of the Academy's Health Care and Medical Technology Board. He is senior editor of the journal of Personalized Medicine. Dr. Ruaño serves on advisory committees of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry and of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry instituting guidelines for pharmacogenetic testing in the clinical laboratory. He was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry and received the Beacon Alliance Medical Technology Award in 2005. He is also a founding Director of the Personalized Medicine Coalition in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

  Over the last five years he has served in various steering committees working with the FDA on pharmacogenomic guidelines for drug development and is a member at the Manhattan Institute’s 21st Century FDA Task Force. The Food & Drug Administration approached Genomas about doing the first pharmacogenomics conference on Hispanics in May 2010 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Memberships

Ruaño is a trustee of the Wadsworth Atheneum
Wadsworth Atheneum
The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States, with significant holdings of French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as extensive holdings in early American furniture and...

 Museum of Art and Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

.

See also

  • List of famous Puerto Ricans
  • Puerto Rican scientists and inventors

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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