C. Thomas Caskey
Chair
Director and Chief Executive Officer
The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Houston, Texas
USA

Dr. Caskey attended the University of South Carolina (1956-58) and Duke University Medical School ( 1958-63). As a medical student he was a Biochemical Fellow (1961-62) with James B. Wyngarden, a pioneer in the study of the biochemical basis of the metabolic disease, gout. After receiving his M.D. degree, Dr. Caskey remained at Duke as an intern and resident in the Department of Medicine (1963-65). His first resarch paper with Dr. H. Estes was on the "ST segment of the EKG in myocardial injury".

Dr. Caskey then went to the National Institutes of Health (1965-71) where he was a Research Associate with Nobel Laureate Marshall Nirenberg. His research with Dr. Nirenberg proved the universality of the genetic code for living organisms on earth. Dr. Caskey then became Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics (1967-70) and Head of the Section of Medical Genetics at NHLBI (1970-71). As an independent investigator he discovered the mechanism of code punctuation (stop) to be translated by proteins, not tRNA.

Dr. Caskey joined Baylor College of Medicine in 1971 where he served as Chief of the Section of Medical Genetics (1971-85) and Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry (1971-94). He discovered 11 genetic disease genes during this period. From 1976 to 1994 Dr. Caskey was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Most importantly, he discovered the "triplet repeat" diseases (fragile X and myotonic dystrophy) and the molecular basis of "disease anticipation" (triplet expansion generation to generation). His patent for automation of forensic science use of repeat sequences enabled ABI to use the method worldwide. During a sabbatical leave (1979-80) Dr. Caskey was a Faculty Scholar at the Cambridge University Medical Research Council Unit with Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner. This training enabled him to transform the Department at Baylor for the genomic era; he served as the first Director of the NIH Genome Center at Baylor College of Medicine. He also served as Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, Professor of Cell Biology, as the Henry and Emma Meyer Chair in Molecular Genetics, Professor of Molecular Genetics, and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, at Baylor.

Dr. Caskey is a member of National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Institute of Medicine (IOM)

Dr. Caskey left academia in 1994 to assume the position of Senior Vice President for Research at Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania, and Trustee and President of the Merck Genome Research Institute. The development of the adenoviral vector HIV vaccine was achieved by a research team under Dr. Caskey's direction.

Dr. Caskey returned to Houston in 2000 and became Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cogene Biotech Ventures and Cogene Ventures, venture capital funds designed to support early-stage biotechnology and life sciences companies using genome technology for drug discovery.

In 2006 Dr. Caskey was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Director-/CEO-Elect of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases and Executive Vice President of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston. In 2007 Dr. Caskey was named Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine and the George & Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in the Neurosciences.

He has served as Chair of the Board of Lexicon Genetics, a Woodlands, Texas biotechnology company, as the company transformed itself from a mouse discovery company to a Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical corporation. Other recent past Board memberships include the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Foundation for Biomedical Research, Motorola BioChips, Athersys, Kodiak Technologies, Vical, Xeotron, Etubics, BioHouston, MDS, and Argolyn. He served as Special Advisor to the World Health Organization Hereditary Diseases Program and a member of the World Health Organization's Expert Advisory Panel on Human Genetics. He was President of The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) between 1993-1996. Presently, Dr. Caskey serves on the Boards of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Luminex, Odyssey Thera, En Vivo, Metabolon, Genome Canada, Laboratory Corporation of America, as well as serving as a member of the Science Review Panel for the US Food and Drug Administration. He is Editor of the Annual Review of Medicine.

Dr. Caskey is a member of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (President of TAMEST 2004-05), a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He serves on Texas Governor Rick Perry's Advisory Committee which provides oversight for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Medical Genetics, American College of Physicians, and the Royal Society of Medicine. He is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics (President 1990-1991), American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society for Cell Biology, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Society of Gene Therapy, American Society for Microbiology, American Medical Association, Association of American Physicians, and the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders.

Dr. Caskey's most recent award (2007) was the Medical Statesman Award from the Health Access Foundation. Other awards include: Borden Research Award, Distinguished Alumnus Award (Duke University Medical School), Wadsworth Award (New York State Department of Health), Leadership Award (Muscular Dystrophy Association), Giovanni Lorenzini Foundation Prize for Basic Biomedical Research, Lucy Wortham James Basic Research Award (Society of Surgical Oncology), Norberto Montalbetti Milan Award, Texas 20 Award (Texas Monthly magazine), Corielle Award, Distinguished Texas Geneticist Award, and Courage in DNA Award from the Department of Justice.

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