Dr. Joseph Schlessinger is the present chair of the department of Pharmacology at Yale University, one of the most prestigious universities in the US and the world in general. Previously he was the chair of the dept. of Pharmacology at NYU (New York University) and the director of the NYU Skirball research facility.
Prof. Schlessinger is regarded as the father of Signal Transduction, an area of research crucial for cancer research (and other fields). This research has already resulted in him receiving numerous awards, including the esteemed Dan David award (in 2006), and has resulted in the development of several drugs for the treatment of several types of cancers.
PubMed, the premier resource for academic publications lists 450 publications for Dr. Schlessinger. In 2003, the UK newspaper The Guardian crafted a list of the greatest scientists of our era, or the “Giants of Science”, and placed Schlessinger at #14, a great honor.
In addition to his academic research, Dr. Schlessinger is involved with and starts biotech companies. His first company, which he co-founded with Dr. Axel Ullrich) was named Sugen, and created a drug by the name of Sutent for treating renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor. This drug was approved by the FDA in 2006 in less than 6 months which marks the first time that the FDA has made an exception and had approved a new drug for two separate conditions simultaneously. The drug was so potent it was considered unethical to deny it from ill patients.
Later on Dr. Schlessinger co-founded Plexxikon, a company which aims, by using novel ways, to rapidly develop multiple types of drugs for treating multiple diseases.
It is our hope that Prof. Schlessinger continues doing this prolific research, as we all may benefit from it one day, it gives hope to sick people, and cam be said to make the world a healthier place.