Dr. Joshua LaBaer to head Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics

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The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University taps Harvard scientist Dr. Joshua LaBaer to head Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics

In a significant boost for an Arizona-based personalized medicine initiative, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust are pleased to announce Joshua LaBaer, M.D., Ph.D., as director of the new Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics. Dr. LaBaer most recently served as director of the Harvard Institute of Proteomics.

Funded by a multimillion gift from Piper Trust, the Center for Personalized Diagnostics will pursue earlier, more accurate diagnosis of diseases including lung cancer and diabetes. It will leverage the latest capabilities in personalized medicine, an emerging field with potential to improve patient treatments and outcomes by factoring in an individual’s unique genetic and metabolic profile.

The Center occupies 8,000 sq. ft. within the Biodesign Institute. In addition to the recruitment of LaBaer, the Piper Trust's philanthropic investment supports development of the research team and laboratory infrastructure such as a state-of-the-art robotic system for gene cloning.

“Dr. LaBaer is one of a handful of innovators who could be labeled trailblazers in the relatively new field of proteomics, which is a crucial technology for profiling the molecular changes in disease and a key for more personalized approaches to medicine,” said Dr. George Poste, director of the Biodesign Institute and chief scientist for ASU’s Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative. “The generosity of the Piper Trust enabled us to recruit a true leader in the field and provide his team with the sophisticated laboratory needed to do this type of research. I am confident Dr. LaBaer and his team will help place Arizona at the forefront of personalized medicine research,” said Poste.

“In the future, we will look back at our current list of illnesses as a gross oversimplification,” said LaBaer. “Already, in our modern era of molecular medicine, we are learning that what we have thought about as single diseases like inflammatory bowel disease or breast cancer actually include many different molecular variations, each with a different root cause, a different prognosis and a response to specific therapies. Our lab hopes to help develop new diagnostic tools that pinpoint the specific molecular disease for each patient and directs physicians to the right therapeutic strategy for that individual.”

With this appointment, LaBaer also becomes ASU’s first Virginia G. Piper Chair of Personalized Medicine. The Partnership is a broad effort launched in 2007 by the Piper Trust and Flinn Foundation to take advantage of Arizona’s emerging strengths in the area of personalized medicine.


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