Professor Kathleen M. Giacomini

Professor of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco

Country: United States of America

Specialty/Research area: Pharmacogenomics, Transporter Biology

Online profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/kathy.giacomini

Kathy Giacomini, a professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leader in the field of membrane transporters with a focus on genetic polymorphisms.  In genomewide association studies she and her team discovered genetic variants in transporters associated with response to the anti-diabetic drug, metformin and the anti-gout medication, allopurinol.  She cloned, characterized and discovered the endogenous role of the human xenobiotic transporter, OCT1 (SLC22A1), and recently de-orphaned SLC22A24, an anion exchanger that preferentially transports steroid glucuronide conjugates.  Together with others, she co-founded the International Transporter Consortium, which has published highly impactful papers informing regulatory policy.  She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Sciences and Innovation and of the NIH’s Pharmacogenomics Research Network hub, PGRN-Hub.  She has received numerous awards and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.