OXFORD, England (PRWEB) April 09, 2015

Personalized medicine pioneer Jonathan Knowles, PhD has been named as the PMWC United Kingdom 2015 Honorary for his distinguished work advancing both the science and broader recognition of the personalized medicine field. Knowles career in personalized medicine stretches over several decades in both commercial and academic settings.

Dr. Knowles served as Roche President of Group Research and a Member of the Executive Committee. During his twelve years with the company, he helped focus efforts on key disease biology and in-depth understanding of molecular pathology of disease. Under his leadership, Roche developed and implemented a strategy for developing highly effective therapies based on personalized healthcare. His long-held passion for individualized medicine is exemplified by his role as Founding Chairman of the Innovative Medicines Initiative Board (IMI). This 5.5 billion public - private partnership facilitates innovative partnerships among key stakeholders to foster and drive innovation in medicine. He also held positions on the Board of Directors for Roche subsidiaries, Genentech and Chugai.

Prior to Roche, Knowles was the head of the Glaxo Institute in Geneva and Head of European Research for Glaxo Wellcome where he launched work on DNA Colony Sequencing technology which enables one of todays leading next generation DNA sequencing platforms.

In addition to his work in the commercial arena, Professor Knowles has made a significant impact in academia. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford; Professor Emeritus at EPFL, Lausanne; a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization; and a visiting Scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Knowles also held a Distinguished Professorship in Personalized Medicine at FIMM (Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland) at the University of Helsinki from 2010 to 2014.

In 2011, Knowles was appointed as a Trustee of Cancer Research UK, one of the worlds leading cancer research organizations and as a board member of A*Star, the leading state research organization in Singapore. He is currently Executive Chairman at two UK-based cancer immunotherapy companies, Immunocore, Ltd. and Adaptimmune, Ltd. Dr. Knowles also serves as a non-executive member of numerous biotech companies and on the international science advisory boards of several public organizations.

Precision medicine holds the potential to eradicate many of the seemingly incurable diseases that today cause untold human suffering. We are beginning to see progress thanks to contributions of individuals, like Jonathan Knowles, who has been a leader in advancing the science and in promoting the concept of personalized medicine for most of his career. I would like to congratulate Jonathan for receiving the PMWC United Kingdom 2015 Honors. Jonathan Sheldon, PhD, PMWC 2015 UK Program Chair and Global Vice President, Oracle Health Sciences.

Past recipients of The Personalized Medicine World Conference Honors include Leroy Hood, Co-inventor of the first DNA sequencer, George Church, Co-developer of the Human Genome Project, Brian Druker the Co-inventor of the blockbuster drug, Gleevec and more. The Personalized Medicine World Conference United Kingdom 2015 will be held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History April 15-17 in Oxford, England. The award reception ceremony for Jonathan Knowles will be held April 15 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. See program: http://2015uk.pmwcintl.com/program.php

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Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC) to honor Jonathan Knowles