Joe Arron Scientist: Immunology Diagnostics & Biomarkers Profile | Education/Background | Top Scientific Papers | Awards & Honors

"I joined Genentech in 2006 after completing postdoctoral work at Stanford. Although I was contemplating a career in academia, the opportunity to join the new Immunology Biomarker Group at Genentech was too good to pass up. Working in a highly collaborative environment at the interface of cutting-edge immunology research, human genetics, clinical science, and drug development represents an ideal synthesis of the skills, knowledge, and experience that I have gained through years of basic science and medical training. As a physician-scientist working at Genentech, I believe that I am optimally positioned to make the greatest possible impact on patients' lives while doing work that I thoroughly enjoy; for me this truly is a 'dream job.'"

Current Projects "My laboratory focuses on mechanisms and biomarkers of human disease in asthma and retinal disorders. Targeted molecular therapeutics such as anti-IgE in asthma and anti-VEGF in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are very effective in subsets of patients with those diseases, but defining subtypes of these heterogeneous diseases and identifying the best responders to therapy represents a difficult challenge. To address this challenge, we are studying cellular and molecular details of these diseases in human patient samples, with the goal of identifying correlations between clinical data, pathology in relevant tissues (i.e., lung, eye), and more readily accessible biomarkers (e.g., from peripheral blood). There is a strong genetic component to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, but genetics alone will generally not yield predictive diagnostics for targeted therapies in non-Mendelian diseases. However, a combination of genetics, other measurable biomarkers, and detailed clinical information combined with robust clinical response metrics may ultimately define subtypes of human disease, predict response to targeted therapies, and identify novel therapeutic targets."

Collaborations "I work closely with colleagues at Genentech in Immunology Discovery, Pharmacology, Pathology, Clinical Science, Clinical Operations, Business Development, Bioinformatics, and Biostatistics on a variety of teams every day. It is very rewarding to be able to participate in numerous aspects of the drug development process as we develop a parallel diagnostics pipeline. Outside of Genentech, I have developed alliances with academic investigators at the UCSF Asthma Center to study clinical samples from asthma patients and at the Wilmer Eye Institute of The Johns Hopkins University to study clinical samples from patients with retinal diseases for exploratory biomarker research."

Inspiration/Vision "Our motto is 'the right drug for the right patient.' It is clear that highly targeted molecular therapeutics offer potentially significant benefits to patients with unmet medical needs, but only if those targets are relevant in the patients being treated. I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to help make the dream of 'personalized medicine' a reality."