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 Dr. Caskey attended the University of
South Carolina (1956-58) and Duke University Medical School
(1958-63). As a medical student he was a Biochemical Fellow
(1961-62) with James B. Wyngarden, a pioneer in the study of the
biochemical basis of the metabolic disease, gout. After receiving
his M.D. degree, Dr. Caskey remained at Duke as an intern and
resident in the Department of Medicine (1963-65). His first
resarch paper with Dr. H. Estes was on the "ST segment of the
EKG in myocardial injury".
Dr. Caskey then went to the National
Institutes of Health (1965-71) where he was a Research Associate
with Nobel Laureate Marshall Nirenberg. His research with Dr.
Nirenberg proved the universality of the genetic code for living
organisms on earth. Dr. Caskey then became Senior Investigator in
the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics (1967-70) and Head of the
Section of Medical Genetics at NHLBI (1970-71). As an independent
investigator he discovered the mechanism of code punctuation
(stop) to be translated by proteins, not tRNA.
Dr. Caskey joined Baylor College of
Medicine in 1971 where he served as Chief of the Section of
Medical Genetics (1971-85) and Professor of Medicine and
Biochemistry (1971-94). He discovered 11 genetic disease genes
during this period. From 1976 to 1994 Dr. Caskey was a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Most importantly, he
discovered the "triplet repeat" diseases (fragile X and
myotonic dystrophy) and the molecular basis of "disease
anticipation" (triplet expansion generation to generation).
His patent for automation of forensic science use of repeat
sequences enabled ABI to use the method worldwide. During a
sabbatical leave (1979-80) Dr. Caskey was a Faculty Scholar at the
Cambridge University Medical Research Council Unit with Nobel
Laureate Sydney Brenner. This training enabled him to transform
the Department at Baylor for the genomic era; he served as the
first Director of the NIH Genome Center at Baylor College of
Medicine. He also served as Director of the Medical Scientist
Training Program, Professor of Cell Biology, as the Henry and Emma
Meyer Chair in Molecular Genetics, Professor of Molecular
Genetics, and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Human
Genetics, at Baylor.
Dr. Caskey left academia in 1994 to assume the position of Senior
Vice President for Research at Merck Research Laboratories, West
Point, Pennsylvania, and Trustee and President of the Merck Genome
Research Institute. The development of the adenoviral vector HIV
vaccine was achieved by a research team under Dr. Caskey's
direction.
Dr. Caskey returned to Houston in 2000 and became Founding
Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cogene Biotech Ventures
and Cogene Ventures, venture capital funds designed to support
early-stage biotechnology and life sciences companies using genome
technology for drug discovery.
In 2006 Dr. Caskey was appointed Chief
Operating Officer and Director-/CEO-Elect of the Brown Foundation
Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human
Diseases and Executive Vice President of Molecular Medicine and
Genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston.
In 2007 Dr. Caskey was named Director and Chief Executive Officer
of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine.
He has served as Chair of the Board of
Lexicon Genetics, a Woodlands, Texas biotechnology company, as the
company transformed itself from a mouse discovery company to a
Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical corporation. Other recent past Board
memberships include the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the
Foundation for Biomedical Research, Motorola BioChips, Athersys,
Kodiak Technologies, Vical, Xeotron, Etubics, BioHouston, MDS, and
Argolyn. He served as Special Advisor to the World Health
Organization Hereditary Diseases Program and a member of the World
Health Organization's Expert Advisory Panel on Human Genetics. He
was President of The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) between
1993-1996. Presently, Dr. Caskey serves on the Boards of Essex
Woodlands Health Ventures, Luminex, Odyssey Thera, En Vivo,
Metabolon, Genome Canada, Laboratory Corporation of America, as
well as serving as a member of the Science Review Panel for the US
Food and Drug Administration. He is Editor of the Annual
Review of Medicine.
Dr. Caskey is a member of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and
Science of Texas (President of TAMEST 2004-05), a member of the
National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He
serves on Texas Governor Rick Perry's Advisory Committee which
provides oversight for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. He is a
Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of
Medical Genetics, American College of Physicians, and the Royal
Society of Medicine. He is a member of the American Society of
Human Genetics (President 1990-1991), American Academy of
Pharmaceutical Physicians, American Society for Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology, American Society for Cell Biology, American
Society for Clinical Investigation, American Society of Gene
Therapy, American Society for Microbiology, American Medical
Association, Association of American Physicians, and the Society
for Inherited Metabolic Disorders.
Dr. Caskey's most recent award (2007) was
the Medical Statesman Award from the Health Access Foundation.
Other awards include: Borden Research Award, Distinguished Alumnus
Award (Duke University Medical School), Wadsworth Award (New York
State Department of Health), Leadership Award (Muscular Dystrophy
Association), Giovanni Lorenzini Foundation Prize for Basic
Biomedical Research, Lucy Wortham James Basic Research Award
(Society of Surgical Oncology), Norberto Montalbetti Milan Award,
Texas 20 Award (Texas Monthly magazine), Corielle Award,
Distinguished Texas Geneticist Award in DNA Award from the
Department of Justice.
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