Edward Scolnick is a core investigator at the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

, the former founding director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute, and former head of research and development at Merck Research Laboratories.

Education and early career

Scolnick earned a BA in 1961 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and an MD in 1965 from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. After medical school, he joined the

Public Health Service In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. During his 15 years at the NIH's

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

, Scolnick discovered the

RAS Ras or RAS may refer to: Arts and media * RAS Records Real Authentic Sound, a reggae record label * Rundfunk Anstalt Südtirol, a south Tyrolese public broadcasting service * Rás 1, an Icelandic radio station * Rás 2, an Icelandic radio stati ...

oncogene that is involved in the critical signaling pathway that shifts an otherwise normal cell into the aggressive cells known as tumor cells. His work helped establish the concept of blocking signaling pathways as fundamental to cancer biology and drug discovery.

Merck

Scolnick joined Merck in 1982 as executive director of virus and cell biology, after being recruited from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. He was head of Research at Merck Research Laboratories from 1985 until he stepped down in 2002. While at Merck, he was involved in the development and introduction of 29 new medications and vaccines. He was a key figure in the development and marketing of

Vioxx Rofecoxib is a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It was marketed by Merck & Co. to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, acute pain conditions, migraine, and dysmenorrhea. Rofecoxib ...

, which was pulled from the market after it was discovered that the drug caused a dangerously high risk of

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

. Legal claims resulting from this have cost Merck billions. During the five years it was available in the US, more than 38,000 deaths were related to Vioxx use, and up to 25 million Americans took the drug. In the subsequent investigations, it was revealed that it was likely that Merck knew about the adverse effects of the drug, and Scolnick had dismissed them in order to push the drug to market before Bayer's Celebrex.

Later career

Scolnick began as the founding director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute in 2007. In 2012, he stepped down as director and became the Stanley Center's chief scientist, being succeeded by Steven Hyman. In 1980 he received the Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award from the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. He was also appointed to the Board of Visitors at the

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is a medical school of the University of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The School of Medicine, also known as Pitt Med, is consistently ranked as a "Top Medical School" by '' ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

awards the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scolnick, Edward Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Harvard University alumni Merck & Co. people Harvard Medical School alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine