C-Path Announces New Scientific Appointments

[Source: InsideArizonaBusiness.com Report] - The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) is pleased to announce the appointments of Klaus Romero, M.S., M.D. to the position of Clinical Pharmacologist, and Elizabeth Gribble Walker, Ph.D. to the position of Assistant Director, Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC). In these new positions, Doctors Romero and Walker will advance C-Path’s collaborative programs to accelerate the development of faster, safer medical products.

“It is an honor to welcome next-generation scientific talent to Tucson – Drs. Walker and Romero have precisely the type of scientific thinking we envisioned recruiting to Tucson when we started C-Path,” said Raymond L. Woosley, C-Path President and CEO.

As Clinical Pharmacologist at C-Path, Klaus Romero, M.S., M.D. will primarily serve as co-investigator in the C-Path housed Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (AzCERT), a program focused on prevention of adverse reactions caused by drug-drug interactions. He will initially focus on the web-based educational program www.QTdrugs.org and the registry for cases of the drug-induced arrhythmia, torsades de pointes (www.torsades.org). In addition to this work, Dr. Romero will collaborate with C-Path, industry and FDA scientists and others to help design quantitative disease progression models to improve the design of drug development programs.

A native of Colombia, Dr. Romero earned his medical degree from the School of Medicine at Javeriana University in Bogota and completed his residency in medical epidemiology at the Colombian School of Medicine at El Bosque University in Bogota. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Pharmacology from Colombian National University in Bogota. (Check with Klaus on my revisions.

Dr. Romero is married to Olga-Lucía Parga, also a native of Colombia. Olga-Lucía, an accomplished accessory designer and TV producer, holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Social Communications and Fashion Design. She is currently perfecting her English at the U of A, where she started a successful dance club. Olga-Lucía plans to get into graduate school at the U of A, to get an MA degree in media studies.

Elizabeth Gribble Walker, Ph.D. Assistant Director, PSTC, will support what has become a global endeavor to identify and qualify laboratory safety testing methods used to test new drugs. Over 190 scientists from 17 Member companies, along with scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its European equivalent, the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) are collaborating in this consortium.

Dr. Walker most recently served as a Scientist in Preclinical Drug Development at ZymoGenetics. She earned her Ph.D. in Toxicology in 2005 from the University of Washington where she was an NIH/NIEHS Environmental Pathology and Toxicology Training Grant recipient for four years.

Dr. Walker is married to Matt Walker, M.A., ABS. Matt is a Primary Therapist and Wilderness Director at In Balance Ranch Academy and in private practice through Inner Passage where he offers coaching and counseling for individuals, families, and organizations.