Speakers: Andrea Gaedigk, PhD, MS
Andrea Gaedigk, PhD, MS
Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Mercy Research Institute
Dr. Gaedigk is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Children’s Mercy Research Institute in Kansas City where she directs the Pharmacogenetics Core Laboratory in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutic Innovation. Her work focuses on variation in pharmacogenes in diverse adult and pediatric populations in clinical and basic research which has led to over 245 peer-reviewed publications. She is also directing the Pharmacogene Variation Consortium and closely works with the Pharmacogenomics KnowledgeBase, the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium and other organizations and groups to promote the implementation of pharmacogenetics into clinical practice. Dr Gaedigk is a collaborator on many internal, national, and international research projects.
Dr Gaedigk. a distinguished researcher and professor, has made significant contributions to the field of pharmacogenomics. Her work has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of drug metabolism and its implications for personalized medicine. She has characterized the CYP2D6 gene locus across ethnically diverse populations discovering numerous allelic variants, enhancing our understanding of genetic diversity and its impact on drug response. Dr. Gaedigk has also developed the activity score system, a method facilitating genotype interpretation, which has been adopted in Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines and is widely used in pharmacogenomics implementation. This innovative approach has significantly improved the accuracy of pharmacogenomic testing, enabling more precise predictions of individual drug responses. In addition to her research, Dr. Gaedigk serves as the Director of the Pharmacogene Variation Consortium (PharmVar), a pharmacogene data repository. Under her leadership, PharmVar provides pharmacogenomics gene nomenclature, serving as a vital resource for researchers and clinicians worldwide.