Dr. David B. Goldstein is a pioneering human geneticist who serves as the founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and holds the John E. Borne Professorship of Medical and Surgical Research in Genetics and Development and Neurology. After earning his PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University in 1994, he established his academic career with formative positions at the University of Oxford and University College London, where he was appointed Wolfson Professor of Genetics. His move to Duke University in 2005 marked a significant phase as Director of the Center for Human Genome Variation and Richard and Pat Johnson Distinguished University Professor, before joining Columbia University in 2015 to establish its groundbreaking Institute for Genomic Medicine. His distinguished career demonstrates a consistent commitment to advancing the integration of genomic science into clinical practice and research across multiple prestigious institutions.
Dr. Goldstein's groundbreaking research has focused on identifying the relationship between human genetic variations and disease susceptibility, with notable contributions to understanding epilepsy, hepatitis C, and schizophrenia. His group, along with collaborators, discovered the gene responsible for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood and elucidated the critical role of the IL28B gene in treatment response to Hepatitis C infection, work that has significantly influenced clinical approaches to viral hepatitis treatment. As Director of the Sequencing, Biostatistics, and Bioinformatics Core for the Epi4K Consortium, he led the collaboration that discovered three novel epilepsy genes, advancing the molecular understanding of this complex neurological condition. His development of a genome-wide scoring system ranking human genes in terms of their intolerance to functional genetic variation has become a vital tool for interpreting the clinical significance of mutations found in patients with serious genetic diseases.
Beyond his research contributions, Dr. Goldstein has been instrumental in shaping the field of genomic medicine through strategic leadership and translational initiatives. He currently serves as CEO of Actio Biosciences, a company he co-founded to translate genetic insights into novel therapeutics, building on his previous success as co-founder of Praxis Precision Medicines focused on central nervous system disorders. His advisory roles with pharmaceutical companies, including serving as AstraZeneca's chief genomics adviser, highlight his influence in bridging academic research with therapeutic development. Dr. Goldstein continues to pioneer approaches for developing precision medicines for rare genetic diseases while exploring opportunities to generalize these treatments to subsets of more common diseases, positioning him at the forefront of the precision medicine revolution.
