Minoli Perera, PharmD, PhD
Associate Professor at Northwestern University, USA

I have been an active member of PGRN since 2006 while I was still a pharmacogenomics Fellow at the University of Chicago. This organization has had a few iterations, but through all of them I have gained a vast network of mentors, colleagues and friends. This has been invaluable in my own career, and I will work to ensure that we continue to have opportunities for rising scientists in the field. I look forward to helping PGRN grow as new areas of science emerge in pharmacogenomics. I have previously served as a Counselor for PGRN and worked closely with the board to build PGRN into an independent organization. I also headed the Education Committee and with the help of my Co-Chair ran the first “All of Us” workshop at the Annual PGRN meeting in 2023. I hope to build upon our success in international membership to cultivate more transcontinental collaborations. I also hope to bring together affinity groups within the organization to leverage abstract and symposia submissions to national and international meetings, thereby increasing the visibility of pharmacogenomics more broadly. Minority representation is of particular interest to me; thus, I also will work hard to consider equity and inclusion in all PGRN activities (e.g. meetings, seminars, leadership).

Steven Scherer, PhD
Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, USA

My name is Steve Scherer and I’ve been a member of the PGRN since 2010, where I worked collaboratively with the late Debbie Nickerson at the University of Washington and Elaine Mardis at Washington University (now at Nationwide Children’s Hospital) to introduce both targeted DNA sequencing and RNA-seq approaches to PGx research and assay development.

If elected, I would aim to continue the Network’s current efforts and more in implementation and would seek to further expand membership, sponsorships and potential industry-academic partnerships. Furthermore, I want to expand and emphasize the global nature of the organization and build more resources aimed at discovery scientists. To this end, I’ve spent the past couple of years working to promote the use of the NIH’s All of Us Researcher Workbench, including the development of instructional slide decks and videos delivered using a Train-the-Trainer format.

Additionally, our efforts to date have just scratched the surface scientifically; we have yet to tackle expression analysis comprehensively to say nothing of potential assay input from metabolomics, proteomics or epigenetic approaches. While not naive to the reality of limited budgets, I think it’s important to have constantly evolving and prioritized goals to aim for and promote. I would lean heavily on all of you for input.

Henk-Jan (Hendrik Jan) Guchelaar, PhD

Dean of Medical Faculty at Leiden University, The Netherlands

PGRN is the leading research network in the field of pharmacogenomics, where both established and young researchers feel at home. Established researchers take note of the latest developments in the field of pharmacogenomics and meet their valued colleagues, thus forming a close network. Young researchers present their research results there, become inspired and shape the future. This is how I got to know PGRN in recent years and became part of its valuable network. I have been involved since 2011, was presented as a Featured Investigator in July 2018, and was a member of the Scientific Program Committee in 2023.

As a researcher and healthcare professional with broad knowledge and experience in curative healthcare and regulatory authorities, and who has fulfilled various leading roles both in the hospital system, research and in government services, I hope to make a valuable contribution to the further development of PGRN. I am characterized by stability, clear objectives, decisive, process-oriented, integrity, courage, perseverance and great involvement. My specific ambition for PGRN lies in further increasing internationalization of its network.