Ginsburg Named Director of New Pratt-School of Medicine Partnership

 Geoffrey Ginsburg, MD, PhD, has been named director of MEDx (Medicine and Engineering at Duke), leaders of the Duke University School of Medicine and Pratt School of Engineering announced on August 10. Ginsburg will serve for an initial three-year term.

MEDx is a new entity at Duke created to enhance existing ties and foster new interdisciplinary collaborations between the School of Medicine (SoM) and Pratt School of Engineering (Pratt), as the first part of a forthcoming Provost initiative to create opportunities at the intersections of academic units. The goal is to better achieve the two schools’ many shared goals: 1) developing new therapies, diagnostics and devices; 2) accelerating basic science and its translation into clinical practice; 3) creating innovative educational opportunities for students; and 4) improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care.

MEDx will foster the exchange of ideas and will create research opportunities between physicians, engineers, computer scientists, researchers and innovators. It will promote the training of the next generation of researchers and clinicians to work symbiotically on new solutions to complex clinical problems.

A professor of medicine, pathology, and biomedical engineering and director of the Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine at Duke, Ginsburg has worked extensively with faculty across both schools, as well as with interdisciplinary University teams including the Information Initiative at Duke, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and Duke Global Health Institute.

“Dr. Ginsburg’s own research program provides an excellent model for the kinds of partnerships we hope will arise from MEDx,” wrote SOM Dean Nancy C. Andrews, Vinik Dean of Engineering Tom Katsouleas, and incoming interim dean of engineering George Truskey in a joint announcement. “Dr. Ginsburg also brings valuable perspectives on the research funding landscape through his leadership on committees of the Institute of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, among others. We anticipate that his guidance will significantly build upon the approximately $38 million in collaborative research awards our schools currently receive each year as well as develop strategic commercialization opportunities.”

This new partnership will be funded initially through joint contributions from the Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Office of the Provost; the schools also intend to seek additional philanthropic funding for MEDx. “We’d like to thank Provost Sally Kornbluth for investing central funds in this partnership as part of her broader vision for encouraging collaborations at Duke,” the deans wrote. “We are excited about the potential this partnership holds to advance both our schools and our shared goals.”