Prof. Claes Wahlestedt

Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor Director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation at University of Miami, where he also serves as Associate Dean for Therapeutic Innovation. He is a genome as well as a drug discovery researcher. His ongoing research projects concern epigenetics, mammalian transcriptomics, noncoding RNAs, and small molecule and oligonucleotide drug discovery across several therapeutic areas. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Lund University, and then went on to develop an international career in academia as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he was a professor and director of neuroscience research at The Scripps Research Institute (2005-2011). Before that, he was an endowed professor, genome center director and department chair at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (1997-2005). He has also been a faculty member at Cornell University Medical College and at McGill University. At different stages in his career, he has directed large drug discovery and biotechnology teams in the pharmaceutical industry for Astra-Zeneca and Pharmacia/Pfizer.