Eli Lilly's and Mayo's Prendergast to speak on 'Personalized Medicine'

A prominent figure in health care with ties to Eli Lilly and Co., Mayo Clinic and numerous companies, boards and societies will speak Thursday (Nov. 20) in Purdue's Global Lecture Series on Drug Discovery and Development, presented by the Global Policy Research Institute.

Franklyn G. Prendergast, an independent director at Eli Lilly, will discuss "Personalized Medicine: Collaboration, Innovation and Opportunity." His lecture, free and open to the public, will be at 2-3 p.m. in Krannert Building's Krannert Auditorium (Room 140).

Prendergast also serves at Eli Lilly as a member of the Public Policy & Compliance Committee and the Science & Technology Committee. He is a trustee of the Mayo Foundation and formerly was director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.

In addition, he is a member of the Life Sciences Advisory Board of Safeguard Scientifics Inc., and a member of several prominent national and academic boards. He serves as the director of LifeSync Holdings Inc.; St. Mary's and Methodist hospitals in Rochester, Minnesota; the Translational Genomics Research Institute; GMP Companies Inc.; Cellumen Inc.; the Hamm Clinic; the Infectious Diseases Research Institute; and the Board on Radiation Effects Research of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prendergast has been a member of Scientific Advisory Board of Cepheid since 2007 and also serves on the Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute. He is a member of the American Chemical Society Committee on Chemistry and Public Affairs, American Society for Photobiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Biophysical Society, Sigma Xi and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Prendergast has served NIH extensively over the past 20 years in roles on numerous advisory groups and boards.

Prendergast completed his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1977 and a master’s degree in physiology from Oxford University in 1979.