Brian Dougherty is the director of Translational Genomics Oncology at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in Waltham, MA. He oversees a team of lab scientists and computational biologists applying leading-edge genetic, genomic, and advanced algorithmic technologies to deliver on Precision Medicine – matching the right patient with the right drug. AstraZeneca’s Irish subsidiary, based in Co. Dublin, is instrumental in the company’s operations.

In 2015, Brian received the AstraZeneca CEO Award and the IMed Science Team Award. He worked on the cross-functional teams that brought new therapies to cancer patients such as Lynpara for ovarian cancer (2014) and Tagrisso for lung cancer (2015). He holds a B.A. from the University of Delaware, a Ph.D. from Wake Forest University Medical Center, an M.B.A from the University of New Haven, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Hamilton O. Smith at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Brian is a third-generation Irish American who has visited Ireland several times, including his honeymoon, and collaborated with Irish scientists – giving a lecture on the first completely sequenced genome at the University College Cork in 1995 and later co-publishing a key scientific paper in diary research with Professor Colin Hill (UCC) and Professor R. Paul Ross (UCC and Teagasc). Brian’s great-grandfather, who was born in Malin Head, Co. Donegal, arrived in the United States in 1854 to find work in the DuPont gunpowder mills. It was dangerous work – he was killed in an explosion as his wife and children were traveling to America from Ireland. Like many Delawareans, several generations of Doughertys work-ed for the DuPont company as its business focus evolved over time.

Brian celebrates his Irish-American identity through a membership with the O’Dochartaigh Clan Association and has enjoyed marching in St. Patrick’s Day parades with the Appoquinimink Celtic Society in Delaware and Maryland. He, his wife Elizabeth, and four children, Andrew, Patrick, Claire, and Kevin, currently live in Killingworth, Connecticut.