In my circle of friends, we enjoy sharing titles of books we’ve enjoyed. This page serves to share books I’ve enjoyed relevant to my work of clinical drug development. I have a personal preference for non-fiction, and so that is why most titles listed here are from that category. If you have a book you think would be good recommended reading, you can share it just as soon as I figure out how to insert that functionality into this website.
- Saving Ryan – The 30-Year Journey Into Saving The Life Of A Child , by Emil Kakkis. “Saving Ryan is the inspiring story by physician-scientist Dr. Emil Kakkis about his journey to develop a new, first-ever treatment for an ultra-rare genetic disease called MPS. ” I first learned of this book at a conference, I think it was SCDM 2024, where Ryan’s father, Mark Dant, came to speak regarding Ryan’s journey. There are a couple of reasons that this book goes to the top of my list. First, the book covers the full life-cycle of drug discovery, development, and post approval activities. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the drug discovery and development process would learn from this book much about the different steps that are involved to bring a new treatment to patients. Second, it highlights the importance and challenge of researching an ultra rare disease. This resonates with me because I know people in the industry who like working in the rare disease space precisely because it is so hard and so important, and this book give a real appreciation for the challenge. Finally, this book includes the patient and family perspective. Drug development can be an arduous process, and we always need to remember why we commit ourselves to working hard to bring better and safety drugs to patients in need.
- Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir, by Delia Ephron. Part of this book details Ephron’s diagnosis and treatment for AML, acute myeloid leukemia. While this is not a book about clinical drug development per se, Delia’s journey does reveal the step-wise improvements in treatments for AML as they impact her course of treatment. I felt a personal connection to this book due to having had two friends go through the stem cell transplant process (successfully) and I think maybe I could have been better versed in how to support them/their caregiver had I understood the treatment journey better.
- The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. This book tells the account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues co-discovered the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, which played an important role in the development of mRNA vaccines like those from Pfizer and Moderna. While the book goes on further to discuss the possibilities and considerations of such technology in the future (an important topic), this book is on my list simply because whenever I hear someone say they don’t trust the COVID vaccine because it was developed too quickly, I want to rebut “No, that’s not true! The science and technology behind the COVID vaccine was years in the making” and then hand them this book (which, by the way, is written by a very well-respected author).
- Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova. This is a fictional story detailing the impact of Huntington’s disease on one family. I read half of this book (Huntington’s disease doesn’t end well and so I didn’t want to follow these characters through the conclusion) while working at Sage Therapeutics, a company that did have a compound they were testing to lessen the symptoms of Huntington’s disease. My memory is that the author, who also wrote Still Alice, came into the office and talked about her process of combining her knowledge of neuroscience weaved into a story with characters that as a reader can connect with in their human condition. Even though I didn’t finish the book, I would still recommend it because I thought the author was very skilled not only in bringing the characters to life, but also described the symptoms of the disease in the context of every day life in a way that seemed very realistic and compelling.