Boston-based Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on building life sciences companies, has named Felix W. Frueh, Ph.D., an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR). As an EIR, Dr. Frueh will provide strategic input on new and existing portfolio companies with a particular focus on personalized medicine.

Dr. Frueh is a thought leader in personalized medicine, with 15 years of R&D, management and policy experience. Most recently, he was president of the Medco Research Institute, leading Medco's real-world, outcomes-oriented research initiatives and collaborations after having formed Medco's personalized medicine R&D organization.

Previously, Dr. Frueh was associate director for genomics at the FDA, where he built and led the core genomics review team in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and chaired the first FDA-wide, interdisciplinary pharmacogenomics review group. He has been a member of various working groups on genetics and genomics at the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He serves on the board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and is also a board member at Enterome Biosciences. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina and held faculty appointments in the Departments of Pharmacology and Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he also received his Ph.D. in biochemistry.

"Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to see new technologies and innovative approaches in personalized medicine make an impact on the lives of patients," said Dr. Frueh. "I believe that Third Rock's approach to investing in cutting-edge science has the potential to make a tremendous difference, and I look forward to being a part of that effort."

Third Rock Ventures, founded in 2007, has more than $800 million and two funds under management. With offices in Boston and San Francisco, it is focused on working with passionate entrepreneurs in the areas of disruptive science that will make a difference in the lives of patients.