Photo of Research Team

Photo by Wayne Scarberry

The University of Rochester research team, from left: Donald Young, M.D., Virginia Winn, M.D., Ph.D, and Kerry O'Banion, M.D., Ph.D.

The University of Rochester has been awarded a pioneering patent for the treatment of a wide range of illnesses by the administration of drugs that selectively block the activity of the cox-2 enzyme. It was a University of Rochester research team, led by Donald Young, M.D., that discovered the gene that produces the human cox-2 enzyme and recognized that selectively blocking the activity of the enzyme would be beneficial in treating inflammation and other medical problems