Dr. Urban earned his PharmD degree from the University of North Carolina in 2001, and his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics from the University of California San Francisco in 2007. He is currently an assistant professor in the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke University Medical Center. Tom’s current research is focused on genome-wide genotyping and sequencing approaches to the study of rare drug toxicities (primarily drug-induced liver injury), antiepileptic drug response, response to infectious disease, and food allergies, among other interests.

CHGV Hepatitis C Research Program

Selected Publications

Scott J, Holte S, Urban T, Burgess C, Coppel E, Wang C, Corey L, McHutchison J, Goldstein D. IL28B Genotype Effects During Early Treatment with Peginterferon and Ribavirin in Difficult-to-Treat Hepatitis C Virus Infection. J Infect Dis. 2011 Aug;204(3):419-25. PubMed PMID: 21742841; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3132139.

Thompson AJ, Clark PJ, Singh A, Ge D, Fellay J, Zhu M, Zhu Q, Urban TJ, Patel K, Tillmann HL, Naggie S, Afdhal NH, Jacobson IM, Esteban R, Poordad F, Lawitz EJ, McCone J, Shiffman ML, Galler GW, King JW, Kwo PY, Shianna KV, Noviello S, Pedicone LD, Brass CA, Albrecht JK, Sulkowski MS, Goldstein DB, McHutchison JG, Muir AJ. Genome-wide association study of interferon-related cytopenia in chronic hepatitis C patients. J Hepatol. 2011 May 20. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 21703177.

Lucena MI, Molokhia M, Shen Y, Urban TJ, Aithal GP, Andrade RJ, Day CP, Ruiz-Cabello F, Donaldson PT, Stephens C, Pirmohamed M, Romero-Gomez M, Navarro JM, Fontana RJ, Miller M, Groome M, Bondon-Guitton E, Conforti A, Stricker BH, Carvajal A, Ibanez L, Yue QY, Eichelbaum M, Floratos A, Pe'er I, Daly MJ, Goldstein DB, Dillon JF, Nelson MR, Watkins PB, Daly AK; Spanish Dili Registry, EUDRAGENE, DILIN, DILIGEN, and International SAEC. Susceptibility to Amoxicillin-Clavulanate-Induced Liver Injury Is Influenced by Multiple HLA Class I and II Alleles. Gastroenterology. 2011 Apr 12. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 21570397. 

Hitomi Y, Cirulli ET, Fellay J, McHutchison JG, Thompson AJ, Gumbs CE, Shianna KV, Urban TJ, Goldstein DB. Inosine triphosphate protects against ribavirin-induced adenosine triphosphate loss by adenylosuccinate synthase function. Gastroenterology. 2011 Apr;140(4):1314-21. Epub 2011 Jan 1. PubMed PMID: 21199653.

Urban TJ, Thompson AJ, Bradrick SS, Fellay J, Schuppan D, Cronin KD, Hong L, McKenzie A, Patel K, Shianna KV, McHutchison JG, Goldstein DB, Afdhal N. IL28B genotype is associated with differential expression of intrahepatic interferon-stimulated genes in patients with chronic hepatitis C Hepatology. 2010 Dec;52(6):1888-96. doi: 10.1002/hep.23912. Epub 2010 Oct 7.PMID:20931559

Heinzen EL*, Radtke RA*, Urban TJ*, Cavalleri GL, Depondt C, Need AC, Walley NM, Nicoletti P, Ge D, Catarino CB, Duncan JS, Kasperavičiūte˙ D, Tate SK, Caboclo LO, Sander JW, Clayton L, Linney KN, Shianna KV, Gumbs CE, Smith J, Cronin KD, Maia JM, Doherty CP, Pandolfo M, Leppert D, Middleton LT, Gibson RA, Johnson MR, Matthews PM, Hosford D, Kälviäinen R, Eriksson K, Kantanen AM, Dorn T, Hansen J, Krämer G, Steinhoff BJ, Wieser HG, Zumsteg D, Ortega M, Wood NW, Huxley-Jones J, Mikati M, Gallentine WB, Husain AM, Buckley PG, Stallings RL, Podgoreanu MV, Delanty N, Sisodiya SM, Goldstein DB. Rare deletions at 16p13.11 predispose to a diverse spectrum of sporadic epilepsy syndromes. Am J Hum Genet. 2010 May 14;86(5):707-18. Epub 2010 Apr 15. PMID:20398883

Thompson AJ, Fellay J, Patel K, Tillmann HL, Naggie S, Ge D, Urban TJ, Shianna KV, Muir AJ, Fried MW, Afdhal NH, Goldstein DB, McHutchison JG. Variants in the ITPA gene protect against ribavirin-induced hemolytic anemia and decrease the need for ribavirin dose reduction. Gastroenterology. 2010 Oct;139(4):1181-9. Epub 2010 Jun 12. PMID:20547162

Urban TJ. Race, ethnicity, ancestry and pharmacogenetics. Mt Sinai J Med. 2010 Mar;77(2):133-9. Review.PMID:20309922

Fellay J, Thompson AJ, Ge D, Gumbs CE, Urban TJ, Shianna KV, Little LD, Qiu P, Bertelsen AH, Watson M, Warner A, Muir AJ, Brass C, Albrecht J, Sulkowski M, McHutchison JG, Goldstein DB ITPA gene variants protect against anaemia in patients treated for chronic hepatitis C. Nature. 2010 Mar 18;464(7287):405-8. Epub 2010 Feb 21.PMID:20173735

Chaudhry AS*, Urban TJ*, Lamba JK, Birnbaum AK, Remmel RP, Subramanian M, Strom S, You JH, Kasperaviciute D, Catarino CB, Radtke RA, Sisodiya SM, Goldstein DB, Schuetz EG. CYP2C9*1B promoter polymorphisms, in linkage disequilibrium with CYP2C19*2, affect phenytoin auto-induction of clearance and maintenance dose. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2010 Feb;332(2):599-611. Epub 2009 Oct 23. PMID:19855097