Pearce, Dr. David A.
Dr. David A. Pearce is the Chair of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) that represents funding agencies, companies, and patient advocate groups from approximately 80 countries. He completed his undergraduate Bachelor of Science Degree with honors in biological sciences at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1986. He gained his PhD in 1990 at the University of Bath, UK, and did postdoctoral training at the University of Rochester, U.S., and Oxford University, UK.
Dr. Pearce is an internationally recognized leader and he has published over 100 research papers on Batten disease. He founded an international registry for rare diseases known as the Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford (CoRDS). He has served on numerous NIH review committees, rare disease advisory boards and has organized rare disease workshops for the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Pearce has presented at numerous international meetings on rare disease, precision medicine, regenerative medicine and use of electronic medical records for biomedical research. He has overseen the development of a range of research programs as well as development and regulation of numerous clinical trials.
In addition to his role at Mount Marty University, Dr. Pearce currently holds a faculty appointment of Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Sanford School of Medicine (USD).