Michael Max (‘Micky’) Traub was a research scientist for the pharmaceutical company Amgen, based in Cambridge. He was born in London, the son of Rudolph Traub, a chartered accountant, and Marianna Traub, a teacher. He was educated at St Paul’s School, and then went on to St Thomas’s Medical School, where he gained a BSc in biochemistry and qualified in 1973.

He held house posts in general and renal medicine at St Thomas’, and then became a house surgeon in general surgery at Salisbury General Infirmary. In 1975 he was a senior house officer in intensive care at St Thomas’. For the next two years he was on the senior house officer/registrar rotation in general medicine and neurology at King’s College Hospital. From 1977 to 1979 he was a research fellow in neurology at the Institute of Psychiatry. He was then a registrar in endocrinology and general medicine at King’s. From May to October 1980 he was a senior house officer in neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In the same year he gained his PhD.

From 1981 to 1986, he was a senior registrar in neurology at the London Hospital. Between 1983 and 1984 he was an MRC research fellow at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York.

In February 1986 he was appointed as associate director of clinical neuroscience at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories, Harlow, Essex, becoming director of clinical neuroscience in 1989. In 1994 he joined Amgen as director of clinical research (Europe) and subsequently became global development leader.

His research focused on movement disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease, but he also wrote papers on dementia, children with head injuries, ataxia and tuberculous disease of the central nervous system, among other topics.

In 1970 he married Lindsey Margaret, a university lecturer. They had a son and a daughter.

RCP editor

[Amgen 2003 Annual Report http://www.amgen.fr/pdfs/Investors_2003_AnnualReport.pdf – accessed 6 November 2012]