NIDDK's Hoofnagle Receives Sherlock Award
Dr. Jay H. Hoofnagle, chief of NIDDK's Liver Diseases Research Branch, is the first recipient of the International Dame Sheila Sherlock Award. The award recognizes Hoofnagle's "outstanding, epoch-making research work on the diagnosis, therapy and prophylaxis of acute and chronic liver diseases and their consecutive symptoms."
Given during the Falk Liver Week in Freiberg, Germany, the award honors the recently deceased Dame Sheila Sherlock of Royal Free Hospital London, one of the major architects of modern hepatology. She made major contributions to our knowledge of liver disease, trained several generations of leaders in academic hepatology, and was the author of Diseases of the Liver and Biliary System, a textbook that went through 14 editions during her lifetime.
Hoofnagle's contributions to hepatology have been made largely during his tenure on the NIH campus. As a staff fellow from 1972-1975 in the Hepatitis Branch of the Bureau of Biologics (which became part of the FDA in 1972), he helped describe the serological course of hepatitis B and developed the first assay for the antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) showing that it was a sensitive marker of hepatitis B virus infection. As a result of this work and subsequent studies, testing for anti-HBc of all donor blood was made a federal requirement in 1986, which has helped to eliminate post-transfusion hepatitis B.
Hoofnagle joined the liver diseases section of NIDDK as a senior investigator in 1978. There he initiated clinical and laboratory studies of the natural history and therapy of hepatitis B, C and D. He was the first to conduct a randomized controlled trial of interferon alfa for chronic hepatitis B and was the first to use interferon to treat hepatitis C and D. In 1991-1992, interferon became the first licensed therapy for chronic hepatitis B and C. Hoofnagle has been involved in early evaluation and development of virtually all antiviral agents developed for viral hepatitis including interferon, ribavirin, lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil.
Hoofnagle is currently an investigator on more than 10 NIH clinical research protocols and holds 6 active investigation new drug applications.
Dr. Thomas Wellems, acting chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, has been elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology. He is honored for work that has bridged the sciences of genetics, molecular biology and microbial physiology in landmark studies of malaria drug resistance and antigenic variation. He showed how resistance to the antimalarial drug chloroquine markedly increased death rates from malaria in African children and identified the gene responsible for this effect. Scientists can now use diagnostic tests developed by his research group to test for this resistance. Fellows of the AAM are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-reviewed process based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology.
Jordan Receives Sabin Gold Medal Award
Dr. William Jordan recently received the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award from the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Jordan, who directed NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) until his retirement in 1987, was honored for his dedication and commitment to vaccine research. The award honors pioneers in vaccinology and immunology who have made extraordinary achievements in those fields. Under Jordan's tenure as DMID director, vaccines for hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type B, and pneumococcal pneumonia became available and major strides were made towards developing an attenuated, live virus influenza vaccine. In 1976, Jordan came to NIAID to head the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Program (MIDP), now DMID. In 1981, NIAID established a vaccine development initiative under MIDP to expedite the availability of vaccines for selected infectious diseases. Jordan dubbed the new program "Accelerated Development of Vaccines." He, along with MIDP program staff, wrote the first progress report of the program. In 1992, Dr. John LaMontagne, who succeeded him as DMID director, named the 10th anniversary progress report in Jordan's honor. The Jordan Report: Accelerated Development of Vaccines, which is published periodically, is recognized internationally as the authoritative report of progress in vaccine development
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