Donald Landry

Last updated

Donald W. Landry
CitizenshipUnited States
Known forStem cell and artificial enzyme research
SpouseMaureen O'Reilly-Landry
Awards Presidential Citizens Medal

Donald W. Landry is an American scientist who is the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University and Physician-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Irving Medical Center since 2008. He is also past founding director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics, and past director of the Division of Nephrology. On August 25, 2025, he was announced as interim president of the University of Florida. [1]

Contents

Personal life

Raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, Landry graduated in 1972 from St. Peter's Preparatory School [2] and was later inducted in the school's alumni hall of fame. [3]

He graduated from Lafayette College in 1975. [4] Landry completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry with R.B. Woodward at Harvard University in 1979 and then obtained the M.D. degree from Columbia University in 1983. After completing his residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, he returned to Columbia for training as an NIH Physician-Scientist, 1985–90, and has remained as a member of the Columbia faculty. [5] [6]

His wife, Maureen, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. [7] [8] They have two sons, Christopher and Michael.[ citation needed ] He is the oldest of 4, having 3 younger brothers, Robert, Thomas and John.

Work and achievements

Landry directed the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship Program's Columbia site and co-directed the Advanced Pathophysiology course for 4th-year medical students at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, both for over a decade. [9] Landry was a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and is co-chair of the Witherspoon Council for Ethics and the Integrity of Science. [5] [10] He is a founder of Tonix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TNXP), [11] a member of the Board of Directors of Sensient Technologies, and chair of the scientific advisory board of Applied Therapeutics, Inc., which was founded based on his patents and now trades on NASDAQ. [12] [13] He is co-founder of Tegrigen Therapeutics, a biotech start-up focused on integrin targets.

Landry was elected to membership of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. [14] [15] He is listed in Who's Who in the World and in 2015 was inducted at the Smithsonian as an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. [16] [17] Landry received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation's second-highest civilian honor, from President George W. Bush at the Oval Office in 2008 "for diverse and pioneering research and his efforts to improve the well-being of his fellow man." [18]

Research

Landry has focused on novel approaches to intractable health problems, combining medicine and organic chemistry. His work on cocaine addiction led to the discovery of an artificial enzyme to degrade cocaine. His report on the enzyme, published in Science, was chosen by the American Chemical Society as one of the 25 most important chemistry papers in the world for 1993. [19] [20] An agent (Cocaine esterase) he co-developed to treat cocaine overdose has entered clinical trials from Tonix Pharmaceuticals. [21] [22] [23] He founded the Columbia Organic Chemistry Collaborative Center and it is through this Center that he conducts his current work on drug discovery. [24]

Landry discovered a new hormone deficiency syndrome: vasopressin deficiency in vasodilatory shock. In pioneering the use of vasopressin to treat septic shock and vasodilatory shock after cardiopulmonary bypass, he changed clinical practice for these life-threatening conditions. He also founded ICU nephrology at Columbia, introducing continuous renal replacement therapy to treat renal failure in patients with shock. [25]

Landry developed an alternative method for the production of human embryonic stem cells that relies on harvesting live, normal cells from embryos that—by objective, peer-reviewed criteria—have died of natural causes. Cells harvested from dead embryos would be covered under the established ethics governing transplantation of essential organs from deceased donors. [26]

References

  1. ↑ "UF Board of Trustees names interim presidential candidate as permanent search continues". www.alligator.org.
  2. ↑ "Prep tops Science Day competition", The Jersey Journal , June 19, 1972. Accessed October 26, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "In addition, Donald Landry, a St. Peter's student placed first individually among all Hudson County participants in the chemistry section.... Young Landry, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Landry of Jersey City, was also an outstanding member of the track team while at St. Peter's, and plans to attend Lafayette College next year."
  3. ↑ Chiu, David. "Former Prep students enter its 'Hall of Fame'", The Jersey Journal , May 4, 2006. Accessed October 26, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "The Professional Achievement inductees - those who have achieved highly in their professions - are: Lawrence Babbio, '62, vice chairman and president of Verizon; Philip Bosco, '48, actor, Thomas Fleming, '45, author, historian; Robert Hurley, '65, basketball coach at St. Anthony High School, Jersey City; and Donald Landry, M.D., '72, professor of medicine at Columbia University."
  4. ↑ "Donald Landry ’75 Honored by Columbia University Medical Center", Lafayette College, press release dated January 10, 2008. Accessed October 26, 2025. "Landry completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry under Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard in 1979 and earned an M.D. from Columbia University in 1983."
  5. 1 2 "The President's Council on Bioethics: William B. Hurlbut, M.D." bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Donald W. Landry, MD, Nephrology - at CUIMC/Presbyterian Hospital and Vanderbilt Clinic". doctors.columbia.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Maureen O'Reilly-Landry, PhD". columbiapsychiatry.org. February 9, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Our Team". Resilience and Covid. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Columbia University College Of Physicians & Surgeons Selected To Participate In Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship Program". Columbia University Irving Medical Center. December 15, 2000. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  10. ↑ "The Witherspoon Council on Ethics and the Integrity of Science". www.witherspooncouncil.org. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp (TNXP) Stock Price & News - Google Finance". www.google.com. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  12. ↑ "SXT Company Profile & Executives - Sensient Technologies Corp. - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Donald Landry". Applied Therapeutics. Archived from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  14. ↑ "The American Society for Clinical Investigation". Archived from the original on October 18, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Association of American Physicians". aap-online.org. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  16. ↑ "National Academy of Inventors" . Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  17. ↑ Perruso, Alison (2014). Who's Who in the World 2015. Marquis Who's Who. ISBN   978-0837911540.
  18. ↑ "Dr. Donald Landry Honored With Presidential Citizens Medal | NYP". www.nyp.org. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  19. ↑ Landry, Donald W. (1993). "Antibody-catalyzed degradation of cocaine" . Science. 259 (5103): 1899–1901. Bibcode:1993Sci...259.1899L. doi:10.1126/science.8456315. PMID   8456315.
  20. ↑ "Donald Landry Named P&S Chair Of Medicine". Columbia University Irving Medical Center. November 5, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Overdose Research Grant Awarded To Chatham-Based Pharma Company". Chatham, NJ Patch. July 26, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  22. ↑ "The Prospects for TNX-1300, a Drug to Reverse Cocaine Overamps". Filter. September 2, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  23. ↑ Tonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (June 23, 2022). "An Open-Label, Randomized Pilot Study Comparing the Safety of a Single Dose of TNX-1300 to Usual Care (UC) Alone for the Treatment of Signs and Symptoms of Acute Cocaine Intoxication in Male Emergency Department (ED) Subjects".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. ↑ "Organic Chemistry Collaborative Center (OCCC)". Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. November 28, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  25. ↑ Landry, Donald W. (1997). "Vasopressin deficiency contributes to the vasodilation of septic shock" . Circulation. 95 (5): 1122–1125. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.95.5.1122. PMID   9054839.
  26. ↑ Landry, Donald W. (2004). "Embryonic death and the creation of human embryonic stem cells". Journal of Clinical Investigation. 114 (9): 1184–1186. doi:10.1172/JCI23065. PMC   524233 . PMID   15520846.
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