John I. Gallin

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John I. Gallin
Dr John I Gallin NIH 2010.jpg
Gallin at the NIH Clinical Center
Born (1943-03-25) March 25, 1943 (age 79)
Alma mater Amherst College, BA, cum laude (1965)
Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, MD, 1969
Known forScientific contributions clarifying the basis of, and developing new treatments for, disorders of innate immunity (inflammation)
Scientific career
FieldsInfectious Diseases Inflammation/Immunology
Institutions National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH Clinical Center
Uniformed service
AllegianceFlag of the United States.svg  United States
ServiceFlag of the United States Public Health Service.svg U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
Rank US-O8 insignia.svg Rear Admiral

John I. Gallin (born March 25, 1943) is an American medical researcher who has contributed to the understanding of innate immunity but especially chronic granulomatous disease, a phagocyte disorder. [1] Gallin was appointed director of the NIH Clinical Center on May 1, 1994, [2] and served until January 8, 2017. He serves as the chief scientific officer for the Clinical Center and associate director for clinical research at the National Institutes of Health. [3]

Contents

Education and career

Gallin was born on March 25, 1943, in New York City, His father was an attorney, and his mother was trained as a social worker, but then became a stay-at-home mom. [4] He graduated from New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, NY, in 1961. He graduated cum laude from Amherst College in 1965. He earned his M.D. from Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in 1969. [4]

After a medical internship and residency at New York University’s Bellevue Hospital, in 1971 he began postdoctoral training in basic and clinical research in infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health as a clinical associate in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. [4] [1] Gallin returned to New York University's Bellevue Hospital as senior chief medical resident from 1974 to 1975, then came back to NIH. [4]

In 1985, he was appointed scientific director for intramural research activities at the NIAID, a position he held for the next nine years. [1] Gallin was the founding chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Host Defenses in 1991 and served as chief of the laboratory for 12 years. [2] He continues as chief of the lab's clinical pathophysiology section in a new version of the lab called the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology.

Gallin was the 10th director of the NIH Clinical Center, a position he held for 22 years, the longest serving director. [4] The Clinical Center is the largest hospital focused solely on clinical research and serves the scientific and medical needs of 17 NIH institutes. In 2011, under Gallin's leadership, the Clinical Center was the only hospital to receive the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award. [5]

In August 2016, Gallin was appointed to the newly created positions of NIH associate director for clinical research and chief scientific officer for the Clinical Center. [6] These posts report directly to the NIH Director and oversee independent research programs, clinical research training and the scientific review process for all clinical protocols conducted at the NIH. On January 8, 2017, Gallin stepped down as the director of the NIH Clinical Center to focus full-time as the chief scientific officer of the Clinical Center and NIH associate director for clinical research. [6]

Gallin served as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service and retired from the USPHS as a rear admiral. [7]

Gallin has published or co-authored more than 355 articles in scientific journals and has edited two textbooks: Inflammation, Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, 1999) and Principles and Practices of Clinical Research (Academic Press, 2002, 4th edition (2018). [8]

Medical research

Gallin's primary research interests are on the role of phagocytes, the body's scavenger cells in host defense. [9] His research has focused on rare hereditary immune disorders, and he identified the genetic basis of several diseases of the phagocytes (neutrophils and macrophages). [9]

The laboratory has focused on neutrophil-specific granule deficiency, actin interacting protein deficiency and chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). [10] When phagocytes fail to produce hydrogen peroxide and bleach, CGD results. The laboratory described the genetic basis for several forms of CGD and the research has reduced life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections in CGD patients. [10] The laboratory discovered that when CGD patients get older they are protected from atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries), suggesting the abnormal enzyme in this disease might be a drugable target for normal people with disorders of inflammation such as atherosclerosis. [10]

Achievements as NIH Clinical Center Director

Dr. Gallin in 2011 Dr. John Gallin (28121767786).jpg
Dr. Gallin in 2011

During his tenure as director of the NIH Clinical Center, Gallin oversaw the design and construction of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (CRC), an 870,000-square-foot research hospital added to the original structure. The CRC opened to patients in 2005. [8]

Gallin also established a new curriculum for clinical research training that is now offered globally reaching over 20,000 students annually throughout the United States and in over 150 countries, and he supported development of new information systems for sharing biomedical translational and clinical research. [8]

Gallin was key to establishing a Patient Advisory Group at the Clinical Center in 1998, one of the first for patients participating in clinical research. [11] He, along with Clinical Center nurses, conceived and championed identifying resources from the NIH Foundation to construct the NIH Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge which opened in 2005.

Gallin stressed the importance of collaboration and helped open the Clinical Center and its depth of resources to the research community outside NIH. [8]

Memberships

Gallin is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the American College of Physicians (Master). He is an elected member of the Royal College of Physicians-London. [8]

Awards and honors

USPHS awards

Personal life

In 1966, Gallin married Elaine Klimerman Gallin, a scientist with whom he has collaborated. They have two children: Alice Jennifer Gallin-Dwyer, trained as a lawyer and now working as the deputy director at the Washington Monthly [12] and raising three children, and Michael Louis Gallin, an architect practicing outside New York City who has two children.[ citation needed ]

Selected publications

Books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

Immunodeficiency, also known as immunocompromisation, is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases are acquired ("secondary") due to extrinsic factors that affect the patient's immune system. Examples of these extrinsic factors include HIV infection and environmental factors, such as nutrition. Immunocompromisation may also be due to genetic diseases/flaws such as SCID.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronic granulomatous disease</span> Hereditary disease group

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), also known as Bridges–Good syndrome, chronic granulomatous disorder, and Quie syndrome, is a diverse group of hereditary diseases in which certain cells of the immune system have difficulty forming the reactive oxygen compounds used to kill certain ingested pathogens. This leads to the formation of granulomas in many organs. CGD affects about 1 in 200,000 people in the United States, with about 20 new cases diagnosed each year.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's mission is to conduct basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.

NADPH oxidase is a membrane-bound enzyme complex that faces the extracellular space. It can be found in the plasma membrane as well as in the membranes of phagosomes used by neutrophil white blood cells to engulf microorganisms. Human isoforms of the catalytic component of the complex include NOX1, NOX2, NOX3, NOX4, NOX5, DUOX1, and DUOX2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NOX2</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

NADPH oxidase 2 (Nox2), also known as cytochrome b(558) subunit beta or Cytochrome b-245 heavy chain, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NOX2 gene. The protein is a superoxide generating enzyme which forms reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Anthony (Tony) Segal MD PhD FRS FMedSci is a British physician/scientist.

Hyperimmunoglobulinemia E syndrome (HIES), of which the autosomal dominant form is called Job's syndrome or Buckley syndrome, is a heterogeneous group of immune disorders. Job's is also very rare at about 300 cases currently in the literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey J. Alter</span> American medical researcher

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Neutrophil cytosol factor 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NCF2 gene.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cytochrome b-245, alpha polypeptide</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Cytochrome b-245 light chain is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CYBA gene involved in superoxide production and phagocytosis.

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Lloyd Mayer was an American gastroenterologist and immunologist. He was Professor and Co-Director of the Immunology institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, now known as the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute.

Neutrophil oxidative burst test is a measure of neutrophil oxidation and is a useful assay in the diagnosis of chronic granulomatous disease and is also a useful means to determine the overall metabolic integrity of phagocytosing neutrophils. The NADPH oxidase enzyme is missing in CGD. From total blood, neutrophils can be purified and the NADPH oxidase activity can be measured with different methods in these cells after activation. Phagocytosis by polymorphonuclear neutrophils and monocytes constitutes an essential arm of host defense against bacterial or fungal infections. The phagocytic process can be separated into several major stages: chemotaxis, attachment of particles to the cell surface of phagocytes, ingestion (phagocytosis) and intracellular killing by oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent mechanisms.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "In Their Own Words: NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS, John I. Gallin, MD". Office of NIH History. June 23, 1993. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "NIAID's Gallin appointed Clinical Center Director" (PDF). The NIH Record. May 10, 1994. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  3. "Major General James Gilman, M.D., tapped to lead NIH Clinical Center". NIH. December 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "In Their Own Words: NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS, Interview with Dr. John I. Gallin". Office of NIH History. June 23, 1993. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  5. "2011 Lasker~Bloomberg Award for Public Service". NIH Clinical Center. February 28, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Gallin appointed new leadership position". Clinical center News. December 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  7. "Meet New Flag Officers", Commissioned Corps Bulletin, Division of Commissioned Personnel, Office of the Surgeon General, PHS, DHHS, VI (12): 1–2, December 1992
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Biosketch Dr. John I. Gallin". NIH Clinical Center. March 30, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Intramural Research Program: Our research". NIH Intramural Research Program. March 7, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 "Laboratory of Host Defenses Dr. John I. Gallin". National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. March 12, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  11. "CC patients share their input". Clinical Center News. June 1998. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  12. "Washington Monthly". Washington Monthly. June 2022. Retrieved June 1, 2022.