Phagocyte Function and Dysfunction: From Descriptive Biology to Molecular Defects and Cytokine Therapy

Abstract

Dr. Gallin, a graduate of Amherst College, earned his medical degree at Cornell University Medical College. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at New York University–Bellevue Hospital Medical Center in 1971 and received training in infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1971 to 1974. In 1974, he served as senior chief medical resident at the New York University–Bellevue Hospital Medical Center. Subsequently, he returned to the NIH, where he has been an active clinician, researcher, and administrator since 1975. Dr. Gallin served as head of the Bacterial Diseases Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Clinical Investigation (NIAID) from 1978 to 1986 and then as scientific director at NIAID from 1985 to 1994. As scientific director, Dr. Gallin oversaw all intramural activities for NIAID, which included doubling of the research budget in response to the AIDS epidemic, introduction of a modern informatics program to NIAID, and revitalization of NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. Since 1991, Dr. Gallin has been chief of the Laboratory of Host Defenses at NIAID. His primary research interests focus on the role of phagocytes in host defense. His laboratory has described the genetic basis for several forms of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) as well as the use of interferon-γ to reduce life-threatening infections in CGD. In 1994, Dr. Gallin was appointed to his current position as director of the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, with a dual appointment as the associate director for Clinical Research at the NIH. The Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center serves the clinical research needs of 17 NIH institutes and is the largest clinical research hospital in the world. In his current position, Dr. Gallin has led the revitalization of clinical research at NIH, which has included establishment of a curriculum in clinical research and utilization of telemedicine in clinical research. Recently, Dr. Gallin has written about managing the interface among medical schools, hospitals, and clinical research and the need for clinical research education in the medical school curriculum. Among Dr. Gallin’s awards are the USPHS Distinguished Service Award, the Young Investigator Award of the American Federation for Clinical Research, and the Squibb Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 1988, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Amherst College. In 1991, he received the USPHS Award for Orphan Product Development for his groundbreaking studies leading to the licensing of interferon-γ to reduce infections in CGD. In 2001, he received the US PHS Physician Executive of the Year Award. Dr. Gallin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.