John Hawley

Nominations open for new mid-career member awards, 2023

Posted on by John Hawley

The ASCI is pleased to call for nominations for two new awards recognizing the scholarly achievements of mid-career members:

The Marian W. Ropes, MD, Award recognizes a middle-career woman physician-scientist. The annual award honors Dr. Ropes (1903–1994), a pioneer both as a researcher on the role of synovial fluid in joint diseases and as a woman in academic medicine. She was the first woman documented to have been elected to the ASCI. The first recipient of this award receives a $10,000 honorarium, will be recognized at the ASCI’s 2023 annual meeting, and gives the Ropes Lecture at the 2024 meeting.

The Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award recognizes a middle-career physician-scientist who is underrepresented in medicine and science. The award honors Dr. Sullivan (born 1933), a hematologist, health care advocate, and policy leader — having served as US Secretary of Health and Human Services — and who was the first Black physician-scientist elected to the ASCI. The first recipient of this award receives a $10,000 honorarium, will be recognized at the ASCI’s 2023 annual meeting, and gives the Sullivan Lecture at the 2024 meeting.

ASCI members who are within 5 years of their election year may be nominated. Additionally:

  • For the Ropes Award, only female members are eligible for nomination
  • For the Sullivan Award, only UiMS members are eligible for nomination

The deadline for receipt of nominations is September 28, 2022, at 11:59 pm Eastern. Nominations will be screened to ensure they are complete and fit the award criteria. The ASCI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will review nominations and submit its recommendations to the ASCI Council for approval. We expect to notify nominees about the outcome by mid-November.

Nominators:

  • may be any ASCI member, except for current members of the ASCI Council and the ASCI Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and
  • must provide a statement regarding the nominee (500-word limit).

Nominees:

  • must fit the criteria noted above and may not be current members of the ASCI Council and the ASCI Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee;
  • may be nominated only for one ASCI award (for example, a nominee for the Ropes Award may not be nominated for the Sullivan Award, Korsmeyer Award, or Harrington Prize);
  • must provide the following:
    • a personal statement (750-word limit);
    • a full curriculum vitae;
    • 3 most-significant publications, each with a 50-word annotation, followed by the member’s role in the publication, the journal name and publication year, and the Pubmed ID noted as “PMID:12345”;
  • and must complete the ASCI’s demographic survey.

To start a nomination:

  • Access your member account
  • Go to the “Nominations” tab
  • In the section for the award of interest:
    • If you are the nominee, select the “I’m the nominee” option to start your part of the nomination (only you have access to this information); note that this option will not be available for the Ropes Award for male members.
    • If you are the nominator, select “I’m the nominator” option, then search for your nominee. Only nominees who are within 5 years of their election year will appear in the results. Note: for the Ropes Award, you will only be able to select a nominee who is a woman; for the Sullivan Award, you may select anyone who is within 5 years of election, but nominations will be screened (based on the information the nominee provides in the demographics survey) to ensure that nominees fit the UiMS criterion.

 

 

Voters approve bylaws amendments regarding membership nominations and other items

Posted on by John Hawley

A ballot was issued to Active voters on July 18, 2022, that proposed the following changes to the organization’s bylaws:

  1. Temporary increase in Active and International membership nomination age limit. In Article III, Section 2a. Active and International, the proposed amendment was from “A nominee in this section must be a physician who is 50 years of age or less on January 1 of the election year, and who …” to “A nominee in this section must be a physician who is 50 years of age or less on January 1 of the election year, or who is 53 years of age or less for the 2023 and 2024 election years reporting extenuating circumstances, and who …”
  2. Committee participation. In Article VII – Committees, Section 1, the proposed amendment was from “Committee members may be active or senior members in good standing.” to “Voting committee members must be members in good standing. A committee may have participants in non-voting roles, provided each is approved by a simple majority of voting members.”
  3. Modify committee name and structure. In Article VII – Committees, Section 7, the proposed amendment was to revise a committee’s name and codify the position of Vice Chair. The Vice Chair would serve a one-year term and succeed to Chair, whose term would be revised from three years to two years. Section 7 would be revised to: “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. This committee ensures that the organization, its programs, and its mentoring mechanisms promote and recognize diversity, inclusion, and equity. A Chair serves a two-year term, after succeeding from a one-year term as Vice Chair. In the last year of a Chair’s term, the President nominates a candidate for Vice Chair, who is elected by a simple majority vote of the committee. The President, Vice President, and President Elect are standing members of the committee. Other committee members may be drawn from across the membership and are added by simple majority vote of the committee; these members serve up to 3-year terms that conclude at the start of the Society’s annual meeting or May 1, whichever is earlier.”

By the July 22, 2022, deadline, 42.4% of eligible voters responded, reaching the minimum 40% participation rate required for ballot items regarding bylaws amendments. For each proposed amendment, the percentage of voters who responded favorably was over the 75% threshold required to approve amendments.

Following the bylaw’s Ballot Review Committee section, these results were received, reviewed, and verified by Priscilla Hsue (2021-2023 ASCI Secretary-Treasurer) and two Active members identified by random selection from ballots submitted and who agreed to audit the results. Thank you to Rebecca J. Brown, MD, MHSc (NIH, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) and Sudarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD (Duke University School of Medicine) for their service.

Nominations for Active and International membership, 2023

Posted on by John Hawley

Nominations for Active and International membership for 2023 are open and may be submitted through September 30, 2022, 11:59 pm Eastern. All participants in a nomination should carefully review the information below. Send questions to staff@the-asci.org.

For the 2023 cycle, the bylaws have been amended to allow nominations of otherwise qualified individuals who are age 53 or younger on January 1, 2023, and whose work has been affected by extenuating circumstances. (This amendment also applies for the 2024 cycle, after which the age limit returns to 50.)

Nominees in these categories:

  • must be physicians who have “accomplished meritorious original, creative, and independent investigations in the clinical or allied sciences of medicine” and who enjoy “unimpeachable moral standing in the medical profession” (as stated in the ASCI bylaws);
  • must be age 53 or younger on January 1, 2023:
    • for candidates age 50 or younger on January 1, 2023, no information is required regarding an extenuating circumstance that may have affected their work;
    • for those age 51-53 on January 1, 2023, they need not have been previously nominated, and they must provide information regarding extenuating circumstances that have affected their work; and
  • may not be nominated more than three times (including those age 51-53 on January 1, 2023).

Proposers are discouraged from nominating those whose qualifications may not be sufficiently advanced, or from re-nominating a candidate if the candidate’s work has changed little since their previous nominations.

The ASCI Council reviews nominations and may recommend up to 100 Active and International nominees for election. The Council presents the recommended nominee group to Active and Senior members to approve by vote. Those elected for 2023 will be recognized at the ASCI’s annual Dinner and New Member Induction Ceremony, April 21, 2023, as part of the 2023 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, April 21-23, 2023, at the Swissôtel Chicago.

Note that Council members may not serve in any capacity regarding nominations.

Nomination preparation guidance and instructions

A nomination requires one Proposer and one Seconder, both of whom must be ASCI members in good standing and (if applicable) current in Society dues. General Supporters are optional.

There is no limit to the number of nominations a member can propose or support (either as Seconder or General Supporter).

The Proposer is ideally from an institution different from the nominee’s institution (although this is not required) and should have a good understanding of the nominee’s work. The Proposer is responsible for:

  • starting the nomination (see “ASCI account access” below);
  • granting access to the nominee to edit certain sections of the nomination (see detail in “Nomination sections” below); please note that granting access is optional but strongly encouraged to help ensure accuracy of information and to reduce the time burden on Proposers;
  • providing the “Proposer’s general statement on the nominee” (500-word limit) and “Statement on progress and development since previous nomination” (if applicable, 500-word limit);
  • ensuring that the nomination is accurate and complete; and
  • submitting the nomination.

Nominees may, if granted access, edit certain sections of the nomination.

The Seconder is ideally from an institution different from the nominee’s institution (although this is not required) and should have a good understanding of the nominee’s work. The Seconder is responsible for completing and submitting a form that includes:

  • scores for the areas enumerated in the form;
  • comments (500-word limit) that supplement, but do not duplicate, information provided by the Proposer and deal specifically with the nominee’s original scientific contributions; and
  • description of the relationship to the nominee.

General Supporters (not required; limited to 3 per nomination) may help to provide additional context for a nominee’s contributions, and to demonstrate wider support for the nominee beyond the candidate’s own institution, particularly if the Proposer and Seconder of a nomination are from the nominee’s institution. Anyone (including any ASCI member) may serve as a General Supporter. The General Supporter completes and submits a form that includes:

  • scores for the areas enumerated in the form;
  • comments (250-word limit) that supplement, but do not duplicate, information provided by the Proposer or the Seconder and deal specifically with the nominee’s original scientific contributions; and
  • description of the relationship to the nominee.

A nomination support template may be referenced in order to aid in drafting comments. Please note, however:

  • General Supporters who are ASCI members should complete and submit the required information online through their member accounts (see “ASCI account access”).
  • General Supporters who are not ASCI members should request that the Proposer add them to the nomination, where the Proposer can send emails to such supporters that include information about accessing their specific form.

ASCI account access

  • Access your account
  • Go to the “Nominations” tab, navigate to the “Active and International membership” section, and click on “Search for a nominee”
  • Enter the nominee’s last name (you may enter a partial name)
    • If a result is found, select your role (Proposer, Seconder, or General Supporter)
    • If no result is found, provide the requested information to start the nomination

Nomination sections

  • About the nominee — nominee may edit this information.
  • Nominee’s demographic information — nominee may edit this information.
    The ASCI requests responses to questions in a brief, 9-section survey that will help provide the foundation for expanding diversity, fostering inclusion, and achieving equity in the ASCI. All response areas are voluntary, with a “Prefer not to answer” option available for each section. Anyone with access to person-specific information (such as ASCI leadership, members associated with review processes, and staff members) will be required to keep the information confidential. Depersonalized summary information of all response areas may be provided in periodic public reports.
  • Support for nomination — Only accessible to the Proposer.
    Proposers may attach a Seconder and General Supporters to the nomination by searching the ASCI member directory; for a supporter who is not an ASCI member, Proposers must supply the supporter’s name and email address in order to attach the person to the nomination. After supporters are attached to the nomination, Proposers are provided the ability to notify them regarding their support forms.
  • Nominee’s institutional affiliation — nominee may edit this information
  • Documents — nominee may edit this information:
    • Full academic curriculum vitae, including:
      • current funding (clearly indicate whether the nominee is a principal investigator),
      • past funding,
      • invited lectures,
      • patents, and
      • full bibliography (with original research separated from other types of publications and the nominee’s name presented in bold face).
    • NIH-style biographic sketch (5-page limit), following the current format available at:
      http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm
    • A high-resolution headshot photograph (for use if the nominee is recommended for election)
    • Three “Most significant publications,” excluding those representing work done by the nominee as a trainee. For each of these three files, an annotation is required and consists of two aspects:
      1. List authors in the original publication sequence, with the nominee’s name in capital letters, followed by numbered notation of the nominee’s role in parentheses (1 = principal investigator, 2 = collaborator), title, journal name, volume, inclusive page numbers, year, and Pubmed ID (PMID). Example:
        “John Q. Public and JANE DOE (1). Title. Journal. 1:1-10 (2015). PMID 1234”
      2. A description (50-word limit) of the publication’s key findings and significance.
  • Extenuating circumstances — nominee may edit this information.
    A nominee who is age 51-53 as of January 1, 2023, must select at least one of the extenuating circumstances provided: “elder care/other types of caregiving”; “child care”; “illness”; or “other”. An explanation of the circumstance(s) may be provided and is encouraged, but the explanation is optional.
  • Seminal contribution(s) —  nominee may edit this information.
    Summarize the nominee’s defining seminal contribution(s) and why this work forms the basis for the nomination. 75-word limit.
  • Proposer’s general statement on the nominee — only accessible to the Proposer.
    In the Proposer’s own words (500-word limit), describe the quality, originality, and impact of the nominee’s scientific work and the consistency and importance of the nominee’s research theme. Include a statement on the level of independence from the nominee’s mentor(s) and the nominee’s productivity and stature in the field.
    • Proposers should expand upon the candidate’s seminal contribution(s), including the originality, novelty, and impact of this research on the field. Note any special circumstances (e.g., childbearing, personal or family illness) that influenced the candidate’s research activities.
    • Information regarding major awards, invitations to give plenary lectures (especially at national and international meetings), and invitations to write chapters in major textbooks should be included as applicable — the quality and quantity of work are important factors.
  • Statement on progress and development since previous nomination — only accessible to the Proposer.
    In the Proposer’s own words (500-word limit), describe the critical differences between this nomination and the previous nomination (if applicable).

 

Valerie A. Arboleda, MD, PhD—full video

Posted on by John Hawley

Our second Perspectives video features PSEC member Dr. Patrick Nana-Sinkam’s interview with 2022 ASCI inductee Valerie A. Arboleda, MD, PhD (view profile), Assistant Professor of Pathology, Laboratory Medicine, and Human Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Arboleda’s research focuses on the application of next-generation sequencing to understand the basis of genetic syndromes. She talks about her scientific background; her contribution to developing an FDA-approved scalable COVID-19 test; and the need to improve equity in genetic testing.

From the JCI Editor: New Impact Factor and launch of Research Letters

Posted on by John Hawley

On behalf of the Journal of Clinical Investigation’s Editorial Board, I am humbled by the opportunity to serve the ASCI and to have the privilege of determining the cutting-edge biomedical research published by the Journal. I am delighted to share with you that the JCI’s latest Journal Impact Factor (IF) is 19.456, representing a 24% increase from the previous year. Our sister journal, JCI Insight, has also increased its IF, which now stands at 9.484. This strong performance highlights the strength of our authors’ articles and reflects the importance of our mission to understand the basis of human disease. We are grateful to our authors for entrusting us with their work, to our reviewers and consulting editors for their dedication to maintaining the highest standards, and to the prior editorial team at Johns Hopkins for their expert leadership during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. These successes affirm the ASCI’s voice and the critical role of societies in the publishing landscape.

As stewards of the JCI, the Northwestern-based Editorial Board is dedicated to continuing and improving the Journal’s record of excellence. We encourage submission of Research manuscripts that define disease processes. We welcome work that utilizes human data, from “n of one” to “big data” studies, while remaining interested in translationally relevant animal models and preclinical investigation. We also encourage Clinical Medicine submissions focused on human studies that have the potential to impact clinical practice or inform understanding of diseases.

Recognizing the need to disseminate certain high-impact findings quickly, we have launched a new submission category, Research Letters — focused reports of an original preclinical or clinical research finding of exceptional interest to the JCI readership presented in a single-figure (or -table) format.

As a reminder, ASCI dues-paying members who are the corresponding author of a first-round submission to the JCI, and whose dues are current, may designate one submission per calendar year to be guaranteed for external peer review. We encourage you to take advantage of this benefit by sending us your best work that advances the understanding of pathogenesis.

I wish you all the best and thank you for your support of the JCI.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth M. McNally, MD, PhD
Editor, The Journal of Clinical Investigation
Officer, ASCI Council

Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI – full video (July 2022)

Posted on by John Hawley

The PSEC is proud to initiate the ASCI Perspectives series with DEIC member Dr. Patrick Nana-Sinkam’s (elected 2019; view profile) interview with Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI (elected 2022; view profile). Dr. Wilkins is Chief Equity Officer and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence; Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Translational Science; and Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Vanderbilt University. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020. In the interview, Dr. Wilkins, a leading health equity researcher, discusses the origins of her research path and shares lessons learned.

Recipient of the 2022 Seldin~Smith Award for Pioneering Research: Piro Lito, MD, PhD

Posted on by John Hawley
Dr. Lito

The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) is pleased to recognize Piro Lito, MD, PhD, as the recipient of the 2022 Donald Seldin~Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research. Dr. Lito receives an honorarium of $30,000 to advance his academic efforts and will deliver a scientific talk at the 2023 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting.

Dr. Lito has worked to understand KRAS oncoprotein signaling in cancer. Approximately 25% of patients with lung cancer have KRAS mutations; and ~13% of these have the specific mutation G12C. Dr. Lito demonstrated that KRAS mutants are not locked in their active state but rather cycle between their active and inactive states in cancer cells. Further, he described the mechanism by which KRAS G12C can be inhibited by drugs that target its inactive state, rendering it unable to contribute to further tumor growth. In addition, Dr. Lito co-led the first-in-human clinical trial of the KRAS G12C inhibitor sotorasib, work that paved the way for the US FDA’s approval of sotorasib in 2021.

Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon), who is Professor, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, supported Dr. Lito’s nomination, noting that “Piro is exemplary of the kind of person we should support with the Seldin~Smith Award. He has tremendous potential to conduct high‐risk and potentially groundbreaking research.”

Dr. Lito earned his BS, PhD, and MD from Michigan State University. He subsequently completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He did his clinical fellowship in medical oncology and postdoctoral research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he is currently Associate Member and Attending Physician. Dr. Lito’s research has been supported in part by the National Cancer Institute. He is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research, a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator, a recipient of the 2018 ASCI’s Young Physician-Scientist Awards, and the recipient of the 2021 Trailblazer Prize for Clinician Scientists by the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health. He was elected to the ASCI in 2021. 

Nominations were evaluated by the Seldin~Smith Award Selection Committee: Mukesh K. Jain (Chair), Vivian G. Cheung, Charles L. Sawyers, Elizabeth M. McNally, W. Kimryn Rathmell, and Lorraine Ware. Finalists were evaluated by an Advisory Committee comprising five physician-scientist luminaries: Joseph L. Goldstein (Chair), Michael S. Brown, Robert J. Lefkowitz, Christine Seidman, and Arthur Weiss.

Message from Sohail Tavazoie, the incoming 2022-2023 President

Posted on by John Hawley
Dr. Tavazoie

I am incredibly honored to start my term as ASCI President. My four years on Council revealed to me the critical roles our members and organization play in benefiting society. The scientific study of human disease improves human health, enhances our fundamental understanding of biology, supports our economy, spawns new and previously unforeseeable disciplines, and is the most privileged profession imaginable for many of us.

It is my hope that we will better support and enable current and future physician-scientists to have the opportunities we’ve had so they can make the transformative discoveries of tomorrow. To this end, we wish to hear from you. We will be sending members a survey to inform our Council about the needs, challenges, and aspirations of our members and their physician-scientist trainees. I have also begun an initiative to highlight and promote the scientific and personal histories of our membership. To do this, we will be requesting your research interests, recent key publications, and a short video, all of which will be posted on an updated ASCI website and directory. This will serve to inspire physician-scientist trainees, enhance their recruitment into members’ labs, and foster interactions, collaborations, and support networks in our community.

We will also soon announce the details of two awards aimed at recognizing outstanding mid-career members, and we are planning additional initiatives to nurture the careers of physician-scientist trainees and junior faculty members.

You can follow these developments on Twitter @the_asci, @AsciPresident, the JCI @jclinicalinvest, and JCI Insight @jci_insight.

Sincerely,

Sohail Tavazoie, MD, PhD

Message from Hossein Ardehali, the outgoing 2021-2022 President

Posted on by John Hawley
Dr. Ardehali

I have completed my 2021-2022 Presidential term and am grateful for the trust the membership placed in me by electing me to serve in this special capacity. It has been a true and humbling honor for me, having immigrated as a teenager from war-torn Iran to the US, where I was able to pursue the physician-scientist career path. In my Presidential Address at April’s Joint Meeting, I talked about my personal history as an immigrant but more importantly the significance of immigration to science and technology in the US, which I hope will continue to be a symbol of freedom and remain open to the world. (Watch the video.)

I’m pleased that we were able to accomplish the following initiatives during my term:

  • We created the ASCI Scientific Sessions, monthly presentations from accomplished investigators, free and open to all, through the academic year. We started in September 2021 with Dr. Bill Kaelin and finished this cycle with Dr. Charles Sawyers. (See the 2021-2022 archive.) The 2022-2023 ASCI Scientific Sessions will start in September 2022.
  • We increased programming for early-career physician-scientists, including the ASCI’s Physician-Scientist Pathway Series, a periodic informal discussion between a senior ASCI member and the ASCI’s early-career awardees (more below). Thank you to Drs. Miriam Merad and Sangeeta Bhatia for their participation as we started this Series.
  • We strengthened international outreach, notably to the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, with ongoing discussion regarding tangible collaborations between our respective groups.
  • We started a quarterly summary of ASCI activities and information (this email being a continuation of that initiative).

I give my thanks to Drs. Lorraine Ware, Kim Rathmell, and Kieren Marr, who preceded me when I started on the Presidential path and who provided great examples of leadership, and to the many Council members with whom I’ve served since being elected to the Council in 2016. All have contributed significant time and effort to ensure the ASCI’s success. I also want to thank my friend and colleague, John Hawley, and the rest of the ASCI staff for their continuous support and for their hard work in the past year. Dr. Sohail Tavazoie succeeds me as 2022-2023 President. Join me in wishing him the best for his term.

Sincerely,

Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD @ArdehaliHossein

The 2022 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine: James E. Crowe, Jr., MD, and Michel C. Nussenzweig, MD, PhD

Posted on by John Hawley
Dr. Crowe
Dr. Nussenzweig

The ninth annual Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine has been jointly awarded to James E. Crowe, Jr., MD, Director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Center and Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt School of Medicine, and Michel C. Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, Investigator, HHMI, and Zanvil A. Cohn and Ralph M. Steinman Professor, The Rockefeller University. The award recognizes their groundbreaking work, which has elucidated fundamental principles of the human immune response and enabled the use of human antibodies to treat COVID-19.

The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, established in 2014 by the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), honors physician-scientists who have moved science forward with achievements notable for innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.

Dr. Crowe has advanced the discovery of human monoclonal antibodies for many of the most pathogenic viruses that cause human disease. His team has discovered thousands of human monoclonal antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and facilitated their development, transferring clinical leads to multiple pharmaceutical partners including tixagevimab + cilgavimab, now in use in high risk patients. His work on the genetic and structural basis of virus neutralization has also revealed important principles that are being exploited in new vaccine and antibody development.

Dr. Nussenzweig addressed a critical issue in immunology – the lack of a detailed understanding of the human antibody response – by developing robust and scalable methods for cloning antibodies from single human B cells. Dr. Nussenzweig showed that antibodies cloned directly from humans can be a safe and effective treatment against viral infections when passively transferred to other humans. His work established a paradigm that made it possible for him and others to rapidly develop monoclonal antibody therapies against SARS-CoV-2.

A committee composed of members of the ASCI Council and the Harrington Discovery Institute Scientific Advisory Board reviewed nominations from leading academic medical centers from eight countries before selecting the 2022 Harrington Prize recipients.

“Drs. Crowe and Nussenzweig are extraordinary physician-scientists who took distinct and separate paths but arrived at the same endpoint. In doing so, they have taught us a great deal about the human immune response and have successfully translated those findings into therapies for patients. The creativity, innovation and clinical impact demonstrated by their work is precisely what The Harrington Prize seeks to recognize,” said Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Northwestern Medicine and the 2021-2022 President of the ASCI.

“The translational implications of Dr. Crowe’s and Dr. Nussenzweig’s work are quite profound. Their antibody-based therapies have enabled the medical community to more effectively combat COVID, and will spare untold human suffering,” said Jonathan S. Stamler, MD, President, Harrington Discovery Institute, Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Innovation and Professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.    

In addition to sharing the Prize’s $20,000 honorarium, co-recipients Dr. Crowe and Dr. Nussenzweig will deliver The Harrington Prize Lecture at the 2022 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting on April 8, will be  featured speakers at the 2022 Harrington Scientific Symposium May 25-26, and will co-publish an essay in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Since its establishment, The Harrington Prize has recognized outstanding and diverse innovation in medicine:

  • 2014: Harry Dietz, MD, Johns Hopkins University, for his contributions to the understanding of the biology and treatment of Marfan syndrome, a disorder leading to deadly aneurysms in children and adults.
  • 2015: Douglas R. Lowy, MD, The National Cancer Institute, in recognition of his discoveries that led to the development of the Human Papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.
  • 2016: Jeffrey M. Friedman, MD, PhD, The Rockefeller University, for his discovery of leptin, which controls feeding behavior and is used to treat related clinical disorders.
  • 2017: Jointly awarded to Daniel J. Drucker, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada, Joel F. Habener, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Jens J. Holst, MD, DMSc, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for their discovery of incretin hormones and for the  translation of these findings into transformative therapies for major metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
  • 2018: Helen H. Hobbs, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, for the discovery of the link between a gene mutation (PCSK9) and lower levels of LDL, which has improved the treatment of high cholesterol.
  • 2019: Carl H. June, MD, University of Pennsylvania, for advancing the clinical application of CAR T therapy for cancer treatment, and for his sustained contributions to the field of cellular immunology.
  • 2020: Stuart H. Orkin, MD, Harvard University, for breakthrough discoveries on red blood cells that offer new treatments for patients with sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, which are among the most common genetic disorders.
  • 2021: Warren J. Leonard, MD, and John J. O’Shea, MD, NIH, for their respective contributions to the field of immunology, from fundamental discovery to therapeutic impact.