Astute Clinician Lecture

The annual Astute Clinician Lecture was established in 1998 through a gift from the late Dr. Robert W. Miller and his wife, Haruko. It honors U.S. scientists who have observed unusual clinical occurrences and, by investigating them, have opened an important new avenue of research. The lectureship exemplifies how astute clinical observations can lead to innovative research. Speakers are proposed by members of the Medical Executive Committee (MEC) with voting for the top three candidates. Selection from this slate of candidates is made by the NIH Director.

Anticytokine Autoantibodies: Causes, Concomitants and Complications of Infectious Diseases

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Steven Holland, M.D., NIH

Steve Holland's research entails immune defects of phagocytes: GATA2 deficiency (MonoMAC), nontuberculous mycobacterial infections, chronic granulomatous disease, hyper IgE (Job’s) syndrome, leukocyte adhesion deficiency; cytokines and their receptors in the pathogenesis and therapy of infections; susceptibility to disseminated mycobacterial infections, such as GATA2, autoantibodies to interferon gamma and defects in the interferon gamma/IL-12 pathway; mechanisms of mycobacterial pathogenesis; mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis (e.g., Burkholderia); mechanisms of Coccidioides

Advancing Therapies for Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1): Lessons Learned from Every Patient

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Brigitte Widemann, M.D., National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute

Dr. Brigitte Widemann is a pediatric oncologist with the primary interest of developing effective therapies for children and adults with genetic tumor predisposition syndromes, such as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), and rare solid tumors through innovative clinical trial design. Dr. Widemann currently serves as the head of the Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics Section and as Chief of NCI’s Pediatric Oncology Branch. Anticancer drug discovery and development are moving towards a more rational and targeted approach.

Gaucher Disease: How a Rare Disease Provides a Window into Common Neurodegenerative Disorders

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Ellen Sidransky, M.D., National Human Genome Research Institute

Gaucher disease is a rare disorder caused by a hereditary deficiency of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase and is characterized by easy bruising, fatigue, anemia, low platelet count, and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Dr. Sidransky played a lead role in establishing the association between glucocerebrosidase and parkinsonism. She also has spearheaded two large international collaborative studies regarding the genetics of Parkinson disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

We Are What We Eat: Nutrition, Genes, Cognition & Deep Learning in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Emily Y. Chew, M.D., National Eye Institute

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the United States and in the developed world. Two NIH-supported randomized clinical trials with 10 years of follow-up in nearly 10,000 participants demonstrated that nutritional supplements with antioxidant vitamins and minerals reduces the risk of progression to late AMD. Dietary data suggest the importance of the Mediterranean diet in reducing the risk of AMD, particularly fish consumption. The analyses of the genetic interaction with nutrition challenges the idea that you can eat away your genetic risk.

What makes America great

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Astute Clinician Lecture
William A. Gahl, M.D., Ph.D., National Human Genome Research Institute

Dr. Gahl studies the natural history, diagnosis, and treatment of rare genetic disorders such as cystinosis, Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, sialic acid storage diseases, GNE myopathy, and disorders of platelets and pigmentation. He also investigates undiagnosed disorders under the aegis of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program and Network, and pursues new disease discovery.

Perspective on autoimmunity: a view from the ANCA vasculitis looking glass

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Ronald J. Falk, M.D., University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Dr. Ronald Falk is internationally recognized physician-scientist whose lifelong career has been the study of autoimmune kidney disease and ANCA vasculitis. For over three decades, his research has led to a deeper understanding of the causes and conditions that may lead to the development of ANCA vasculitis in an effort to improve the lives of those patients afflicted with vasculitis and autoimmune kidney diseases.

Relief from severe depression and suicidal ideation within hours: from synapses to symptoms

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Carlos Zarate, M.D., National Institute of Mental Health

Dr. Zarate’s current research focus is on developing novel medications for treatment-resistant depression and bipolar disorder. His areas of expertise include biological and pharmacological aspects of mood disorders in adults. Dr. Zarate’s group conducts proof-of-concept studies utilizing novel compounds and biomarkers (magnetoencephalography [MEG] and polysomnography [PSG], positron emission tomography, functional MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy [MRS]) to identify potentially relevant drug targets and biosignatures of treatment response.

Past and future therapy for hepatitis C

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Astute Clinician Lecture
Jay H. Hoofnagle, M.D., NIDDK/NIH

The Astute Clinician series honors a U.S. clinician-scientist who has observed an unusual clinical occurrence, and by investigating it, has opened an important new avenue of research. Dr. Jay H. Hoofnagle, an expert in liver diseases, has been involved in early evaluation and development of virtually all antiviral agents developed for viral hepatitis including interferon, ribavirin, lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil.

The genetic basis of kidney cancer: targeting the metabolic basis of disease

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Astute Clinician Lecture
W. Marston Linehan, M.D., National Cancer Institute

Dr. Linehan has had a long-standing interest in identification of the genetic basis of cancer of the kidney. Kidney cancer is not a single disease. It is made up of a number of different types of cancer, each of which has a different histology, a different clinical course, which respond differently to therapy and are caused by different genes. Studies of the kidney cancer gene pathways have revealed that kidney cancer is fundamentally a metabolic disease.

This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 17, 2021