Articles
In Memoriam
Dr. John N. Brady
Dr. David Derse
Dr. Ralph Grassmann
Dr. William Harrington, Jr.
Dr. John N. Brady
Friends and colleagues remember John N. Brady, Ph.D., Chief of the Virus Tumor Biology Section of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, who died much too young at the age of 57 on April 27, 2009 of colon cancer. John grew up in Illinois and received his Ph.D. with Dr. Richard Consigli at Kansas State University studying the molecular structure of polyomavirus. In 1984 John came to the National Institutes of Health as a Staff Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Norman Salzman, Laboratory of Biology of Viruses NIAID, where he was among the first to analyze SV40 transcription using in vitro transcription systems and to analyze regulatory sequences for SV40 late transcription. He then trained with Dr. George Khoury in the Laboratory of Molecular Virology NCI, where he identified SV40 T-antigen as a transcriptional activator protein. His research interests grew to focus on the human retroviruses: human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), analyzing how interactions between these viruses and the host cell influence viral gene regulation, viral pathogenesis and viral transformation. His research also impacted the fields of eukaryotic gene regulation and tumor suppressor proteins. John is survived by his wife, Laraine, and two sons, Matt and Kevin. Memories about Dr. Brady from his friends and colleagues can be read at Retrovirology.
Dr. David Derse
Dr. Dave Derse passed away on Friday October 9, 2009 after a battle with liver cancer. Dr. Derse made outstanding contributions to the HTLV field and he will be greatly missed. Not only was he an excellent and rigorous scientist but also patient, gentle, generous and always ready to help. During his 25 years at the National Cancer Institute, he investigated the molecular mechanisms of retrovirus infection and replication, concentrating most recently on the human viruses HIV-1 and HTLV-1. In 2007, Dr. Derse and his research team discovered how HTLV-1 evades the body's natural defenses to fight off infection, a finding that may eventually lead to improved antiviral therapies and new strategies for preventing some types of cancer. Dr. Derse earned his Ph.D. in 1982 from the State University of New York at Buffalo in the laboratory of Dr. Yung-Chi Cheng and did postdoctoral research with Dr. James Casey at the Louisiana State University Medical Center. He joined the National Cancer Institute in 1986 and in 1991 he became a tenured Senior Investigator. Dr. Derse joined the HIV Drug Resistance Program in 2004 as Head of the Retrovirus Gene Expression Section. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program in Genetics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and served on the Editorial Boards of Virology and Retrovirology and the Executive Committee of the Center of Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Cancer Virology, Center for Cancer Research. Read messages from colleagues and friends.
Dr. Ralph Grassmann
Dr. Ralph Grassmann passed away on July 1, 2008 at age 50. A professor at the Institute of Clinical and Molecular Virology in Erlangen, he was well known as a caring individual on a personal level and as a major contributer in HTLV-1 research. Several memories from colleagues celebrating his life may be viewed at Retrovirology. Dr. Grassman graduated from Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1985 with a Diploma in Biology. He continued his education at the laboratory of Bernhard Fleckenstein at the Institute of Clinical and Molecular Virology, University Erlangen-Nürnberg and in part in the laboratory of William Haseltine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, where he was introduced to HTLV-1. He received a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1989 for work on a rhadinovirus vector for primary human T cells, which he also used to demonstrate HTLV-1 Tax transforming capacity. In 1990, Dr. Grassman became a research assistant and started an independent HTLV-1 research group at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Virology. In 1993, he reached assistant professor (Habilitation, Dr. med. habil.) before becoming a full professor of virology in 2000.
Dr. William J. Harrington, Jr.
On January 29, 2009, the HTLV, HIV/AIDS and medical community lost an energetic and unique physician-scientist, Dr. William J. Harrington, Jr. at the age of 54. Better known to his colleagues as Bill, he was a leader in the field of viral oncology, particularly in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphomas. He was an energetic contributor to the AIDS Malignancy Consortium and most recently served as the vice-chair of the International Working Group. Bill was born in 1954, the son of the late William J. Harrington, Sr, former professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami. Bill, Jr, received his medical degree and performed all of his postgraduate training at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and was professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and co-leader of the Viral Oncology Program in the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, which he helped established in 1988. His research focused on the biology and therapy of lymphoproliferative diseases and malignancies in immuno-compromised patients. In addition, he had long-standing collaborations with several Latin-American academic institutions involving clinical and basic research focused on EBV+, Burkitt lymphoma, and human T-lymphotrophic virus type 1-associated adult T-cell leukemia. Bill was the principal investigator of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) AIDS Malignancy Consortium core site in Miami and also headed the William J. Harrington Medical Training Programs in Latin America at the University of Miami founded by his father, which has trained over 3000 students and physicians from the Caribbean basin, Central America, and South America. More memories about Dr. Harrington can be read at the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.