1998 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine
Dr. Robert H. Purcell, head of the hepatitis viruses section at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received the
1998 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine in a special
ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 14. He shares the prize
with Dr. John L. Gerin, director of the molecular virology and
immunology division at Georgetown University Medical Center,
who has received NIAID support for many years. The two
scientists, working in close collaboration, have devoted much of
their research careers to the discovery, identification and
characterization of various hepatitis viruses, and to development of
diagnostic tests, treatments and preventive measures for hepatitis.
They were key in the development of the hepatitis A vaccine that is
in use worldwide and have also developed a hepatitis E vaccine that
is now in preclinical studies. Purcell and Gerin continue to
collaborate on studies of mutual interest: testing a candidate hepatitis
B vaccine in China; discovery of a new strain of hepatitis D virus in
the jungles of Brazil; and studies on the epidemiology of hepatitis E
virus in Pakistan.
NIAID's Division of Microbiology
and Infectious Diseases Honored
NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases was
recently honored by the Food and Drug Administration with the
Outstanding Unit Citation for PHS Commissioned Corps officers.
Civilian team members were honored last year with the FDA
Commissioner's Special Citation. DMID was cited for "exceeding
the limits of duty" in assisting the review of an NIAID-sponsored
acellular pertussis vaccine trial. Dr. Kathryn C. Zoon, director of
FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)
congratulates NIAID's Dr. George T. Curlin (l), acting director of
DMID, and Dr. William C. Blackwelder, chief of the Biometry
Branch, DMID. The NIAID team's knowledge of the complex data
sets assisted CBER in completion of successful and timely statistical
and clinical reviews.
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