In 2003, Dr. Alter became the first Clinical Center scientist elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Albert Lasker Medical Research Award, and in 2002 he received The International Society of Blood Transfusion Presidential Award.

Dr. Alter, who came to the NIH Clinical Center as a senior investigator in 1969, is chief of the infectious diseases section and associate director of research in the Department of Transfusion Medicine. As a young research fellow, he co- discovered (with Baruch Blumberg, a geneticist with Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases) the Australian antigen, a key to detecting the hepatitis B virus. Later, he spearheaded a Clinical Center project to create a storehouse of blood samples used to uncover the causes and reduce the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis. Because of such work, the United States instituted blood and donor screening programs that reduced the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis from 30 percent in 1970 to nearly 0.

In collaboration with Bob Purcell and Stephen Feinstone (NIAID), Dr. Alter used this repository of clinically linked blood samples to solve another puzzling clinical problem. Most transfusion-related hepatitis was attributed to a virus different from the two then-known hepatitis agents. Calling this new form “non-A, non-B hepatitis,” the researchers subsequently proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that it was transmitted through a new agent — which led eventually to discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
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Dr. Arthur J. Atkinson, senior advisor in Clinical Pharmacology to the Clinical
Center Director, was awarded the 2004 Henry W. Elliot Distinguished Service Award. Sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the organization. Dr. Atkinson directs NIH’s ClinPRAT postdoctoral training program, the NIH Clinical Center course on Principles of Clinical Pharmacology, and an NIH computer workshop on Principles of Pharmacokinetic Data Analysis: Modeling and Simulation.

He has been a member of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics for more than 25 years, serving as president for 1995-1996. He was also a member of the board of directors, chairman of the Committee on Coordination of Scientific Sections, and associate editor of the organization’s journal, Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Atkinson received his A.B. degree in chemistry from Harvard College and graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1963. He served as a clinical associate in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, NIAID, and received postdoctoral training in clinical pharmacology at the University of Cincinnati. In 1970, Dr. Atkinson started a clinical pharmacology center at Northwestern University Medical School, where he served in the departments of medicine and pharmacology for 24 years before accepting a position at the Upjohn Company as corporate vice president of clinical development and medical affairs. Following the merger of Upjohn with Pharmacia, he returned to the NIH Clinical Center where he began his research career.
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“This program has been not just a team effort from the combined work of a group of doctors, nurses, research nurses, pharmacists, social workers and other healthcare professionals directly involved in patient care,” said Dr. John Barrett, the unit chief, “but it reflects dedicated and enthusiastic effort from the entire Clinical Center. It is not an exaggeration to say that the transplant program has only been possible in the unique environment of NIH, where we have enjoyed state-of-the art expertise.”

“We are rewarded each day as we are given the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our stem cell transplant patients,” noted Nonniekaye Shelburne, a clinical nurse specialist in stem cell transplants. “Having the BMT team recognized with the NIH Director’s Award energizes our passion to continue working in this intense and ever-changing area of medical research.”

Margaret Bevans was also awarded the Josh Gottheil Memorial Bone Marrow Transplant Career Development Award, sponsored by the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation, for meritorious practice in bone marrow transplant nursing. Bevans has been a part of the Bone Marrow Transplant program since it began in 1993.
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2004 lecturers were Drs. Steve Holland and Michael Bishop. Dr. Holland, chief of the immuno- pathogenesis section of NIAID’s Laboratory of Host Defenses, discussed “The Human Genetics of Mycobacterial Susceptibility.” Dr. Bishop, investigator and clinical head of NCI’s Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch discussed “Allogeneic T Cells as Adoptive Immunotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer.”

Dr. Decker came to NIH in 1965 as chief of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch in what is now the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, serving as clinical director from 1976-1980 and scientist emeritus following his retirement in 1990. A native of New York and the son of missionary parents, he grew up in China and returned to the United States for his education. A World War II Navy veteran, Dr. Decker served in the Pacific and received the Purple Heart.

His studies in rheumatic diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, earned him international recognition and many distinguished awards. In retirement, he remained active at the Clinical Center, serving as author and contributing editor of Protomechanics, A Guide to Preparing and Conducting a Clinical Research Study.
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A breast cancer specialist, Emanuel was appointed chair of the Clinical Center's Department of Clinical Bioethics in 1998. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD in political philosophy from Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation received the Toppan Award for the finest dissertation in political science of the year. Emanuel was a fellow in the program in ethics and the professions at the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard.

After completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and an oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Emanuel joined the faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He was also associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Emanuel served on the ethics section of President Clinton’s health care task force and on the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. He has published widely in medical journals on the ethics of clinical research, advance care directives, end-of-life care issues, euthanasia, the ethics of managed care, and the physician-patient relationship. His book on medical ethics, The Ends of Human Life, received honorable mention for the Rosenhaupt Memorial Book Award by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He received the AMA-Burroughs Wellcome Leadership Award and a Fulbright scholarship (which he declined).
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Randy Alexander, chairman of the board of trustees of the patient advocacy organization making the award, has hereditary hemochromatosis. He is one of 200 participants in DTM's hereditary hemochromatosis donor protocol. The condition, dubbed the “Celtic Curse” by some, is more commonly known today as hereditary hemochromatosis (HH). Its effects can be devastating: arthritis, fatigue, heart palpitations, nonspecific stomach pain, impotence, loss of menstruation, and infertility. In advanced stages, the skin can take on a gray or bronze hue, and serious problems — such as cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, diabetes, heart and joint disease, severe fatigue, cardiac arrhythmia, and congestive heart failure — may develop, resulting in disability or death.

A common genetic disorder in people of northern European Caucasian descent, it affects one in 200 people in this risk group. “Many people don't even know they have it, although it affects them from early childhood,” says Leitman. She believes it should be tested for at infancy or in childhood. Under Dr. Leitman’s auspices, said Alexander, NIH has demonstrated “tremendous forward thinking in designing an outstanding program yielding significant data and publicizing HH.” Leitman finds it highly rewarding to be able to improve the quality of care in this group of patients, who are so highly informed about their condition. Ironically, “blood donations by people with HH constitute 15 percent of all the blood units collected in DTM and transfused to Clinical Center patients.” By participating in the DTM protocol, those with HH “not only get the best, most expert and informed care, but they help save other lives while being treated. That is the paradigm that IDI was honoring with this award.
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