John I. Gallin (born March 25, 1943) was an American medical researcher who has contributed to the understanding of innate immunity but especially chronic granulomatous disease, a phagocyte disorder.[1] Gallin was appointed director of the NIH Clinical Center on May 1, 1994,[2] and served until January 8, 2017. He serves as the chief scientific officer for the Clinical Center and associate director for clinical research at the National Institutes of Health.[3] He died Oct. 10, 2024.
In 1985, he was appointed scientific director for intramural research activities at the NIAID, a position he held for the next nine years.[1] Gallin was the founding chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Host Defenses in 1991 and served as chief of the laboratory for 12 years.[2] He continues as chief of the lab's clinical pathophysiology section in a new version of the lab called the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology.
Gallin was the 10th director of the NIH Clinical Center, a position he held for 22 years, the longest serving director.[4] The Clinical Center is the largest hospital focused solely on clinical research and serves the scientific and medical needs of 17 NIH institutes. In 2011, under Gallin's leadership, the Clinical Center was the only hospital to receive the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award.[5]
In August 2016, Gallin was appointed to the newly created positions of NIH associate director for clinical research and chief scientific officer for the Clinical Center.[6] These posts report directly to the NIH Director and oversee independent research programs, clinical research training and the scientific review process for all clinical protocols conducted at the NIH. On January 8, 2017, Gallin stepped down as the director of the NIH Clinical Center to focus full-time as the chief scientific officer of the Clinical Center and NIH associate director for clinical research.[6]
Gallin has published or co-authored more than 355 articles in scientific journals and has edited two textbooks: Inflammation, Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, 1999) and Principles and Practices of Clinical Research (Academic Press, 2002, 4th edition (2018).[8]
Medical research
Gallin's primary research interests are on the role of phagocytes, the body's scavenger cells in host defense.[9] His research has focused on rare hereditary immune disorders, and he identified the genetic basis of several diseases of the phagocytes (neutrophils and macrophages).[9]
The laboratory has focused on neutrophil-specific granule deficiency, actin interacting protein deficiency and chronic granulomatous disease (CGD).[10] When phagocytes fail to produce hydrogen peroxide and bleach, CGD results. The laboratory described the genetic basis for several forms of CGD and the research has reduced life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections in CGD patients.[10] The laboratory discovered that when CGD patients get older they are protected from atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries), suggesting the abnormal enzyme in this disease might be a drugable target for normal people with disorders of inflammation such as atherosclerosis.[10]
Achievements as NIH Clinical Center Director
During his tenure as director of the NIH Clinical Center, Gallin oversaw the design and construction of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (CRC), an 870,000-square-foot research hospital added to the original structure. The CRC opened to patients in 2005.[8]
Gallin also established a new curriculum for clinical research training that is now offered globally reaching over 20,000 students annually throughout the United States and in over 150 countries, and he supported development of new information systems for sharing biomedical translational and clinical research.[8]
Gallin was key to establishing a Patient Advisory Group at the Clinical Center in 1998, one of the first for patients participating in clinical research.[11] He, along with Clinical Center nurses, conceived and championed identifying resources from the NIH Foundation to construct the NIH Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge which opened in 2005.
Gallin stressed the importance of collaboration and helped open the Clinical Center and its depth of resources to the research community outside NIH.[8]
In 1966, Gallin married Elaine Klimerman Gallin, a scientist with whom he has collaborated. They have two children: Alice Jennifer Gallin-Dwyer, trained as a lawyer and now working as the deputy director at the Washington Monthly[12] and raising three children, and Michael Louis Gallin, an architect practicing outside New York City who has two children.[citation needed]
Gallin JI (Oct 2011). "Commentary: The NIH Clinical Center and the Future of Clinical Research". Nature Medicine. 17 (10): 1221–1223. doi:10.1038/nm.2466. PMID21989014.
Lekstrom-Himes JA, Gallin JI (Dec 2000). "Immunodeficiency diseases caused by defects in phagocytes". The New England Journal of Medicine. 343 (23): 1703–1714. doi:10.1056/NEJM200012073432307. PMID11106721.
Leto TL, Lomax KJ, Volpp BD, Nunoi H, Sechler JM, Nauseef WM, Clark RA, Gallin JI, Malech HL (May 1990). "Cloning of a 67K neutrophil oxidase factor with similarity to a noncatalytic region of p60c-src". Science. 248 (4956): 727–730. Bibcode:1990Sci...248..727L. doi:10.1126/science.1692159. PMID1692159.
^"Meet New Flag Officers", Commissioned Corps Bulletin, VI (12), Division of Commissioned Personnel, Office of the Surgeon General, PHS, DHHS: 1–2, December 1992