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NIAID Announces Senior Management Appointments


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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently announced the appointment of five individuals to senior management positions within NIAID.

Hugh Auchincloss, Jr., M.D., has been named Principal Deputy Director of NIAID. In that capacity, he will serve as second in command to NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and will have broad responsibilities for carrying out the Institute’s many programs.

“Dr. Auchincloss brings a wealth of scientific expertise and knowledge to his new position,” says Dr. Fauci. “His experience and leadership abilities will make him a great asset to our Institute in furthering our important medical research efforts.”

Prior to his appointment at NIAID, Dr. Auchincloss was Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School where he earned an international reputation in the field of organ transplantation. For more than 17 years, he operated a laboratory in transplantation immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with multiple research interests, including the mechanisms and control of tissue graft rejection, the mechanisms of transplantation tolerance induction, the use of pancreas and islet transplantation for the treatment of diabetes, and the prevention of recurrent autoimmunity.

In 1998, he founded the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Center for Islet Transplantation and served as its director until 2003. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer of the Immune Tolerance Network, an NIAID-directed international consortium of clinical researchers dedicated to developing approaches to induce immune tolerance, a process where the immune system is selectively adjusted by suppressing harmful immune responses and keeping protective responses intact. The goal of the research approach is to increase the number of successful transplants and treatments for autoimmune diseases that attack the body’s own cells, such as type 1 diabetes, lupus and arthritis.

Dr. Auchincloss also serves as the chairman of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Subcommittee on Xenotransplantation and in 2005 was elected President of the American Society of Transplantation. He has authored numerous scientific articles and texts and serves on the editorial boards of several major scientific publications.

In 1972, Dr. Auchincloss graduated from Yale University with bachelor’s degrees in both political science and economics and a master’s degree in economics. Dr. Auchincloss received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1976.

H. Clifford Lane, M.D., has been named NIAID Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Special Projects. Dr. Lane will continue to serve as the NIAID Clinical Director and Director of the newly established Division of Clinical Research. In his new position, Dr. Lane will also function as NIAID’s liaison with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

John J. McGowan, Ph.D., has been appointed to the new position of NIAID Deputy Director for Science Management. He will have overall responsibility for directing NIAID’s business and administrative requirements as well as its science planning, policy and integration. A virologist by training, Dr. McGowan has served in multiple roles at NIAID including Chief of the Developmental Therapeutics Branch and Associate Director for the Basic Research and Development Program, both within the Institute’s Division of AIDS. Most recently, Dr. McGowan served as Director of the Division of Extramural Activities, a position he held since 1991, and as the acting NIAID Associate Director for Management and Operations since December 2004.

Kathryn Zoon, Ph.D., has been appointed Director of the Institute’s Division of Intramural Research (DIR) — a position that she has performed in an acting capacity since June 2005. Dr. Zoon previously was Deputy Director for Planning and Development at DIR and prior to that, she served as the Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. Before arriving at NIH, Dr. Zoon led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which, during her tenure, licensed hundreds of biological products, including vaccines. In addition to serving as associate editor of the Journal of Interferon Research, Dr. Zoon also serves on the board of directors of the International Association for Biologicals. The recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Zoon was named to the Institute of Medicine in 2002. She earned her doctorate degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Gregory K. Folkers has been appointed Chief of Staff to Dr. Fauci, leading the newly created Immediate Office of the Director. Mr. Folkers came to NIAID in 1991 after being employed in various writing and communications positions in the Boston area. After working as a science writer and editor in the NIAID Office of Communications, he has for the past decade worked directly with Dr. Fauci as a special assistant and senior public affairs advisor. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Mr. Folkers holds a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in science journalism from Boston University.

News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on transplantation and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.



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