Professor John L.Gerin

John Gerin obtained a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His interest in vaccine development started when he joined the Scientific Research Division of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago in 1964, where he participated in the development and testing of more than 25 vaccines for protection from respiratory pathogens. He became a Group Leader of Biophysical and Biochemical Virology at the Infectious Diseases Division of Abbott Laboratories in 1965. Two years later, he left to join Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In 1968, he founded the Infectious Disease Division of ORNL, which joined Georgetown University Medical Center in 1978. He later became the Director of the Division of Molecular Virology and Immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Rockville, MD.

Professors Gerin and Robert Purcell collaborated for more than 30 years. Their extensive joint laboratory and field studies did not only lead to the discovery, identification, characterization and screening of different hepatitis viruses but also to the development of vaccines to control most of them. They were the first to show that a highly purified envelope protein from the hepatitis B virus protected non-human primates, a discovery that proved to be critical for the development of the hepatitis B vaccine. They were also responsible for the development of specific assays for the detection of hepatitis viruses, and reagents for standardized screening of blood and blood products. In addition, they developed a hepatitis A vaccine, collaborated with Professor Mario Rizzetto in the discovery of the hepatitis delta agent and discovered the waterborne hepatitis E virus in India and developed a candidate recombinant vaccine for its control. They also used relevant animal models to identify antiviral therapies for chronic type B hepatitis and studied molecular aspects of Hepatitis A virus.

Professor Gerin authored or co-authored more than 400 scientific articles and abstracts. He also edited the book Viral Hepatitis: Biological and Clinical Features, published in 1990, and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, Hepatology, the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, Hepatology, Viral Immunology, and Vaccine Research. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Albert Sabin Vaccine Institute, and an appointed member of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.