Cincinnati Children's Doctor Elected to Prestigious Institute of Medicine
CINCINNATI – David A. Williams, MD, director of the division of Experimental Hematology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, has been elected to membership in the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. He will serve a five-year term, which began Oct. 1.
New members are elected by incumbent members on the basis of their professional achievements and their interest and involvement with problems and critical issues that affect public health. Dr. Williams is one of only 70 individuals elected to the IOM this year, raising the total active membership to about 700.
Dr. Williams joins Thomas F. Boat, MD, chairman of the department of Pediatrics and director of The Children's Hospital Research Foundation, as IOM members from Cincinnati Children's.
A nationally recognized leader in research into blood development and gene therapy, Dr. Williams is best known for discovering Interleukin-11. This is a human growth factor that stimulates the production of stem cells and ultimately results in increased production of platelets. He also is known for work in gene therapy for children with immune deficiencies and genetic blood diseases. He holds four patents that have been licensed for development to several companies and directed the research that led to two others.
Dr. Williams has developed Cincinnati Children's new Translational Research Initiative, a program intended to assist investigators translating basic research findings into early phase human clinical trials. The aim of the program is to increase the rate at which ideas move from the laboratory to the patient.
Dr. Williams came to Cincinnati Children's from Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. He was the first director of the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research at Indiana University, 1991-2001. During this time, the Wells Center faculty grew from four to 26, and NIH funding increased from less than $200,000 to more than $6 million a year in direct costs.
Dr. Williams earned a medical degree at the University of Indiana School of Medicine in 1979 and completed his pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children's in 1982. He completed a pediatric research fellowship at Harvard Medical School; a fellowship in medicine at The Children's Hospital, Boston; and a clinical fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, all in 1985. He remained at The Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber as a faculty member until 1991, when he moved to Indiana. Dr. Williams has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1986.
Dr. Williams was president of the International Society of Experimental Hematology in 1998-99. He was on the Council of, and was secretary/treasurer of, the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) from 1999-2001. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), the largest biomedical research group in the world. He serves on editorial boards of numerous professional journals, including Bone Marrow Transplantation, Blood, and The Journal of Clinical Investigation. He is a member of the National Cancer Institute (Subcommittee A) Parent Committee for Comprehensive Cancer Center Grants.
Established in 1970, the IOM's mission is to advance and disseminate scientific knowledge to improve human health. The IOM is concerned with the protection and advancement of the health professions and sciences, the promotion of research and development pertinent to health, and the improvement of healthcare. Members are expected to maintain and exemplify the highest standard of scientific integrity.
In the pursuit of its mission, the IOM conducts studies of specific problems. Members contribute their expertise and professional judgment to the development of findings and the formulation of recommendations, most of which relate to public policy. Scientists and government officials look to IOM reports as the most authoritative analyses of issues.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a 373-bed institution dedicated to the pursuit of perfect health care. It is the only pediatric organization in the United States to receive the prestigious Pursuing Perfection grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation ranks third nationally among all pediatric centers in research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The Cincinnati Children's vision is to be the leader in improving child health, through patient care, research and education.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, 513-636-4656,
jfeuer@cchmc.org
