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INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY:
PROFESSOR WILLIAM HALL, Vice-President for International Affairs, and Professor of Medical Microbiology, University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin, on 16 June, 2005, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa, on ROBERT C. GALLO
A Sheansail�ir, agus a mhuintir na hOllscoile,
It is a pleasure to welcome Professor Robert Gallo to University College Dublin, where today he will be honoured with the conferment of a Doctorate in Science from the National University of Ireland.
Robert, or Bob as he is better known, currently directs the Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore which he founded ten years ago, and which is affiliated with the School of Medicine in the University of Maryland. He is one of the world�s most renowned scientists, and his outstanding achievements in the field of virus and cancer research rank among the triumphs of modern medicine.
Bob was born in Westbury Connecticut, and received his undergraduate degree from Providence College in 1959 where it is rumoured he spent much of his time on the basketball court, and subsequently his MD from Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1963. He completed his postgraduate medical training at the University of Chicago and then joined the National Cancer Institute in Bethseda where he was to spend the next 30 years, and where became the Head of the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology.
Bob's research interests have always centred on diseases of the blood. Indeed, it was the tragic and untimely death of his younger sister from leukemia when he was a young boy that sparked his interest in this disease.
In the 1970s, Bob became intrigued by the possibility that viruses may cause human leukemias. To investigate this he had to establish for the first time methods to grow leukemic and white blood cells in the test tube. In successfully achieving this, he made the unique discovery of novel factors which allowed blood cells to grow. Today those factors are better known as cytokines, and are widely used in clinical medicine.
At the time, his ideas and work were viewed by many with incredible skepticism; in fact the Editor of a prestigious virology journal who had just rejected a submitted work on his cultured cells told him: "There is little point in perpetuating this controversy about the presumed viral nature of this material".
However Bob's perseverance paid off and in 1980, he isolated the first human retrovirus: the so-called human T cell leukemia virus type I or HTLV-I, which was associated with an extremely aggressive form of leukemia. Shortly thereafter he discovered a second closely related virus, which he called human T cell leukemia virus type II or HTLV-II.
With the first clinical descriptions of AIDS in the early 1980s, Bob applied his pioneering culture methods to blood cells from patients with this disease, With this approach, he and his co-workers made the independent discovery of HIV, and clearly demonstrated that this virus caused AIDS.
Bob also realized that HIV could certainly be transmitted by blood, and would rapidly endanger the blood supply. He and his co-workers quickly developed a blood test for the virus which has saved countless numbers of lives.
Ten years ago, Bob left the National Cancer Institute to found the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore, which has a unique multidisciplinary approach and combines fundamental and clinical research to the study of HIV, other infectious diseases and cancer.
At the Institute Bob continues to pursue HIV and to understand of the finer details of its life cycle. He is also actively involved in developing better therapies for the disease and is currently tackling the extraordinarily difficult challenge of developing a vaccine for HIV, which will be the only way for halting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.
In addition to basic research, the Institute offers a large and comprehensive clinical service to the indigent population of East Baltimore, which is one of the poorest areas in the US. The Institute's clinic currently treats some 2500 out-patients infected with HIV.
Through its novel programmes and outreach with local African-American churches in the area, the Institute has ensured one of the highest treatment compliance programmes in the US, which is a remarkable achievement in such a socio-economically deprived region. Programmes developed at the Institute have recently been extended overseas, and they are now directly involved in treatment programmes in a number of African countries.
Not surprisingly Bob's contributions to cancer and virology have earned him wide international recognition. He is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies including the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
He has received numerous scientific honours and awards. These include the unique achievement of receiving the prestigious Albert Lasker Prize on two occasions, firstly, the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1982 and subsequently, the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Research in 1986.
His long list of awards also include the first Dameshek Award for research in hematology awarded by the American Society of Hematology; Harvard University's Warren Alpert Award; the General Motors Prize for Cancer Research; the American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor; and the Armand Hammer Prize for Cancer Research.
Internationally he has received the Japan Prize for Science and Technology; France's Griffuel Prize for Research on Cancer; India's Birla International Award; Canada's Gairdner Foundation Award; Israel's First Otto Herz Prize in Cancer Research and Germany's Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize.
These are only a few examples of the accolades he has received and I could continue here for some time. Instead I will only summarise by saying say that Bob is the author of more than 1100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and was the most cited scientist in the world in the decade spanning 1980 to 1990.
Today is a truly special occasion for University College Dublin to recognise Robert Gallo's magnificent contributions to medical science and mankind by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Science.
PRAEHONORABILIS CANCELLARIE, TOTAQUE UNIVERSITAS:
Presento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in Scientiae,
idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.
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