Stanley Falkow 1920745 221824432 2008-06-26T07:34:36Z 75.30.230.252 /* Contributions and honors */ '''Stanley Falkow, PhD,''' is microbiologist and a professor of [[microbiology]] and [[immunology]] at [[Stanford University School of Medicine]].<ref name="NIAID">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/labs/aboutlabs/lhbp/officeOfTheChief/falkow.htm Stanley Falkow, Ph.D.] Retrieved on July 4, 2007</ref> He is sometimes referred to as the father of molecular microbial pathogenesis, which is the study of how infectious [[microbes]] and host cells interact to cause disease at the molecular level.<ref>The Double Helix [http://www.nfid.org/publications/helix_archive/dec98/helix1.html NFID to Honor Dr. Falkow] Retrieved on July 4, 2007</ref> He formulated [[molecular Koch's postulates]], which have guided the study of the microbial determinants of infectious diseases since the late 1980s.<ref name="Koch">Falkow S (1988). "Molecular Koch's postulates applied to microbial pathogenicity." ''Rev Infect Dis'' '''10'''(Suppl 2):S274-S276.</ref> ==Education and early career== Falkow received his B.S. degree from the [[University of Maine]], graduating [[cum laude]], and went on to earn his Ph.D. from [[Brown University]]. Following the completion of his graduate studies, Dr. Falkow went on to become a staff member at the [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]] (WRAIR) in the Department of Bacterial Immunology where he was eventually named the assistant chief of the department.<ref name="NIAID">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/labs/aboutlabs/lhbp/officeOfTheChief/falkow.htm Stanley Falkow, Ph.D.] Retrieved on July 4, 2007</ref> Dr. Falkow's early work in the 1960s focused on the genetic mechanisms that enable populations of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. He demonstrated that organisms, such as [[shigella]], can possess gene fragments called [[plasmids]] that exist apart from the bacterial chromosome and that they carry specialized information for survival. Under selective pressure from antibiotics, one species of bacteria can pass its plasmids to another unidirectionally rather than by mating, thereby preserving its own specialized survival genes. In 1966, he joined [[Georgetown University School of Medicine]] as a professor of microbiology. He later moved to [[Seattle]] to become a member of the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the [[University of Washington School of Medicine]]. Here he described how [[meningitis]] and [[gonorrhea]] organisms acquire plasmids to become resistant to [[penicillin]] and other [[antibiotics]]. In the 1970s, Dr. Falkow shifted his focus to the infection process. During this period, he showed that a life-threatening diarrhea prevalent in many developing countries is caused by a sub-type of [[E. coli]]. In 1981, he was named chairman of the Department of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he held until 1985. ==Contributions and honors== Among his contributions, Dr. Falkow's adopted the perspective of viewing infection as a process that is ultimately is mediated by the host. He discovered that infectious microbes employ [[genes]] that are activated only inside host cells. His carries clinical applications, such as a new vaccine for [[whooping cough]], as well as advancing knowledge in discovery of how cells are penetrated by bacteria. Dr. Falkow has published numerous articles, and has served on the editorial boards of several professional publications. In addition, he has received numerous awards for his achievements in science. Some of these include the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research<ref>Bristol-Myers Squibb [http://www.bms.com/aboutbms/grants/data/infect.html Awards for Distinguished Achievement] Retrieved on July 16, 2007</ref>, the Altemeier Medal from the Surgical Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award Lecture at the [[University of Chicago]], and the Paul Ehrlich-Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. In 2003, he received the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award from the [[American Society for Microbiology]] and the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences. He received the Robert Koch Award in 2000.<ref>ISI Highly Cited [http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?id=262&cb=696 Falkow, Stanley] Retrieved on July 12, 2007</ref> Dr. Falkow was elected President of the [[American Society for Microbiology]] and served from July 1997 through June 1998. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1997 and received the Maxwell-Finland Award from the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases in 1999. He also received in 1999 an Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada and the University of Maine Alumni Career Award. He has received honorary doctorates in Europe and the U.S. Dr. Falkow is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also elected into the UK's [[Royal Society]] as a Foreign Member. Dr. Falkow was also nominated twice for a Nobel prize in the category "Medicine". ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.anapsid.org/falkow.html Who Speaks for the Microbes? - article by Dr. Falkow] {{DEFAULTSORT:Falkow, Stanley}} [[Category:American microbiologists]] [[Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:American biologists]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:University of Maine alumni]] [[de:Stanley Falkow]]