Stephen E. Straus (November 23, 1946 - May 14, 2007) is an American physician, immunologist, virologist, and science administrator. He is primarily known for his research into human herpes virus and chronic fatigue syndrome, and for his discovery of genetic disorders of the autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome. He headed the Clinical Investigation Laboratory of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and served as founding director of the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Video Stephen Straus
Biography
Straus was born in New York City in 1946, and grew up in Brooklyn. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, switched from physics to biology, and earned a BS in life sciences in 1968. He obtained his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1972. He was later trained at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Louis. , Missouri, and also held a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Washington at St. Louis.
In 1973-1975, Straus studied adenovirus as a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He rejoined NIAID as a senior researcher in 1979, working at the Clinical Investigation Laboratory. He climbed to the head of the first part of the medical virology and then, from 1991, the entire laboratory. In October 1999, Straus was appointed as the first director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) (while continuing his work at NIAID), a position he held until November 2006.
Straus serves on the Roundtable Research Institute for Clinical Drugs and the NIH Steering Committee. He presides over the NIH Committee on Recruitment and Career Development of Clinical Investigators, as well as several committees related to the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. He also suggested the director of NIH, Elias Zerhouni. He is on the board of editors of the academic journals of the Journal of Virology and Virology, and edits several textbooks, including Fields Virology.
Maps Stephen Straus
Research
Straus is particularly known for his extensive research on the herpes virus that infects humans, including herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Her studies include herpes virus pathogenesis, immune response and transmission, as well as antiviral drugs and vaccines.
He examines the mechanisms by which HSV determines latency and then recurs. His group is one of the first to show that treating patients with antiviral acyclovir can prevent genital and oral herpes from recurring. He found that people with asymptomatic genital herpes can transmit the virus to their sexual partners. Together with Lawrence Corey and David M. Knipe, Straus developed a therapeutic and therapeutic vaccine against HSV, including a glycoprotein subunit vaccine.
With William Ruyechan and John Hay, Straus cloned VZV and mapped out the genome. They show that chicken pox (varicella) and shingles (herpes zoster) are both caused by this virus. Straus also studies the ongoing pain that can occur after shingles have healed. He worked with Mike Oxman and Myron Levin on the Prevention Study of Shingles, a major clinical trial showing that the inherited VZV vaccine lives effectively against shingles.
Straus found that infection with EBV very rarely produced a life-threatening chronic progressive disease, now called chronic active EBV infection. Other viral diseases that Straus does include HIV/AIDS, chronic influenza and hepatitis B. He also studied Lyme disease, caused by the bacteria Borrelia .
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Straus began researching what is now known as chronic fatigue syndrome in 1979. Working on the current hypothesis that syndrome may be caused by EBV, he started clinical trials of acyclovir therapy in 1984. Although this study showed no benefit from the drug, it provided evidence that EBV does not cause the syndrome. In 1988, Straus was one of a group of doctors to propose the name "chronic fatigue syndrome" for this condition, and later became one of the lead authors of the International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group guidelines. He also conducted various studies of virology, immunology, neuroendocrine and neuropsychology of the syndrome.
Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome
In the early 1990s, Straus and colleagues found an autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS), a rare genetic disorder in which apoptosis of F1-mediated mediated lymphocytes is impaired, leading to uncontrolled proliferation. He found mutations in genes encoding Fas and Fas ligands, as well as caspase-10 and N-Races, were associated with the disorder. He followed a cohort of more than 200 people with ALPS, and showed that they had an increased risk of lymphoma.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
NCCAM was established as an independent NIH center in October 1998, replacing the Office of Alternative Medicine, and Straus was appointed as founding director, responsible for an annual budget of just under $ 90 million. He stated in an interview in 2001 that he did not use alternative therapies, and he accepted the position because:
I think the only way to change the dialogue about complementary and alternative medicine - what we call CAM - is to have a serious person here at N.I.H., doing serious work, with serious funding. The fact is that Americans use complementary and alternative therapies. If the public spends billions of dollars on these things, they will be deceived en masse, or there are some communal policies that they reveal. I believe that science tools can provide very powerful answers to what they do.
Under his leadership, NIH-funded research became complementary and alternative medicine tripled, with NCCAM funding large clinical trials (phase III) from St. John's wort for depression, Ginkgo biloba extract for dementia, and acupuncture and glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate supplement for knee joint osteoarthritis, among other treatment modalities. Early in his tenure as director, Straus prioritized clinical assessment of widely used treatments in America that had previously shown promising results in small clinical trials. He later wrote: "In the early years of NCCAM, there was a sense of urgency to scientifically assess a variety of CAM therapies that have long been used by the public without any evidence of safety or efficacy." In 2006, the focus of central research has shifted away from major clinical trials and towards investigating how treatments might work, as well as optimal dosing strategies for botanical extracts and their interactions with prescription drugs.
NCCAM is criticized for funding trials of EDTA chelation therapy in coronary artery disease and Gonzalez regimens in pancreatic cancer. Donald M. Marcus and Arthur P. Grollman, in a 2006 Science opinion article, claimed that the center funded "dubious proposals," and that his research strategy "was shaped more by politics than by science. " "Straus replied that the center had" made an important contribution in an area full of controversy and challenges "and that it" implements the same scientific standards to conduct its research and review as used by other NIH institutions ".
Awards and honors
Straus is a select associate of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Doctors and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He was awarded the 1999 National ME Fund Award from the Netherlands in 1999, IDSA John F. Enders Lectureship in the field of medical virology in 2005, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons' Gold Medal for Extraordinary Achievement in Medicine in 2007. He also received five US Medal for Public Health Service. In 2009, the NCCAM established a series of lectures, Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies, as a warning to him.
Personal life
Straus's wife, Barbara, works in education; the couple had a son and two daughters. In November 2004, Straus was diagnosed with a brain tumor, from which he died in Potomac, Maryland in 2007, aged 60 years.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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