Name Neal Young | Role Physician | |
Books Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Hematology, Aplastic Anemia, Acquired and Inherited | ||
Neal Stuart Young (born 1947) is an American physician and researcher, chief of the Hematology Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Director of the Center for Human Immunology at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He is primarily known for work in the pathophysiology and treatment of aplastic anemia, and is also known for his contributions to the pathophysiology of parvovirus B19 infection.
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Biography
Young was born in New York City on April 13, 1947. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1967, and a M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1971. His internal medicine residency was at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1976, he completed a clinical fellowship in the Hematology-Oncology Division at Barnes Hospital, Washington University, St. Louis Missouri.
Young's entire career has been in the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He has been Chief of the Hematology Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 1994 and he was appointed Director of the Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology, Autoimmunity and Inflammation in 2007.
Professional work
Young joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1973 and worked at the NIH in the laboratories of Christen Anfinsen (in the immunochemistry of hemoglobin) and Arthur Nienhuis (in globin gene regulation). He directed the first multicenter clinical trial using antithymocyte globulin (ATG)for the treatment of aplastic anemia in the United States. This therapy is now the standard treatment for the disease worldwide. He is credited with contributing to understanding the pathophysiology of the disease as immune-mediated and with developing immunotherapy for aplastic anemia that has dramatically improved survival rates for the disease. Prior to the introduction of immunotherapy in the early 1980s, the disease was largely fatal with survival rates around 10% one year following the diagnosis, whereas now survival rates are estimated to be 80% or more. In 2012 he was awarded a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal in Science and Environment.
He also made significant contributions to the understanding of parvovirus B19 infection in hematopoietic cells; he identified the erythrocyte antigen P (globoside) as the cell receptor for parvovirus B19 and that P antigen deficiency confers resistance to parvovirus B19 infection. Young also characterized the subsequent hematologic manifestations in patients with sickle cell disease or immune deficient individuals. More recently, he developed a vaccine against parvovirus B19 infection that is currently under trial.
In 2005, he and his postdoctoral fellow, Rodrigo Calado, described for the first time in humans mutations in the telomerase gene, TERT, residing among patients with aplastic anemia. This work demonstrated an inherited pattern for apparently acquired aplastic anemia and indicated that deficiency in telomerase genes cause telomere shortening, reduced hematopoietic stem cell function, and bone marrow failure. He later found that telomerase mutations also are a risk factor for acute myeloid leukemia and hepatic liver cirrhosis.
He has published over 500 scientific articles, original research as well as reviews, which span basic molecular and cell biology, clinical research, and epidemiology and are highly cited. An article addressing the economics of scientific publishing in PLoS Medicine attracted media attention.
He is a co-editor for Seminars in Hematology and has written or edited a number of monographys and textbooks in hematology.