Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences

Seymour J. Klebanoff, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Washington School of Medicine

The AAMC Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences was established in 1947 and recognizes outstanding clinical or laboratory research conducted by a medical school faculty member.

Like the biochemical reaction he uncovered, Seymour Klebanoff's research sparked a series of discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the human immune system. Because of Dr. Klebanoff's work 40 years ago on white blood cells called "phagocytes," and the enzymes they produce fighting bacteria, scientists today can better study cancer, viruses (including AIDS), and other infectious diseases. As Dr. Carl Nathan, chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, observes, "it is possible to trace the explosive intellectual development of phagocyte biology to the seminal contributions of one man. Seymour Klebanoff."

Regarded by his peers as truly legendary, Dr. Klebanoff began his career almost 50 years ago as assistant professor and radiation protection officer at New York's Rockefeller Institute. In 1962, he joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Medicine, was named full professor six years later, and is today professor emeritus in the Department of Medicine. During his tenure at the University of Washington, he directed two major programs for training physician scientists: the Research Training Unit and the Medical Scientist (M.D./Ph.D.) Training Program. He also served as acting chairman of medicine and associate chairman of medicine and, during his 18 years as head of the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, built what his colleague Dr. Robert A. Clark, assistant vice president for clinical research at the University of Texas Health Science Center, describes as "arguably the dominant program of its type in the country."

Dr. Klebanoff's legacy, and the reason he is often referred to as the "founding father of modern phagocyte biology," began with his 1967 article—"Iodination of Bacteria: A Bactericidal Mechanism"—published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. It was here Dr. Klebanoff discussed the key role of an enzyme produced by the body in fighting bacteria: myeloperoxidase. This finding, and Dr. Klebanoff's body of work since, says Dr. Clark (who collaborated with Dr. Klebanoff on the 1978 textbook, The Neutrophil: Function and Clinical Disorders), has profoundly changed scientists' understanding of "the biology of inflammation, the biochemistry of innate immunity, and the many biological roles of oxygen metabolism."

The author of more than 200 publications, Dr. Klebanoff is highly regarded for the experimental rigor of his research, and the arresting lucidity of his writing. Over the decades, "authoritative reports flowed with metronomic regularity from his lab," notes Dr. Carl Nathan. "That one man could motivate so many can be ascribed to the focus and force of Dr. Klebanoff's scholarship."

Beyond the laboratory itself, Dr. Klebanoff is known for his invaluable mentorship, and the standard he set for generations of physician scientists to come. And as Dr. Nathan observes, Dr. Klebanoff appears to have also "discovered" a highly enviable balance between professional and personal life: "Authoritative as a speaker; kind, gentle, modest, and humorous as a friend; patient and dedicated as a teacher; warm and engaged with his family, he has shown his younger colleagues the kind of man they would like to be."

Dr. Klebanoff earned his M.D. with honors from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from University College London. His postgraduate training included fellowships at the University of Toronto in pathological chemistry, and an Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation fellowship at Rockefeller Institute.

Among his numerous honors and distinctions are election to both the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, the MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Marie T. Bonazinga Award of the Society for Leukocyte Biology, the Mayo Soley Award of the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, the Alexander Fleming Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Diseases Research.

Find out more about the Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences, nominate a deserving individual, and view a list of previous award recipients.