People - Killen Pickering Krigel | The Scientist Magazine®

John Y. Killen, Jr., Acting Director Of NIAID's AIDS Unit Takes Over As Head Of The Division John Y. Killen, Jr., was named director of the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., effective April 17. He had been acting director of the division since June of last year. As the division's new chief, Killen plans to continue the work he began as acting director. Among the activities he sees as having overriding importance are to "emphasize the value of basic research to the development of both treatments and vaccines" and "to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our clinical trials network program." DAIDS currently sponsors a large number of treatment-related clinical trials nationwide, including antiretroviral strategies against the primary disease--infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)--as well as therapies for opportunistic infections that occur in people with AIDS. A third item on Killen's agenda as DAIDS director is to promote clinical research on anti-HIV vaccines. On April 21 and 22, the HIV Vaccine Working Group of NIAID met to evaluate whether current data on preliminary tests warranted expanding clinical trials of the most advanced of these vaccines. Data on two candidate vaccines developed by Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, Calif., and Biocine Co. of Emeryville, Calif., were presented by scientists from the two companies. Both vaccines are genetically engineered versions of gp120, a protein on the surface of HIV, and have shown encouraging results in tests on chimpanzees. "We expect to be making a decision soon about going to large-scale clinical trials with these products," says Killen. Killen, 45, is a medical doctor with board certification in medical oncology and internal medicine. He earned his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston in 1975 and subsequently went to the Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C., for his internship (1976) and residency (1978). Since 1980, he has been associated with NIH, first at the National Cancer Institute, where he held various positions from 1980 to 1986, and later at NIAID, where he began as assistant director for clinical trials in 1987. From August 1986 to 1987, he also served as medical director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., and was assistant clinical professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He has received several honors, including the Public Health Service Special Recognition Award in 1990 and the NIH Director's Award in 1989. U.S. Space Scientist Is First In His Field To Win The Prestigious Japan Prize William Hayward Pickering, a professor, emeritus, of electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, has received the 1994 Japan Prize, honoring his contributions to space science. He is the first person in the field of aerospace technologies to have received this prize. The Japan Prize is an international award created by the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan in 1983 to honor individuals for original contributions in their fields for the public good. Pickering was presented with the award, accompanied by a cash prize of 50 million yen (equivalent to $467,000), at a ceremony held in April in Tokyo. "I received the award in recognition of the lab's achievements," says Pickering, who came to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., in 1954 and spearheaded the preparation and launching of the first American satellite, Explorer I. He served as director for 22 years, during which time JPL developed the technology for deep-space tracking now used by the space shuttle Endeavor, and digital-imaging technology that is now widely applicable in fields such as medicine and television. Pickering, 83, a native of New Zealand, came to the United States in 1929 as a student at Caltech, where he has remained ever since. He first trained as an electrical engineer and then obtained a Ph.D. in physics in 1936, subsequently becoming a faculty member. He has remained active since his retirement in 1976, having served as the director of the Research Institute at the University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia for two years, and subsequently forming Lignetics Inc., in La Ca$ada, Calif., a private research corporation that manufactures nonpolluting heating fuel from wood waste. Pickering is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering. ROBERT LOWELL KRIGEL - Obituary Robert Lowell Krigel, director of hematology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and chief of hematology and oncology at Lankenau Hospital, Wynnewood, Pa., died at his home in Elkins Park, Pa., of angiosarcoma, a rare cancer of the liver, on April 24. He was 44 years old. A specialist in cancers of the blood and immune system, Krigel had been particularly active in testing treatments that spurred the body's own immune system to mount an attack on cancer cells. He was among the first physicians to test chemotherapy in combination with interferons on people with AIDS, and was responsible for developing a system of clinical staging and prognosis of patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, a type of cancer frequently associated with AIDS. Krigel was born in Kansas City, Mo., and underwent his medical training in New York City. He received an M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1975, did his residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, and specialized in hematology and oncology at New York University. While a resident, he gained visibility for leading an effort to achieve humane working conditions for resident physicians, and at NYU became a leader in the clinical management of AIDS and related cancers.

People - Killen Pickering Krigel

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