Janice Ellen Clements is vice dean for faculty at the
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...
[Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty webpage]
/ref> and the Mary Wallace Stanton Professor of Faculty Affairs.
Greg Rienzi, The JHU Gazette, March 7, 2005. She is a professor in the departments of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
, and Pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
, and has a joint appointment in molecular biology and genetics. Her molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
and virology
Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...
research examines lentivirus
''Lentivirus'' is a genus of retroviruses that cause chronic and deadly diseases characterized by long incubation periods, in humans and other mammalian species. The genus includes the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. Lent ...
es and how they cause neurological diseases
A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weak ...
.
Training and career
Clements earned a PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in biochemistry from the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
. She pursued post-doctoral work at Johns Hopkins during the 1970s, working first with Bernard Weiss and then with Opendra "Bill" Narayan and Richard T. Johnson.[ Along with Diane Griffin and others, Clements was one of several trainees of Johnson who went on to notable academic careers at Johns Hopkins.
Clements became a faculty member at Johns Hopkins in 1978 as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and became a full professor in 1990, the 24th woman to achieve this rank at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.][ Clements joined the Division of Comparative Medicine in 1988 and headed its retrovirus laboratory from 1992. Clements successfully convinced the school to elevate the division to department-level status, and in 2002 became the first director of the new department, later renamed the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology.][
In 2000, Clements was appointed vice dean for the School of Medicine, taking over the duties of Catherine D. DeAngelis, who had left Johns Hopkins to become the first woman editor-in-chief of the '']Journal of the American Medical Association
''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of bio ...
''.
Clements stepped down as director of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology in 2008. She was succeeded by Chris Zink, a longtime colleague of Clements.
Research
Clements has conducted and led research into numerous viruses, concentrating on the animal lentiviruses. Lentiviruses are a complex type of retrovirus
A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase ...
es, and include the human immunodeficiency viruses HIV-1 and HIV-2
The subtypes of HIV include two major types, HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2). HIV-1 is related to viruses found in chimpanzees and gorillas living in western Africa, while HIV-2 viruses are related to viruses found in the sooty mangabey, ...
. Clements was the first to characterize the complex genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
of the lentiviruses, describing the genomic structure of visna virus
''Visna-maedi virus'' (also known as ''Visna virus'', ''Maedi-visna virus'' and ''Ovine lentivirus'') from the genus ''Lentivirus'' and subfamily ''Orthoretrovirinae'', is a retrovirus that causes encephalitis and chronic pneumonitis in sheep. I ...
, a lentivirus of sheep. She performed similar work with caprine arthritis encephalitis virus
''Caprine arthritis encephalitis virus'' (''CAEV'') is a retrovirus which infects goats and cross-reacts immunologically with HIV, due to being from the same family of viruses. CAEV cannot be transmitted to humans, including through the consumpti ...
(CAEV), a closely related virus of goats.
With the discovery of AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
and its cause, HIV, Clements' work took on a new dimension of relevance. In 1985, she published an article with HIV co-discoverer Robert Gallo
Robert Charles Gallo (; born March 23, 1937) is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in establishing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome ( ...
and others describing the relationship of HIV to visna virus. This article helped to establish HIV as a lentivirus, not a leukemia virus as was originally thought. At the time, the origin of HIV was unknown, and Clements' work presented the possibility that HIV could have been transferred to humans from animals. Later, it was found that simian immunodeficiency virus
''Simian immunodeficiency virus'' (''SIV'') is a species of retrovirus that cause persistent infections in at least 45 species of non-human primates. Based on analysis of strains found in four species of monkeys from Bioko Island, which was isola ...
(SIV) strains from chimpanzee and monkey hosts were the likely progenitors of HIV.
In addition to her work with visna and CAEV, Clements has conducted extensive research into SIV and HIV. Clements and her laboratory have published over 160 scientific articles. Alongside collaborators including Chris Zink, Joseph L. Mankowski, and Kenneth Witwer
Kenneth W. Witwer is an associate professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. As nominated President-Elect of the International Society ...
, Clements has investigated the innate immune response to retrovirus infection in an animal model of HIV encephalitis. Her recent work includes the use of minocycline
Minocycline, sold under the brand name Minocin among others, is a tetracycline antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections such as pneumonia. It is generally less preferred than the tetracycline doxycycline. It is also ...
, a common antibiotic often used against acne, to protect against viral encephalitis and slow viral replication. With Zink, Mankowski and HIV researchers Joel Blankson and Bob Siliciano, Clements has also developed a model of highly active antiretroviral therapy to study viral reservoirs: where HIV conceals itself in the body.
Advocacy
Clements has advocated and fostered the creation of opportunities and supportive environments for women in academia. She is a member of the steering committee of the Johns Hopkins Women's Leadership Council.[
In 2005, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine celebrated the promotion of the 100th woman to the rank of full professor in a ceremony organized by Clements and others at Johns Hopkins. The event was entitled "The Legacy of ]Mary Elizabeth Garrett
Mary Elizabeth Garrett (March 5, 1854 – April 3, 1915) was an American suffragist and philanthropist. She was the youngest child and only daughter of John W. Garrett, a philanthropist and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.).S ...
, 100 Women Professors at Johns Hopkins Medicine" to honor the woman whose financial gift allowed the school of medicine to begin its first cohort of medical students in 1893. Garrett herself had stressed the importance of equal opportunity in medical education, specifying that the school must allow women and men alike to seek admission and "prizes, dignities or honor that are awarded by competitive examination, or regarded as rewards of merit."[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clements, Janice E.
American women biologists
American academic administrators
American virologists
Living people
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Johns Hopkins University faculty
Women academic administrators
American women academics
21st-century American women