C. Richard Schlegel is an American scientist and professor. He was the Chair of the Department of Pathology at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

from 2000-2019 and is now the director of the Center for Cell Reprogramming at Georgetown. He is best known as the co-inventor of the

HPV vaccine Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Available HPV vaccines protect against either two, four, or nine types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HP ...

and Conditionally Reprogrammed Cells (CRC) technology.

Personal life

Schlegel met his future wife, Susan Banks-Schlegel, in the microbiology laboratory in which he worked after his first year at Northwestern University. They were married in 1978. They have three children together. Schlegel received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

biological science Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

s from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1968. After graduating, he went on to enroll at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, where he planned to study

pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

. However, after working at a

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

laboratory at Northwestern University the summer after his first year, he decided instead to enroll in the MD-PhD program. After graduating, Schlegel went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1975 to serve his

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

and perform

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

in pathology.

Career

Following his work at Harvard University, Schlegel and his wife both began working at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. Schlegel worked in the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and there he began precursory work that would contribute to his later development of the HPV vaccine. He first studied a

bovine papillomavirus Bovine papillomaviruses (BPV) are a paraphyletic group of DNA viruses of the subfamily ''Firstpapillomavirinae'' of ''Papillomaviridae'' that are common in cattle. All BPVs have a circular genome, circular double-stranded DNA genome. Infection c ...

, then focused on the E5, E6, and E7 proteins of the human papillomavirus. In 1988, Schlegel began working with A. Bennett Jenson, a member of the Georgetown University faculty. When Schlegel began working as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

at Georgetown University in 1990, their work gained momentum. In 1995, they published a paper in the ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' that demonstrated that their vaccine could protect against a virus like that seen in

cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal ...

. The main

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

on the vaccine was granted in 2005, and the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

approved it in June 2006. In 2003, Schlegel became the Chair of the Department of Pathology at Georgetown University. He currently is working to create an inexpensive and easily transported version of the HPV vaccine for use in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

, where deaths from cervical cancer are most prevalent. Schlegel has also mentioned his interest in creating a vaccine that is effective both before and after infection with HPV. Schlegel has been an associate editor of ''

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), ...

'' since 1990. He is a permanent member of the Virology study section of the National Institutes of Health. In 2006, he was awarded the Georgetown University President's Medal. In 2011, Georgetown University awarded him the Patrick Healy Award. He recently received the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teaching at Georgetown University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, Richard Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American inventors 21st-century American inventors Rutgers University alumni Northwestern University alumni Harvard Medical School alumni Feinberg School of Medicine alumni Georgetown University Medical Center faculty American virologists