Robert Yarchoan (born 1950) is a medical researcher who played an important role in the development of the first effective drugs for

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 ...

. He is the Chief of the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch in the NCI and also coordinates HIV/AIDS malignancy research throughout the NCI as director of the Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM).

Education and career

Dr. Yarchoan was raised in

Oceanside, New York Oceanside is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located in the southern part of the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 32,109 at the 2010 census. History Originally known as South Bay, the Eng ...

and graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

in 1971. He subsequently received his M.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota and a fellowship in Immunology in the Metabolism Branch of the NCI. After completing his training he joined the laboratory of Dr.

Samuel Broder Samuel Broder spent his childhood in Poland, in a group of Jewish guerrillas threatened by the Nazis. He emigrated to the United States with a group of Polish survivors and settled with his parents in an industrial neighborhood in Detroit, where ...

. In 1991 he was appointed to be a Section Chief of the Medicine Branch and in 1996 he named chief of the newly formed HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch. Dr. Yarchoan was also appointed to be the first director of the NCI Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM) in 2007, which supervises all HIV/AIDS and AIDS malignancy research within the NCI.

Medical and Research Achievements

Along with his colleagues Drs.

and

Hiroaki Mitsuya is a Japanese virologist famous for his role in discovery of the anti-HIV drug zidovudine (AZT) as well as other anti-AIDS drugs including didanosine (ddI) and zalcitabine (ddC). Mitsuya was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki and received his M.D. and Ph. ...

in the National Cancer Institute ( NCI), he co-developed the first effective treatments for HIV/AIDS. With his colleagues, he conducted the first clinical trials of

zidovudine Zidovudine (ZDV), also known as azidothymidine (AZT), is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. It is generally recommended for use in combination with other antiretrovirals. It may be used to prevent mother-to-child ...

(AZT),

didanosine Didanosine (ddI, DDI), sold under the brand name Videx, is a medication used to treat HIV/AIDS. It is used in combination with other medications as part of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). It is of the reverse-transcriptase inhibitor ...

(ddI),

zalcitabine Zalcitabine (2′-3′-dideoxycytidine, ddC), also called dideoxycytidine, is a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) sold under the trade name Hivid. Zalcitabine was the third antiretroviral to be approved by the Food and Drug A ...

(ddC), and

lamivudine Lamivudine, commonly called 3TC, is an antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. It is also used to treat chronic hepatitis B when other options are not possible. It is effective against both HIV-1 and HIV-2. It is typically ...

(3TC). These trials were the first to demonstrate that administration of anti-retroviral drugs could reverse the declines in

CD4 In molecular biology, CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) is a glycoprotein that serves as a co-receptor for the T-cell receptor (TCR). CD4 is found on the surface of immune cells such as T helper cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic ...

cells and immunologic impairment caused by

human immunodeficiency virus The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the ...

(HIV) infection. Dr. Yarchoan also conducted the first trials of combination anti-HIV therapy. The development of these drugs was a breakthrough in AIDS therapy. Zidovudine and didanosine were components of early highly active antiretroviral drug therapy (HAART), and zidovudine, didanosine, and lamivudine remain in widespread use and are included in the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

's " Essential Drugs List", which is a list of minimum medical needs for a basic health care system. It is estimated that the development of these and other AIDS drugs have saved over 3 million life-years in the United States and over 15 million life-years throughout the world. His research efforts have also focused on AIDS malignancies, focusing on the pathogenesis and treatment of

Kaposi's sarcoma Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a type of cancer that can form masses in the skin, in lymph nodes, in the mouth, or in other organs. The skin lesions are usually painless, purple and may be flat or raised. Lesions can occur singly, multiply in a limite ...

and other virus-associated tumors. He led the first clinical studies showing that

paclitaxel Paclitaxel (PTX), sold under the brand name Taxol among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer ...

was an effective therapy for

and that

thalidomide Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is a medication used to treat a number of cancers (including multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and a number of skin conditions including complications of ...

has activity in this disease. He also developed several novel therapies for Multicentric

Castleman's disease Castleman disease (CD) describes a group of rare lymphoproliferative disorders that involve enlarged lymph nodes, and a broad range of inflammatory symptoms and laboratory abnormalities. Whether Castleman disease should be considered an autoimmun ...

caused by

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the ninth known human herpesvirus; its formal name according to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is ''Human gammaherpesvirus 8'', or HHV-8 in short. Like other herpesvirus ...

(KSHV), also called human herpesvirus-8 HV-8 With his colleagues at NCI, he also identified a new disease called KSHV-Associated Cytokine Syndrome (KICS) in some people with HIV/AIDS.

Awards and honors

Yarchoan is a co-editor of several journals. He has received many awards, including the Assistant Secretary for Health Award and the U.S. Public Health Service Outstanding Service Medal. He also was awarded the first National Institutes of Health (

NIH 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 ...

) World AIDS Day Award in December, 2006 for his work in developing drugs for AIDS. In November, 2007, he was awarded the NCI HIV/AIDS Research Excellence Award along with his colleagues, Drs.

Robert C. 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

. In October 2009, he received the National Cancer Institute Director's Awards of Merit for leadership in promoting and supporting

HIV/AIDS research HIV/AIDS research includes all medical research that attempts to prevent, treat, or cure HIV/AIDS, as well as fundamental research about the nature of HIV as an infectious agent and AIDS as the disease caused by HIV. Transmission A body of sci ...

and HIV-associated malignancies at 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. ...

, and in 2014 received the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It ...

Award in Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology. He has been inducted as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS), and in 2016 as a member of the

Association of American Physicians The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine." ...

. In 2013, Dr. Yarchoan received an honorary degree for his contributions to HIV/AIDS research from his alma mater, Amherst College.

References and links

*
NIH Bio and Oral History of Dr. Yarchoan describing development of AIDS drugs
*
Website of HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch
*
NCI Document on the Development of Didanosine(Videx)
*
Website of the NCI Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy
* Yarchoan R, Mitsuya H, Broder S. AIDS therapies. Scientific American 1988;259(4):110-9 * Saville, M.W., Lietzau, J., Pluda, J.M., Feuerstein, I., Odom, J., Wilson, W.H., Humphrey, R.W., Feigal, E., Steinberg, S.M., Broder, S., Yarchoan R. 1995. Treatment of HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma with paclitaxel. Lancet 346:26-28. *
Yarchoan Amherst Honorary Degree Description
*
Article on KSHV-MCD and KICS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yarchoan, Robert 1950 births Living people American immunologists HIV/AIDS researchers Amherst College alumni People from Oceanside, New York Scientists from New York (state)