Adel K. Mahmoud (August 24, 1941 – June 11, 2018) was an Egyptian-born American

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles * ...

and expert in infectious diseases. He was credited with helping with the development of the

Gardasil Gardasil is an HPV vaccine for use in the prevention of certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). Text was copied from this source which is copyright European Medicines Agency. Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledg ...

HPV vaccine and the

rotavirus vaccine Rotavirus vaccine is a vaccine used to protect against rotavirus infections, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhea among young children. The vaccines prevent 15–34% of severe diarrhea in the developing world and 37–96% of se ...

while serving as President of Merck Vaccines. Both the HPV and rotavirus vaccines were under development prior to Mahmoud joining Merck Vaccine Division; he assisted in ensuring that they remained a priority for Merck to continue development to commercial launch. After retiring from Merck he became a professor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

Biography

Mahmoud was born on August 24, 1941, in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

, Egypt. His father Abdelfattah Mahmoud, who worked as an agricultural engineer, died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

when Adel was ten. Adel had been sent to buy

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

, but when he rushed home his father had already died. He was profoundly influenced by the experience. Mahmoud graduated from the

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

in 1963 with an MB.,BCh. His mother, Fathia Osman, had been accepted by the university's medical school but was prevented from attending by her brother, who thought women should not be doctors. While a university student, Mahmoud actively participated in politics and served as a leader in the youth movement of President

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-r ...

. As the political climate changed, he moved to the United Kingdom to continue his education and earned a Ph.D. from the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine. The inst ...

in 1971. In 1973, he emigrated to the United States and became a postdoctoral researcher at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Res ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

, and eventually rose to chair the university's Department of Medicine from 1987 to 1998. In 1999, Merck & Co. recruited Mahmoud as president of its vaccine division, a position he held until he retired in 2006. At Merck, he oversaw the development of several important vaccines, including the

and the HPV vaccine. The former prevents potentially fatal diarrhea for young children caused by

rotavirus ''Rotavirus'' is a genus of double-stranded RNA viruses in the family ''Reoviridae''. Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children. Nearly every child in the world is infected with a rotaviru ...

, while the latter (

) prevents several cancers, most importantly

cervix 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 v ...

, caused by the

human papillomavirus Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the '' Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and r ...

. His role was considered pivotal as he overcame significant doubt about the viability of the vaccines and succeeded in bringing them to market. After retiring from Merck in 2006, Mahmoud became a policy analyst at the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

in 2007, and a professor at Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology in 2011. In July 2015, Mahmoud co-authored a paper in ''

The New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hist ...

'', titled "Establishing a Global Vaccine-Development Fund", with

Jeremy Farrar Sir Jeremy James Farrar (born 1 September 1961) is a British medical researcher who has served as director of the Wellcome Trust since 2013 and will serve as chief scientist at the World Health Organization in 2023. He was previously a professo ...

(a Director of

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glax ...

) and

Stanley A. Plotkin Stanley Alan Plotkin (born May 12, 1932) is an American physician who works as a consultant to vaccine manufacturers, such as Sanofi Pasteur, as well as biotechnology firms, non-profits and governments. In the 1960s, he played a pivotal role in di ...

(co-discover of the

Rubella Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is an infection caused by the rubella virus. This disease is often mild, with half of people not realizing that they are infected. A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and ...

vaccine), that led to the founding in 2017 of the

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging ...

(CEPI). On June 11, 2018, Mahmoud died from a

brain hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, at age 76. Microsoft founder

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

lamented the death of Mahmoud on his

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account, saying "the world lost one of the greatest vaccine creators of our time. Dr. Adel Mahmoud saved the lives of countless children."

Family

Mahmoud met Sally Hodder, also an infectious-disease expert, at Case Western Reserve in 1976. They married in 1993. He had a stepson, Jay Thornton. Mahmoud had a sister, Olfat Abdelfattah, and a brother, Mahmoud Abdelfattah. They are both doctors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmoud, Adel 1941 births 2018 deaths Egyptian emigrants to the United States American infectious disease physicians Egyptian infectious disease physicians Cairo University alumni Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Case Western Reserve University faculty Princeton University faculty Merck & Co. people Physicians from Cairo Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Biography

Family

See also

References