2008 Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference
Keynote Presentation
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Orkin was born and raised in New York City. He received a BS in Life Science (Biology) at MIT (1967) and an MD from the Harvard Medical School (1972). Following an internship in pediatrics at the Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard, he performed postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, NICHHD, NIH (1973-1975) under the supervision of Dr. Philip Leder, presently the Chairman of Genetics at HMS. Upon returning to Boston Children's Hospital, he completed general pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology clinical training (1975-1978). In 1978, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1981, and became the first incumbent of the Leland Fikes Professorship of Pediatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1987. He has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986. In 2000, he became the first incumbent of the David G. Nathan Professorship in Pediatrics and was appointed Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the DFCI. He also serves as CEO of Dana Farber-Children’s Hospital Cancer Care. In his research Dr. Orkin has focused on the molecular genetics of hematologic diseases, the fundamental mechanisms of blood cell development, and stem cell biology.
Dr. Orkin's awards and honors include the NIH Career Development Award (1979), the American Federation of Clinical Research Award (1984), the Dameshek Prize of the American Society of Hematology (1986), the Mead-Johnson Award (1987), the Presidency of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (1989), the Warren Alpert Prize (1993), the Helmut Horten Research Award (1995), the Medical Foundation Award for Distinguished Contributions to Health Research (1996), the E. Donnell Thomas Prize of the American Society of Hematology (1998), and the Distinguished Research Award of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) (2005). He served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome (1987) and as co-chair of the Panel to Assess the NIH Investment in Research on Gene Therapy (1995). Dr. Orkin is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (1991), the Institute of Medicine (1992), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993). Currently he serves as co-Chair of the Grants Review Working Group for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) of the State of California.