In Memoriam 2012 

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Nelson Fausto, MD

Dr. Nelson Fausto, Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington, died on April 2, 2012 of multiple myeloma. His research focused on liver development and regeneration, stem cells and hepatic cell lineages, hepatocellular carcinoma, and hepatitis C.

Dr. Fausto won countless research and mentorship awards, including AASLD's Distinguished Achievement Award. For more information on Dr. Fausto's life and work see the UW website.

E. Anthony Jones, MD

Dr. E. Anthony (Tony) Jones, the former Chief of the Liver Diseases Section, NIH and a long-term active member of AASLD, died suddenly and unexpectedly on January 23, 2012. Tony was 74 and living with his wife Rosemary in semi-retirement in Winchester, UK.
 
Tony received his medical degree from the University of Birmingham, UK and did post-graduate work in Birmingham and later in London at the Hammersmith Hospital, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, and the Royal Free Hospital, where he was appointed as a research fellow and later Lecturer in Medicine with Professor Dame Sheila Sherlock. He worked under the research mentorship of Dr.Victor Rosenoer at the Royal Free Hospital on urea nitrogen and albumin metabolism in liver disease. He was among the first to document the marked improvement in albumin synthesis in patients with autoimmune hepatitis treated with corticosteroids. This work formed part of his dissertation for the degree of M.D. (a research, graduate degree in the UK) for which he was awarded honors by the University of Birmingham.

Tony subsequently did a year of research training at the NIH Clinical Center with Nat Berlin and Tom Waldman and in 1974 was appointed a Senior Visiting Scientist in the Liver Diseases Section, NIDDK then led by Paul Berk. In 1977, after the departure of Dr. Berk, Tony was promoted to Chief of the Liver Diseases Section; a position he held until 1992 when he returned to the UK. During his directorship at the NIH, the Liver Diseases Section became a nationally and internationally recognized center for hepatology research. He published extensively in the areas of hepatic encephalopathy, liver associated pruritus, and the natural history and therapy of chronic viral hepatitis. In 1977 he was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and in 1991 awarded the degree of D.Sc by the University of Birmingham for his considerable body of published work on the GABA A receptor complex in hepatic encephalopathy.

In 1995 he was appointed Chief of Hepatology at the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, a position he held until his retirement in 2003. In semiretirement, he continued to write reviews and book chapters and serve as consultant for Hepatology, while devoting his research energy to mechanisms of encephalopathy in liver disease.

Tony was the author of more than 300 original publications, reviews and chapters on liver disease. He served on the editorial boards of many journals including Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, and Gastroenterology. Over 40 Medical medical staff fellows trained in the Liver Diseases Section during the years he directed the section. Among these who worked with Tony were John Vierling, Marvin Berman, Cliff Steer, Stephen James, Daniel Schafer, Geoffrey Dusheiko, Gerald Minuk, Mark Avigan, Kevin Mullen, Nora Bergasa, Chris Pappas, Brian Jones, Vinod Rustgi, Richard Sallie, Mark Swain, and Cihan Yurdaydin. Visiting Scientists during this era of Chief of the Liver Diseases Section included Graham Cooksley, John Summerfield, James Dooley, Peter Ferenci, Ricardo Moreno-Otero, EV Tsianos, Martin Rossle, Sergio Gammal, Jae Young Yoo, Takeaki Suou, Maria Civeira, and Mark Bassett. These scientists and trainees as well as his many ex-colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic wouldhave attested to his remarkable, critical, and analytical skills as a consummate clinical-investigator and mentor. They would all have benefited from his skill as a writer and the critical but supportive role that he served for each and every one of his colleagues and trainees. His ability, energy, and motivation in working one-on-one with his fellows, refining and honing a manuscript or oral presentation epitomized the role of the ideal mentor. Many of these trainees have gone on to similar careers of their own inspired by his unselfish example. He will be sadly missed by the international world of hepatology. 

Survivors include his wife Rosemary.

Submitted by: Anthony S. Tavill

2012

Francis Simon, MD

2011

Ned Ballatori, PhD

Irvin M. Becker, MD

William M. Belknap, MD

Baruch S. Blumberg, MD, PhD

Harold O. Conn, MD

Stuart H. Danovitch, MD

Emmet B. Keeffe, MD

Leonardo Pinchuk, MD

Marcos Rojkind, MD, PhD

Robert L. Scheig, MD

Ned Ballatori, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry passed away on December 25, 2011 at the age of 54 after a long and courageous battle with a rare form of cancer, angiosarcoma. Dr. Ballatori was the director of the Toxicology Training program from 1999-2011. He was also the deputy director of the University of Rochester's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Center of Excellence from 2003 to present. From 1992-present, he served as the deputy director of the NIEHS Center for Comparative Toxicology, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Salsbury Cove, Maine. Dr. Ballatori was a 1980 graduate of the University of Rochester (BS Chemistry), obtained his Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1984, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in 1986. He obtained the rank of full professor at the age of 40 and was successful in obtaining multiple grants through the NIH. He published numerous scholarly articles, mentored over 30 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and served as an inspiration to all for his for his giving nature, perseverance, and incredibly strong work ethic.

In 2008, Dr. Ballatori received the Adolf Windaus prize from the Falk Foundation in Germany, a prestigious basic science research award for his discovery of key molecules involved in the way the body handles cholesterol and other lipids and for discovering a protein that plays a key role in how our body processes cholesterol, offering researchers a new target in their quest to help people lower their cholesterol and stave off obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. His important research will be carried on by his colleagues at the University of Rochester. He received the American Liver Foundation Research Award for his important accomplishment in bile acid research from 1985-1987.

Dr. Ballatori was born on December 11, 1957 in Ascoli Piceno, Italy and his family immigrated to East Rochester, NY when he was 9 years old. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne L. DelSignore, MD, his children Sarah, Rachel and Alexander, his mother, Ada Ballatori, brother Albert (Marisa) Ballatori, sisters Teresa (Nino) Spano and Marcella Sabatini, and countless relatives, friends, and colleagues.

Friends may call Friday, December 30th, 4-7 PM at the funeral chapel (2305 Monroe Ave.) where a Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, December 31st, 10 AM. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Wilmot Cancer Center. To share a memory or photo of Dr. Ballatori visit www.anthonychapels.com.

Harold O. Conn, MD

Harold O. Conn, MD, a world-renowned hepatologist, past president of the AASLD (1973) and author and a pioneer in the basic understanding and treatment of cirrhosis and its complications, died on October 9 of natural causes in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 85.

Dr. Conn, professor emeritus of medicine, served on the Yale School of Medicine faculty for more than 50 years and wrote more than 400 peer-reviewed articles about hepatic encephalopathy and other disorders, at times injecting humor to make his points more clearly.

He was born in Newark, N.J., on November 16, 1925, the fourth of four children of Joseph and Dora Conn, who had immigrated to the United States from southeastern Europe. Dr. Conn, an all-state high school swimmer, left New Jersey to earn BS (1946) and MD (1950) degrees from the University of Michigan with the financial support of his older brother, Jerome Conn, MD, a faculty member at the Ann Arbor school.

After interning at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, he became the chief resident at Grace-New Haven Community Hospital and earned a two-year fellowship with Gerald Klatskin, MD, one of the founders of the field of Hepatology. His training was interrupted by service in the Army and Air Force. After completing his fellowship, Dr. Conn was appointed Chief of Hepatology at the Veterans Administration hospital in West Haven, where he founded the liver unit. The so-called "West Haven criteria" for hepatic encephalopathy were created by Dr. Conn. 

One of Dr. Conn's greatest professional accomplishments was the publication of Histopathology of the Liver by Klatskin and Conn in 1993, seven years after Dr. Klatskin's death and one year following Dr. Conn's retirement. Praised in the New England Journal of Medicine as "encyclopedic, exemplifying medical scholarship at its best," the two-volume text has stood as a benchmark reference for the diagnosis of chronic liver diseases.

Dr. Conn's health began to fail shortly after his retirement, and he had difficulty walking. Over the next decade, with a misdiagnosis of Parkinson's disease, he developed other symptoms, including loss of short-term memory and a decrease in responsiveness, reaction time, and mental sharpness. A second opinion by a young neurologist in 2003 revealed the correct diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). A neurosurgeon drained 60 milliliters of cerebral spinal fluid, and his symptoms vanished. At age 78, Dr. Conn launched himself into a study of the disease, which was identified in 1965. He became an expert spokesperson for NPH awareness, publishing articles in medical journals and appearing on national radio and TV programs. A 2008 paper in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine by Dr. Conn and Francis M. Lobo, M.D., demonstrated that a significant lack of awareness of NPH remained among physicians surveyed. Dr. Conn made himself available to advise patients and the families of friends as a good Samaritan about the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

He trained many hepatologists that hold positions at medical centers around the world and that have gone on to become AASLD leaders.

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Marcos Rojkind, MD

Marcos Rojkind (1935-2011), a native of Mexico, was a physician and researcher with an original personality and creative ideas whose moral qualities have been of great significance worldwide. He was Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Pathology at the George Washington University Medical Center. He collaborated with many outstanding researchers from the United States, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Holland, and Mexico among other countries.

Many witnessed his scientific curiousity and how once he recognized a certain way as the right one he pursued it with extreme tenacity and without compromise. He was undoubtedly an outstanding teacher based on his knowledge and a convincing personality; a man of wisdom and humility. He guided the studies and aspirations of more than 60 fellows who have become leaders in liver research.

Marcos's humanity as a mentor and role model was excellent. For many, he was much more than a mentor; he was a real gentleman. He truly cared for his mentees not only at the professional level, but most importantly, at the human level because he was very human and very close to his people, including minority groups of which he was very supportive. Marcos displayed a great deal of understanding, care, generosity, humility and forgiveness when training fellows. It was very easy to talk to him, as he provided the freedom to be creative and to show initiative, as well as to follow his advice because of his incredible scientific eye and because of how smart he was. He was very accessible, always focused on the people in his group, unfailingly treating them with respect and affection. Because of his kindness and commitment to all who have ever worked with him, he had countless friends. He was a treasured source of wisdom for all scientists, regardless of their age or experience.

Marcos served in the editorial board of a significant number of journals including Hepatology and the American Journal of Physiology. He was appointed as a member of the scholarship awards committee of the American Liver Foundation and was part of the review committee of the National Institute of Digestive Diseases and Kidney. He had two active NIDDK RO1 grants, one of which had just been renewed.

In a country like Mexico where cirrhosis rates as the third cause of death, Marcos Rojkind was the outstanding scientist in the study of the mechanisms of liver fibrosis. He was first to recognize that liver fibrosis could be a reversible phenomenon and remained dedicated to finding the mechanisms involved in this reversibility. His studies became indispensable for the development of modern techniques for the study of liver fibrosis. In Mexico, his achievements were recognized by granting him the National Academy of Sciences Award in 1985 and the Mexican Hepatology Association Special Achievement Award in 2011. 

Those whose lives have been enriched by the kindness and warmth of Marcos Rojkind can only feel the privilege of having personally known him.