Distinguished Achievement Award Bestowed Upon Dr. Gotto at NLA's Annual Scientific Sessions on May 20
NEW YORK (May 23, 2011) — Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and the provost for medical affairs of Cornell University, was honored Friday by the National Lipid Association (NLA) at its Annual Scientific Sessions in New York. The Distinguished Achievement Award, the highest award conferred by the NLA, recognizes Dr. Gotto's decades-long leadership and major contributions to advancing the use of lipid therapy for cardiovascular disease.
"Tony's work in clinical lipidology has changed the way we practice medicine," says Dr. Michael T. Davidson, president of the National Lipid Association. "The NLA is honored to have him among our ranks and couldn't be more proud to publicly acknowledge his commitment to the science."
Dr. Gotto is a world-renowned physician-scientist whose postgraduate work included doctoral studies at Oxford University in England, as a Rhodes Scholar, and residency training at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. While at Oxford, he studied biochemistry under the supervision of Sir Hans Kornberg, with Sir Hans Krebs as a mentor. After his residency, he worked at the National Institutes of Health with Drs. Donald Fredrickson and Robert Levy.
"I am humbled to receive this honor from my peers at the National Lipid Association. My experience as a graduate student at Oxford first sparked my interest in the underlying pathophysiology of disease. We did not call it 'translational research' at the time, but I entered into the field of lipidology because it allowed me to connect basic science research with improved patient care," says Dr. Gotto.
Dr. Gotto's basic research includes studies into clinical disorders of lipid transport and the structure, metabolism and function of lipoproteins and apolipoproteins. While at the Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital in Houston, he and his team determined the complete cDNA and amino acid sequence of apo B-100, one of the largest proteins ever sequenced and a key protein in atherosclerosis. From 1971 to 1984, he was director and principal investigator of one of 12 Lipid Research Clinics established in the U.S. and Canada by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to investigate the relation between cholesterol and heart disease. Subsequently, Dr. Gotto has played a leading role in several landmark clinical trials demonstrating that cholesterol-lowering drug treatment can reduce the risk for heart disease.
Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr.
Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr. is the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, where he is also professor of medicine. In addition, Dr. Gotto is provost for medical affairs of Cornell University. Previously, at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, he was the Bob and Vivian Smith Professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine, scientific director of the DeBakey Heart Center, and the JS Abercrombie Chair for Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research. He also served as chief of the internal medicine service at the Methodist Hospital in Houston.
As a lifelong supporter of educational efforts aimed at cardiovascular risk reduction, Dr. Gotto has been national president of the American Heart Association and president of the International Atherosclerosis Society. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a foreign member of the German Society for Internal Medicine, and an honorary member of the Society for Progress in Internal Medicine (Ludwig Heilmeyer Society) in Germany. Dr. Gotto is a recipient of many honors, including the Gold Heart Award from the American Heart Association, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt University and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the Order of the Lion from the Republic of Finland, the International Okamoto Award from the Japan Vascular Disease Research Foundation, several honorary degrees and professorships, and numerous named lectureships. In 2010, he and Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, received the Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell on members of its medical staff.
Dr. Gotto speaks nationally and internationally on cardiovascular disease and has contributed more than 500 scholarly articles and books to the medical literature. In addition, he is co-author of a series of books that explain the origins and treatment of cardiovascular disease to the general public.
The National Lipid Association
The National Lipid Association (NLA) is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary medical society focused on enhancing the practice of lipid management in clinical medicine. The NLA represents more than 3,500 members in the United States and provides continuing medical education for physicians and other health care professionals to advance professional development and attain certification in clinical lipidology. The NLA's public health mission is to help reduce deaths related to high cholesterol, and the Association defines "clinical lipidology" as "a multidisciplinary branch of medicine focusing on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism and their associated disorders."
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Cornell University is the first in the U.S. to offer a M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston, making Weill Cornell one of only two medical colleges in the country affiliated with two U.S.News & World Report Honor Roll hospitals. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
John Rodgers
jdr2001@med.cornell.edu