Jack J. Hawiger, MD, PhD
Elected 1977
Much of my research spanned innate immunity, inflammation, and blood coagulation. My research team has made seminal discoveries concerning the mechanism of fibrinogen binding to staphylococci and blood platelets. These studies gave rise to the first diagnostic assay for the detection of fibrin split products in blood of patients with sepsis and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation and to prototypical inhibitors of platelet aggregation- a direct cause of heart attacks and strokes. We pioneered a new platform for intracellular delivery of peptides and proteins as a facile alternative to gene therapy. We applied this platform to establish a nuclear paradigm of inflammation caused by microbial,autoimmune, and metabolic insults.Nuclear Transport Modifier developed by us is a dual function lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory agent that reduced hyperlipidemia,atherosclerosis, and fatty liver in a mouse model of familial hypercholesterolemia.