Herbert W. “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D., has been named head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Virgin came to the department in 1990 as an instructor and became a professor in 2002. As the new department head, he becomes Edward Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology and Immunology. He succeeds Emil R. Unanue, M.D., who served as head of the department for 21 years.
The appointment was announced by Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine.
“Under Emil Unanue’s leadership, the Department of Pathology and Immunology has become a world leader in its field, with citation rates for its papers among the highest of all departments at the School of Medicine,” Shapiro says. “We are very much looking forward to seeing that tradition continue and expand under the guidance of Skip Virgin.”
Virgin’s goals will include promoting departmental efforts to harness genetic information as a diagnostic tool, a core component of the University’s BioMed 21 initiative.
“Our faculty are an amazing group, with the brilliance, energy and drive to transform how we think about disease in a way that significantly benefits the patients we serve and the students we mentor,” Virgin says. “It is a great honor to be asked to serve as head of this historic and very distinguished department.”
The department is widely recognized for pioneering work in immunobiology, the study of how basic genetic and molecular mechanisms in the immune system defend against invaders and malfunction in autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Virgin’s research includes studies of how the immune system responds to chronic viral infections. In chronic infections, the body brings an invader under control, reducing its replication and spread, but is unable to completely eliminate it. Examples of chronic viral infections include herpes, varicella zoster (the chickenpox virus), HIV and hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses.
In a recent paper, Virgin revealed that a key component of the immune response to chronic infections—the mechanisms for which were discovered by his predecessor Unanue and colleagues– has a previously unrecognized backup.
“This suggests that we may need to take a more extensive look at what immune system elements play a role in controlling chronic viral infections,” Virgin said at the time.
In 2004, Virgin’s group became the first to successfully grow noroviruses in the laboratory. Norovirus disease is characterized by frequent vomiting and diarrhea over the course of 1-2 days. The most infamous norovirus, the Norwalk virus, was first identified after a 1968 outbreak at a school in Norwalk, Ohio. The Norwalk virus also caused a series of repeated outbreaks on cruise ships in 2002 and in military personnel in Afghanistan.
The accomplishment is helping scientists seek ways to weaken norovirus for use as a vaccine. Virgin obtained M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard Medical School in 1985. Prior to coming to Washington University, he served a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard.
Virgin became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004 and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1998. He received the School of Medicine’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2002 and the Academic Mentorship Award of the Academic Women’s Network of Washington University in 2001. He has been a Mallinckrodt and Pfizer Scholar and a recipient of the American Cancer Society’s Junior Faculty Research Award. He has served as chair of the Cancer Society’s study section on cell cycle and growth control.
“I am looking forward to working with the department’s exceptional faculty, trainees and staff to further strengthen this distinguished and vibrant department that I am privileged to inherit from Dr. Unanue,” Virgin says.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.