Michael S. Gottlieb

Michael Stuart Gottlieb (born ca. 1948) is an American physician and immunologist known predominantly for his research in the identification of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and for clinical and philanthropic work associated with AIDS treatment.

Biography

Gottlieb is Jewish and was reared in New Jersey.^[1] Gottlieb attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. Following a fellowship in immunology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Gottlieb in 1981 accepted an assistant professor position at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.^[1]

Identification of AIDS

In the summer of 1981, Gottlieb, then thirty-three, and his colleagues identified an apparent novel immunological condition in homosexual men; the condition had common features of cytomegalovirus infection, pneumocystis pneumonia, mucosal candidiasis and Kaposi's sarcoma, all conditions found rarely outside of immunosuppressed patients.^[2] Gottlieb reported an initial five patient series in the June 5, 1981, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report^[3] and published a larger report a few months later in the New England Journal of Medicine.^[4] The work of Gottlieb and others strongly suggested that these patients had acquired an immunodeficiency, particularly a depression in T-lymphocyte numbers, allowing for potentially fatal opportunistic infections. Initially, the researchers termed the disease Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID);^[5] eventually this syndrome would become known as AIDS, a consequence of infection by Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Physician Joel Weisman was one of Gottlieb's most important collaborators in the identification of AIDS.^[1] Weisman's practice treated a large number of gay men, some of whom were among the first identified AIDS patients.^[1][2][6]

Clinical practice

Gottlieb is certified with the American Board of Medical Specialties in Internal Medicine and Allergy & Immunology.^[7] He is affiliated with two hospitals, Cedars Sinai Medical Center which is ranked second out of 140 hospitals in the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area by US News & World Report and the Olympia Medical Center - San Vicente Blvd where he is Committee Chairman of Bio Ethics[2].

Friction developed between the UCLA Medical Center, with their desires for revenue from cardiac and liver transplant programs, and the outspoken Gottlieb. Although he had published over 50 papers^[7] on various aspects of HIV infection and treatment, obtained one of the earliest National Institutes of Health grants for AIDS research and served on many AIDS-related boards, he still was denied tenure at UCLA and went into private practice in 1987.^[1] He was Rock Hudson's physician when the movie star was diagnosed with AIDS during the 1980s.^[1][2]

Gottlieb and two private practice partners were reprimanded by the Medical Board of California in 1989 for "allegedly over-prescribing controlled substances" to actress Elizabeth Taylor.^[1]

Gottlieb received and responded to a warning letter in 2005 from the Food and Drug Administration regarding errors and inconsistencies in the testing of two investigational HIV-1 treatments.^[8]

AIDS research philanthropy

Gottlieb, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Mathilde Krim, were founding chairs of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.^[2]

Gottlieb is affiliated with the UCLA AIDS Institute and a trustee of the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance.^[9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "The Emergence of a Deadly Disease", David Brown, Washington Post, June 5, 2001
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Elizabeth Fee and Theodore M. Brown (June 2006). "Michael S. Gottlieb and the Identification of AIDS". Am J Public Health 96 (6): 982–3. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2006.088435. PMC 1470620. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1470620. 
3. ^ Gottlieb MS (June 2006). "Pneumocystis pneumonia--Los Angeles. 1981". Am J Public Health 96 (6): 980–1. PMC 1470612. PMID 16714472. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1470612. 

   Reprinted from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of June 5, 1981

4. ^ Gottlieb MS, Schroff R, Schanker HM, Weisman JD, Fan PT, Wolf RA, Saxon A (December 1981). "Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and mucosal candidiasis in previously healthy homosexual men: evidence of a new acquired cellular immunodeficiency". N. Engl. J. Med. 305 (24): 1425–31. doi:10.1056/NEJM198112103052401. PMID 6272109. 
5. ^ "HIV/AIDS – the discovery of an unknown, deadly virus", Infectious Disease News, June 1, 2006
6. ^ "Dr. Joel D. Weisman dies at 66; among the first doctors to detect AIDS", Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009
7. ^ ^{a b} [1], vitals.com, Comprehensive medical information on 720,000 doctors in the USA
8. ^ Gottlieb, Michael S., M.D. 23-Aug-05, Warning Letter, Food and Drug Administration Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations
9. ^ "Patient Zero, and AIDS, enter the history books", Michael S. Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times, June 05, 2006

Further reading

• Gottlieb MS (July 1998). "Discovering AIDS". Epidemiology 9 (4): 365–7. doi:10.1097/00001648-199807000-00001. PMID 9647895. http://meta.wkhealth.com/pt/pt-core/template-journal/lwwgateway/media/landingpage.htm?issn=1044-3983&volume=9&issue=4&spage=365. 
• And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts, 1987, ISBN 0312009941

Persondata
Name	Gottlieb, Michael S.
Alternative names
Short description	AIDS researcher
Date of birth	ca. 1948
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death