At the October 2008 ASCP Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Ishwarlal Jialal, MD, PhD, FASCP, received the 2008 ASCP Philip Levine Award for Outstanding Research. The award recognizes researchers who have made a significant contribution to molecular pathology, immunohematology, and immunopathology.
Dr. Jialal's major research interest is in the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in atherosclerosis, understanding the cellular dysfunction and the role of inflammation in metabolic syndrome, and understanding the pathobiology of diabetic vasculopathies. He also has a long standing interest in hyperlipidemia and diabetes. His research has been funded over the years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and American Heart Association.
Dr. Jialal has been a faculty member at ASCP's Annual Meetings for more than ten years. He is most noted for his course, "Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Risk Assessment," which will again be presented this year (Friday, October 17, 2:15 pm – 5:15 pm).
To date, he has published over 360 original papers and invited reviews in the areas of diabetes, atherosclerosis, lipid metabolism, nutrition and vascular biology. He has received numerous awards for his research and has served on Editorial Boards of numerous journals, including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications, and Atherosclerosis. Currently, Dr. Jialal serves as Section Editor of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology (AJCP) for Clinical Chemistry and Editor-in-Chief of Metabolic Syndrome & Related Disorders.
He serves on the Grant Review Panels of the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as well as the National Institutes of Health including the Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award Grant Review Panel for the K08 awards study section, Research Scientist Development KO1 awards, and other Special Emphasis Panels for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Jialal graduated with the equivalent of an MD/PhD from the University of Natal Medical School, Natal, South Africa, and thereafter undertook fellowships at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, and in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. He then joined the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1988 as Assistant Professor and became Professor of Internal Medicine and Pathology with tenure in 1997. He was Director of the Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Human Metabolism and was the first to hold the C. Vincent Prothro Chair in Human Nutrition Research. He is presently the Robert E. Stowell Endowed Chair in Experimental Pathology, Director of the Laboratory for Atherosclerosis and Metabolic Research, and Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Clinical Nutrition and Vascular Medicine, at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center.
He enjoys hiking and traveling all over the world including Asia, South Africa, and Europe.
The ASCP Philip Levine Award is named after the late Philip Levine, MD, for his many distinguished contributions to clinical medicine.