ROBERT M. FRIEDMAN M.D., Class of 1958

After graduation, I took a rotating internship at The Mt. Sinai Hospital (no medical school there then). I then completed my military obligation in the USPHS at the NIH, and I’ve lived in the Bethesda area since then. After my wife died suddenly in 1992, a mutual friend introduced me to Harriet Schisgall, the widow of Dick Schisgall (NYU Med ’57), and we were married in 1994. We have 4 children and 11 grandchildren between us. Harriet and I have enjoyed a very happy marriage.

My original job at NIH was to carry out research in the lab of Sam Baron (NYU Med ’53) in the Division of Biological Standards. My research was on the viral vaccines, the inhibition of immune responses with anti-metabolites, and the role of the newly discovered interferon in the recovery of animals from viral infections. After my 2 years in Sam’s lab I began a residency in pathology in the Pathologic Anatomy Branch of the NCI. Sy Sabesin was also in that program at the time. I was given a year credit for my NIH research, so I only worked as a resident for two years.  During that time I continued research on interferon. After a fellowship in hematology, the PHS sent me to work in the lab of Alec Isaacs, interferon’s discoverer, at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. During that year, I worked on the interferon’s mechanism of antiviral action.

Upon returning to the NIH in 1964, and passing my Path Boards, I became a principal investigator and attending pathologist at the NCI. My research was on the mechanism of replication of RNA viruses and the antiviral action of interferon. In 1971 I returned to work at Mill Hill for 2 years with Ian Kerr in order to develop a cell-free system to study how interferon established its biological activity. During that period I served as a visiting pathologist at the Clinical Research Centre, Harrow, and for 4 months as a guest worker at the Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem.

When I returned to NIH, I was appointed Chief of the Lab of Pathology, NIAMD. My research was directed at the effect of interferon on chronic infections with membrane- associated viruses. These studies helped in the development of interferon treatment for chronic HBV and HCV infections. We also reported that many patients with SLE and AIDS produced interferon. This interferon appears related to the pathogenesis of SLE. After spending a year at Warwick University and the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris, I returned to Bethesda in 1982, and was appointed Professor and Chair of Pathology at the new Uniformed Services Medical School, where I’ve been ever since.  I have participated in the training of about 40% of the physicians currently on active duty in the Uniformed Services (see the film Fighting For Life, currently showing).

The NCI sent me to then Communist Hungary in 1992 for 3 months to evaluate their medical research programs. In 2005 I was a visiting scientist at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia in Madrid. My current research is on interferon-induced differentiation therapy of cancer. I still lecture, teach small groups, and administer my department. I’ve carried out research project with several institutions in India, including research on malaria. The US State Department has cited my work in India. 

In my career, I’ve written over 250 scientific papers, edited two books, and written two books, one scientific, that was translated into Japanese, the other a novel. I hope one day to finish a second novel. I was one of the 1,000 most-cited scientists 1965-78, and have served as an editor of Virology, J. of Virology, Infection & Immunity, and J. of Immunology, among others, and editor-in-chief of the J. of Experimental Pathology. I was on the Scientific Advisory Board of the AFIP and served as President of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research and an NIH consultant for many years. All in all, I’ve been very happy with my life in general and feel I’ve been reasonably productive in teaching, research, and clinical medicine.