August 27, 2001

TRAMONT OF UMBI NAMED DIRECTOR OF AIDS DIV. OF NIAID (NIH)

BETHESDA, Md. -To help meet the challenge of the AIDS epidemic, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has tapped veteran vaccine expert Edmund C. Tramont, M.D., F.A.C.P., of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), as its new director of its AIDS Division. (DAIDS)

The one-time attending physician to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and consultant on infectious diseases during Desert Storm, Tramont was the first permanent director of the UMBI's Medical Biotechnology Center (MBC) in Baltimore and "clearly a visionary," says UMBI President Jennie Hunter-Cevera.

"For over ten years, Dr. Tramont provided outstanding leadership for our medical research centers. With AIDS research now moving into a critical phase of vaccine development and distribution-an area in which he has excelled, Dr. Tramont is an excellent choice for this key position," she says. NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A clinician, researcher, consultant, and administrator, Tramont says the NIAID position "is now the right time and the right place. At UMBI, I learned a lot about academia and, most important, had the opportunity to interact with the biotechnology industry so as to be able to develop insight into the kind of interface between pharmaceutical industry and academic community that is needed to advance relevant discoveries."

As director of MBC, he worked to strengthen Maryland's emerging biotech industry, or as he says, "to put meaning behind economic development of biotech. Wherever the biotech industry has flourished, there is a strong academic research setting in biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology. It is true of Boston, San Francisco and now Maryland."

Also while at UMBI, Tramont was co-Director of the Vaccine Research Division and Associate Director of UMBI's Institute of Human Virology (IHV), directed by the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus Robert Gallo. "I especially enjoyed working with Bob Gallo, an extraordinary scientist, and a man of integrity and character who also happens to have an engaging and focused personality," he comments.

Tramont was instrumental in taking the Medical Biotechnology Center through a major development phase, says Hunter-Cevera. He helped plan the design and construction of the UMBI Medical Research Facility that houses both the MBC and IHV. And, he recruited Gallo to establish the IHV. To honor Tramont for his contribution to the creation and success of MBC, the center Director Jonathan Lederer has announced the formation of the Edmund C. Tramont Lectureship.

As director of DAIDS, Tramont will oversee an estimated $1.3 billion global research program, involving basic research and hundreds of clinical trials with the aim of treating, preventing and better understanding HIV/AIDS. "Dr. Tramont's scientific accomplishments and his proven track record as a manager make him the ideal person for the job," says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID director. "He possesses a broad scientific vision and the ability to lead and inspire."

Tramont comes from a family of architects and builders, and as an undergraduate, he originally studied sanitary engineering. But, a required course in microbiology changed the direction of his life. "That course was so fascinating that I switched from engineering to pre-med. This was in my junior year so I had to go back and start over, taking all the pre-med courses." Dr. Tramont received his B.S. from Rutgers University in 1962 and his M.D. from Boston University in 1966.

In 1968, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and began a residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His first patient was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The former president suffered from heart problems, and Dr. Tramont's job was to sit with him day and night, monitoring his condition. "We talked about golf, war, politics, life in general. He said to me, 'If you're lucky, the army is a good deal.' He was right." Tramont spent the next 23 years in the army, working primarily to develop vaccines that would protect soldiers from sexually transmitted diseases and other illnesses. "At the time, the army was developing more vaccines than anyone else," he reflects.

He established an infectious disease fellowship program at Walter Reed, and he was instrumental in creating the combined meningococcal vaccine. He also designed and implemented vaccine trials for gonorrhea, shigella and HIV. He was associate director of the Army Institute of Research for Retroviral Diseases and was also consultant on infectious disease for the Department of the Army's Surgeon General for 20 years.

At UMBI, he continued vaccine research and was involved in the establishment founding two biotech companies, NovaVax and Biodelivery Sciences.