James Crowe Jr., M.D.
Crowe’s research lands national Pediatrics award
James Crowe Jr., M.D., has won the 2006 Mead-Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics.
Each year this national award, given since 1939, honors two individuals for their clinical and laboratory research achievements in pediatrics. Crowe is the first Vanderbilt researcher to be honored.
As a recipient of the award, a review of Crowe's work will be published in the journal Pediatric Research, and Crowe will present his research at the organization's annual meeting in San Francisco. His presentation is titled "Molecular basis for development of human B cell responses to viruses."
“Being the recipient of this award recognized Dr. Crowe's outstanding investigation into the pathogenesis of respiratory virus infections and the role of neonatal immunity in fighting these infections,” said Arnold Strauss, M.D., chair of Pediatrics.
“Dr. Crowe joins 60 years' worth of previous winners who have changed the face of pediatric care worldwide because of their scientific contributions. I am certain that Jim Crowe will make the same sort of impact through his many key discoveries over the next 20 years.”
In his 10 years at Vanderbilt, Crowe has made significant contributions to the understanding of B cell ontogeny in viral defense and the unique role of antibodies in mucosal immunity to respiratory viruses. These studies were accomplished using rotavirus and RSV as model antigens, focusing on human responses, especially infancy.
"I am honored to be selected for this award and I want to recognize the large number of staff and trainees at Vanderbilt over the last 10 years who share credit for the award with me,” Crowe said.
Crowe received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
He completed his pediatric internship and residency at North Carolina Memorial Hospitals in Chapel Hill. Crowe was a medical staff fellow in the National Institutes of Health's Laboratory of Infectious Disease in Bethesda, Md.
He also served as a senior research investigator in Respiratory Virus Section there.
Crowe completed a clinical fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and joined Vanderbilt as an instructor in Pediatrics in 1995.
Crowe has served on many committees and holds several appointments at Vanderbilt. He was named the director of the Vanderbilt Alliance for Nanomedicine in 2004, and is also the director of the Vanderbilt Program in Vaccine Sciences.
He is a member of many professional organizations including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Infectious Disease Society of America, among others.
Crowe is currently the scientific editor/reviewer for Nanomedicine; Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine; and Nanomedicine: A Multidisciplinary Review.
He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology and Faculty of 1000.
The Mead-Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics was previously bestowed upon Crowe's postdoctoral fellowship mentor. In 1964, Robert M. Chanock, National Institutes of Health, received the honor. Chanock's mentor, Albert S. Sabin, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, won the award in 1941.
— Crowe is professor of Pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology