By Trent Stockton
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Three Johns Hopkins researchers have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. Thomas Quinn, Diane Griffin and John Griffin are among just 65 new members nationwide announced Oct. 18 by the IOM. Election to this prestigious body affirms their stunning contributions to medical science, health care and public health, as well as to the education of generations of physicians. Election is one of the highest honors for those in the medical profession.

Quinn is professor of medicine and deputy director in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and serves as senior investigator and section head for International AIDS/STDs at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He also holds an appointment as professor in the departments of International Health, and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research and leadership in national and international efforts to understand and curb the pandemic of HIV and AIDS have helped bring substantial reductions in AIDS mortality and kept much needed attention focused on the development of new drugs and vaccines.

Diane Griffin and John Griffin are believed to be the first husband and wife in the history of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to be elected to the IOM in the same year.

Diane Griffin, who earlier this year was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, holds full professorships in both medicine and neurology and in 1994 became professor and the Alfred and Jill Sommer Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an eminent virologist whose research has focused on how viruses cause brain disorders such as encephalitis, and she has identified ways the immune system can clear virus from nerve cells without damaging them. She also investigates measles, which continues to threaten millions in developing nations and is using her findings to develop better vaccines. She is director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.

John Griffin, professor of neurology, neuroscience and pathology, directs the Department of Neurology, which has long drawn international acclaim for work on degenerative diseases of the nervous system and is now leading the way in nerve regeneration science. One of the world's leading experts in peripheral nerve disorders, he has been a leading figure in research and treatment of immune system diseases that attack nerves, creating paralysis and severe pain. He has won the school's Professors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

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