Garret A. FitzGerald

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|MRIA|FRS|size=100%}}

| name = Garret FitzGerald

| birth_name = Garret Adare FitzGerald

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1950|05|11}}

| birth_place = Greystones, County Wicklow{{cite news| first=Adam| last=Farley| title=Dr. Garret FitzGerald Wants to Build Bridges| website=Irish America| date=6 May 2017| url=https://irishamerica.com/2014/07/dr-garret-fitzgerald-wants-to-build-bridges/| access-date=26 September 2018| issue=August/September 2014}}

| nationality = Republic of Ireland

| education = Belvedere College{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=FitzGerald, Prof. Garret Adare | id = U281224 | year = 2017 | doi =10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U281224 | edition = online Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}}

| alma_mater = University College Dublin {{nowrap|(MB BCh, MD)}}
Trinity College Dublin (PgD)
University of London (MSc)

| workplaces = Vanderbilt University (1980–1991)
University College, Dublin (1991–1994)
{{nowrap|University of Pennsylvania (1994–)}}

| fields = Circadian rhythms
Cardiology
Vascular biology
Molecular clocks
Pharmacology

| caption =

| website = {{URL|http://www.med.upenn.edu/fitzgeraldlab/personnel.html}}

| awards = Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh {{small|(2007)}}

}}

Garret Adare FitzGerald {{post-nominals|MRIA|FRS}} (born 11 May 1950) is an Irish physician. He is professor of translational medicine and therapeutics and chair of the department of pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.[https://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p9400 Garret A. FitzGerald, M.D., FRS] – website of the Perelman School of Medicine He researches aspects of cardiology, pharmacology, translational medicine, and chronobiology.{{Google scholar id}}

Early life and education

FitzGerald was born in Greystones, County Wicklow, on 11 May 1950. He grew up in Dublin, acquiring an unabated passion for rugby. He attended Belvedere College, a Jesuit school for boys in Dublin. Influenced by his grandfather, who had been a professor of Greek, FitzGerald learned five languages at school including Greek and Latin. FitzGerald went to study medicine at University College Dublin (UCD), where he received an MB BCh (honours) degree in 1974 and an MD degree in 1980. In between, he also obtained a Postgraduate diploma in statistics from Trinity College Dublin in 1977 and an MSc degree in statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1979.

FitzGerald attributes his career in medicine to "a series of accidents". During his final examinations at UCD he was required to dissect the mouthparts of a cockroach. Peering through a microscope, FitzGerald discovered that he had lost one of the main pieces. Disaster seemed certain as he searched the floor on his hands and knees. The exam proctor came to help and eventually emerged with the tiny fragment stuck to her thumb. FitzGerald has stated that without her intervention he would never have become a physician.

Career

After completing his clinical training, FitzGerald took a research position at Vanderbilt University in 1980. He returned to Ireland in 1991 before relocating to the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 as the founding director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics (CET). He became chair of pharmacology in 1996.{{cite news| url=https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/publications-and-special-projects/penn-medicine-magazine/archived-issues/2002-2000/spring-2001| title=A man of many parts| work=Penn Medicine| issue=Spring 2001| pages=6–11| last=Conner| first=Kristine| access-date=26 September 2018}}

FitzGerald was a member of the Science Board to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).{{cite web | title=FDA Science Board Members | publisher=US Food and Drug Administration | date=31 March 2009 | url=https://www.fda.gov/oc/advisory/scimem.html | access-date=12 August 2018}}

FitzGerald's work contributed substantially to the development of low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes. FitzGerald's lab was the first to predict and then mechanistically explain the cardiovascular hazard from Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a common class of painkiller.{{cite web | title=The FitzGerald Lab – Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania | website=Personnel | url=http://www.med.upenn.edu/fitzgeraldlab/personnel.html | access-date=12 August 2018}} His work showing that selective COX-2 inhibitors depress the production of prostacyclin in the endothelium, thereby increasing cardiovascular risk,{{cite journal| last1=Grosser| first1=Tilo| last2=Fries| first2=Susanne| last3=FitzGerald| first3=Garret A.| title=Biological basis for the cardiovascular consequences of COX-2 inhibition: therapeutic challenges and opportunities| journal=Journal of Clinical Investigation| publisher=American Society for Clinical Investigation| volume=116| issue=1| date=8 December 2005| issn=0021-9738| doi=10.1172/jci27291| pages=4–15| pmid=16395396| pmc=1323269}} was instrumental in the withdrawal of Vioxx (rofecoxib) from the U.S. market in 2004.

Honours and awards

FitzGerald is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society, the Accademia dei Lincei and the Leopoldina, and an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy.

2004 Honorary DSc degree from the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
2004 Honorary DSc degree from the National University of Ireland, Dublin
2005 Boyle Medal{{cite news | title=Dubliner receives Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence | newspaper=The Irish Times | date=20 October 2005 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/dubliner-receives-boyle-medal-for-scientific-excellence-1.508078 | access-date=25 August 2018}}
2007 Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
2007 Honorary MD degree from Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany)
2009 Taylor Prize{{cite web | title=Previous Recipients | website=Robarts Research | date=25 July 2018 | url=http://www.robarts.ca/past-winners | access-date=12 August 2018 | archive-date=13 August 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813004332/http://www.robarts.ca/past-winners | url-status=dead }}
2011 Jakob Herz Prize {{cite web| url=https://www.med.fau.de/files/2015/07/Jakob-Herz-Preis-Festschrift2011.pdf| title=Jakob-Herz-Preis 2011| publisher=Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlang-Nürnberg| language=German| date=5 February 2011| access-date=13 August 2018}}
2012 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS){{cite web | title=Garret FitzGerald | website=royalsociety.org | date=2012 | url=https://royalsociety.org/people/garret-fitzgerald-11441/ | access-date=12 August 2018|author=Anon}}
2012 Lucian Award{{cite journal | last1=Genest | first1=Jacques | last2=Hébert | first2=Terence E. | last3=Martin | first3=James | title=The Louis and Artur Lucian Award in Cardiovascular Diseases at McGill University | journal=Circulation Research | publisher=Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) | volume=119 | issue=9 | date=13 October 2016 | issn=0009-7330 | doi=10.1161/circresaha.116.309972 | pages=975–977| pmid=27737939 | doi-access=free }}
2013 Scheele Award{{cite web|title=Former Laureates|url=https://www.apotekarsocieteten.se/stipendier-och-priser/schele-award/former-laurates/|website=Apotekarsocieteten|accessdate=29 November 2016|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201182111/https://www.apotekarsocieteten.se/stipendier-och-priser/schele-award/former-laurates/|url-status=dead}}
2013 Lefoulon-Delalande Prize{{cite web| last=Landau| first=Elizabeth| title=Doctor is pain medicine 'visionary'| website=CNN| date=21 June 2013| url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/21/health/garret-fitzgerald-aspirin/index.html| access-date=12 August 2018}}
2013 Schottenstein Prize{{cite web | title=The Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences | website=Ohio State Heart and Vascular Research | url=https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/heart-vascular/research/schottenstein-prize-in-cardiovascular-sciences | access-date=12 August 2018}}
2013 Honorary DSc degree from King's College London (United Kingdom)
2014 St. Patrick's Day Medal from Science Foundation Ireland
2017 UCD Alumnus of the Year in Research, Innovation and Impact.{{cite web |title=UCD Alumni Awardee |url=https://alumni.ucd.ie/awards/awardee/dr-garret-fitzgerald/}}
2018 Elected to the German National Academy of Sciences{{cite web | title=Penn Medicines Garret FitzGerald MD FRS Elected to the German National Academy of Sciences – PR News | website=Penn Medicine | date=7 June 2018 | url=https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2018/june/penn-medicines-garret-fitzgerald-md-frs-elected-to-the-german-national-academy-of-sciences | access-date=12 August 2018}}
2019 Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland[https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2019/05/rcsi-celebrates-graduates-at-summer-conferring-ceremonies RCSI celebrates graduates at summer conferring ceremonies] – website of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
2021 Honorary Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG){{cite web |title=Honorary Awards to Foreign Nationals in 2021 |date=2021 |publisher=Gov.UK |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/honorary-british-awards-to-foreign-nationals-2021/honorary-awards-to-foreign-nationals-in-2021}}