Stephen M. Feinstone, MD
Adjunct Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
School of Medicine and Health Sciences
George Washington University
Dr Feinstone did his clinical training at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and at Georgetown University Hospital and the Washington VA Hospital in Washington, DC. In 1971 he went to the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID), NIAID as a Research Associate in the Public Health Service. At the LID, Dr. Feinstone worked under Robert Purcell, a past winner of the Prusoff Award. With his colleagues Bob Purcell and Albert Kapikian, in 1973 Dr. Feinstone identified the hepatitis A virus (HAV) and developed the first assays that could measure the virus antigen and antibody. Using those assays, the group in the LID along with Harvey Alter in the NIH Blood Bank demonstrated by serologic exclusion of hepatitis A and B that there existed of a third, previously unrecognized form of viral hepatitis originally termed non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH). This initiated a search in laboratories around the world for the actual agent associated with NANBH that was eventually successful in the lab of Michael Houghton at the Chiron Corporation.
The initial identification of HAV led eventually to its in vitro cultivation which then allowed for vaccine development using classic cell culture methods. These efforts eventually were successful to the Purcell lab where a highly cell culture adapted virus was selected. While this virus eventually proved to be over attenuated in humans, it grew sufficiently well in cell culture to permit the development of a killed vaccine by collaborators at SKB in Belgium. The inactivated HAV vaccine is now in broad use with profound effects on the public health impact of HAV infections. With Gerardo Kaplan, Dr. Feinstone’s lab also identified the HAV cellular receptor that is identical to TIM-1, an important immune-regulatory receptor.
Education:
M.D., University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Memphis, TN (Sept 1966- Dec 1969)
B.A., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (June, 1966)
Research:
Dr. Feinstone’s more recent research has focused on the virology and immunopathogenesis of hepatitis C virus infections using in vitro methodologies as well as animal models and applying this information to experimental vaccine development. Recently his research interests have broadened to the relationship between chronic HCV infections and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Research Interests:
-Infectious diseases and vaccines
-Virology
-Viral vaccines
-Viral hepatitis.