Tuesday, June 26, 2018

A00952 - Adel Mahmoud, Developer of HPV and Rotavirus Vaccines

Dr. Adel Mahmoud, 76, dies; credited with major vaccines

By Denise Grady

Published 3:42 pm, Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Photo: Princeton University / New York Times

Dr. Adel Mahmoud, an infectious-disease expert who played a vital role in the development of lifesaving vaccines.

Dr. Adel Mahmoud, an infectious-disease expert who played a vital role in the development of lifesaving vaccines, died on June 11 in Manhattan. He was 76.

His death, at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, was caused by a brain hemorrhage, his wife, Dr. Sally Hodder, said.

As president of Merck Vaccines from 1998 until 2006, Mahmoud oversaw the creation and marketing of several vaccines that brought major advances in public health. One prevents rotavirus infection, a potentially fatal cause of diarrhea in babies. Another protects against human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cancers of the cervix, anus, genitals and middle of the throat.

Mahmoud also helped usher in a combination vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, and one to prevent shingles, the painful and debilitating illness that can develop when a previous chickenpox infection is reactivated.

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The rotavirus and HPV vaccines were contentious subjects and might never have reached the market without Mahmoud’s determination, said Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, an executive vice president at Merck & Co., and former head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She joined Merck after Mahmoud retired but described him as a “lifelong mentor.”

Mahmoud championed those vaccines because he recognized their potential to save lives, she said. Globally, cervical cancer and rotavirus infections kill hundreds of thousands of women and children every year.

The problem with a rotavirus vaccine was that another company had already developed one but then had to take it off the market because it was found to increase the risk of bowel obstruction in infants. Opponents argued that it would take a large study and a huge investment of time and money to test Merck’s candidate vaccine, and then to overcome public fears.

“Everyone wanted to kill it,” Gerberding said. “Adel said, ‘Not only are we going to do it, but we’re going to make our study even larger to prove it works and is safe.’”

Mahmoud took a similar approach to the HPV vaccine, which also had its detractors. Some doubted that it would work. Others thought parents would reject it, fearing that administering the vaccine to young girls would somehow encourage them to start having sex. That fear was based on the virus being sexually transmitted and the view that the vaccine was most effective if given before girls become sexually active.

Mahmoud prevailed, and Merck’s HPV vaccine, Gardasil, approved in 2006, was the first to be marketed.

Last month, in a call to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide, the head of the World Health Organization called HPV vaccines “truly wonderful inventions” and said that all girls should be given them.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he had called on Mahmoud many times to advise his institute.

“He clearly had a knack for understanding the big picture,” Fauci said. “He was a 40,000-foot kind of guy, who could understand areas of science, research, policy and clinical medicine well beyond his own specific designated area of expertise.”

Mahmoud also had “an amazingly likable personality,” Fauci said.

“Even though he was dead serious when advising you on important matters, he had this effervescent, bubbling personality,” he added.

Adel Mahmoud was born on Aug. 24, 1941, in Cairo, the eldest of three children. His father, Abdelfattah Mahmoud, was an agricultural engineer. His mother, Fathia Osman, did not work outside the home, though she had hoped to study medicine and had been accepted by the University of Cairo’s medical school. Her brother, a medical student, had stopped her from attending because he did not think women should be doctors.

A boyhood experience had a profound influence on Mahmoud. When he was 10, his father contracted pneumonia, and young Adel was sent to the drugstore for penicillin. He ran home with it only to find that his father had died. As the eldest son, he was now head of the family.

“I often wondered if his strength as a leader and his clear vision originated from being forced into those roles at an early age,” his wife, Hodder, said.

Mahmoud studied medicine at the University of Cairo, graduating in 1963. He left Egypt for Britain in 1968 and earned a doctorate from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1971. He did research on diseases caused by parasitic worms and the role of a certain type of blood cell in the body’s efforts to defend itself.

Mahmoud emigrated to the United States in 1973 as a postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He later led the university’s division of geographic medicine and was chairman of the department of medicine from 1987 to 1998.

He met Hodder there in 1976, and they married in 1993. She is also an infectious-disease specialist.

Merck recruited Mahmoud in 1998. He retired from the company in 2006, and then became a professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the department of molecular biology at Princeton University.

In 2013, when an unusual strain of meningitis caused an outbreak on campus — one for which there was no vaccine made in the United States — Mahmoud used his expertise, powers of persuasion and connections in the pharmaceutical world to help the university acquire a European vaccine and obtain permission from the government to offer it to students on an emergency basis.

After the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, Mahmoud began advocating for the creation of a global vaccine-development fund.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a stepson, Jay Thornton; his sister, Dr. Olfat Abdelfattah; and his brother, Dr. Mahmoud Abdelfattah.

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Adel Mahmoud (August 24, 1941 – June 11, 2018) was an Egyptian-born American doctor and expert in infectious diseases. He was credited with developing the HPV and rotavirus vaccines while serving as president of Merck Vaccines. After retiring from Merck he became a professor at Princeton University.

Mahmoud was born on August 24, 1941 in Cairo, Egypt. His father Abdelfattah Mahmoud, who worked as an agricultural engineer, died of pneumonia when Adel was ten. Adel had been sent to buy penicillin, but when he rushed home his father had already died. He was profoundly influenced by the experience.^[1] Mahmoud graduated from the University of Cairo in 1963 with an M.D.^[1]^[2] His mother, Fathia Osman, had been accepted by the university's medical school but was prevented from attending by her brother, who thought women should not be doctors.^[1]

While a university student, Mahmood actively participated in politics and served as a leader in the youth movement of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. As the political climate changed, he moved to the United Kingdom to continue his education, and earned a Ph.D. from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1971.^[2]In 1973, he emigrated to the United States and became a postdoctoral researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and eventually rose to chair the university's Department of Medicine in 1987.^[2]

In 1988, Merck & Co. recruited Mahmoud as president of its vaccine division. During his tenure, Mahmoud oversaw the development of several vaccines important to public health, including the rotavirus vaccine and the HPV vaccine. The former prevents potentially fatal diarrhea for young children caused by rotavirus, while the latter (Gardasil) prevents several cancers, most importantly cervix cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus.^[1] His role was considered pivotal as he overcame significant doubt about the viability of the vaccines and succeeded in bringing them to market.^[1]

After retiring from Merck in 2006, Mahmoud became a policy analyst at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University in 2007, and professor of Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology in 2011.^[2]

On June 11, 2018, Mahmoud died from a brain hemorrhage at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, aged 76.^[1]^[2]

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates lamented the death of Dr. Mahmoud on his Twitter account saying ”Earlier this month, the world lost one of the greatest vaccine creators of our time. Dr. Adel Mahmoud saved the lives of countless children”^[3]

Mahmoud met Dr. Sally Hodder, also an infectious-disease expert, at Case Western Reserve in 1976. They married in 1993. He had a stepson, Jay Thornton.^[1]

Mahmoud had a sister, Olfat Abdelfattah, and a brother, Mahmoud Abdelfattah. They are both doctors.^[1]

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Mahmoud was born on August 24, 1941 in Cairo, Egypt. His father Abdelfattah Mahmoud, who worked as an agricultural engineer, died of pneumonia when Adel was ten. Adel had been sent to buy penicillin, but when he rushed home his father had already died. He was profoundly influenced by the experience. Mahmoud graduated from the University of Cairo in 1963 with an M.D. His mother, Fathia Osman, had been accepted by the university's medical school but was prevented from attending by her brother, who thought women should not be doctors.

While a university student, Mahmood actively participated in politics and served as a leader in the youth movement of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. As the political climate changed, he moved to the United Kingdom to continue his education, and earned a Ph.D. from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1971. In 1973, he emigrated to the United States and became a postdoctoral researcher at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, and eventually rose to chair the university's Department of Medicine in 1987.

In 1988, Merck & Co. recruited Mahmoud as president of its vaccine division. During his tenure, Mahmoud oversaw the development of several vaccines important to public health, including the rotavirus vaccine and the HPV vaccine. The former prevents potentially fatal diarrhea for young children caused by rotavirus, while the latter (Gardasil) prevents several cancers, most importantly cervix cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus. His role was considered pivotal as he overcame significant doubt about the viability of the vaccines and succeeded in bringing them to market.

On June 11, 2018, Mahmoud died from a brain hemorrhage at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, aged 76.

Mahmoud met Dr. Sally Hodder, also an infectious-disease expert, at Case Western Reserve in 1976. They married in 1993. He had a stepson, Jay Thornton.

Mahmoud had a sister, Olfat Abdelfattah, and a brother, Mahmoud Abdelfattah. They are both doctors.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

A00951 - Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, "Grandfather of Rap"

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, ‘Grandfather of Rap,’ Is Dead at 73

Image

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of the Last Poets in London in 1984. He delivered some of the group’s most urgent and incisive verses.CreditDavid Corio/Redferns, via Getty Images

By Giovanni Russonello

June 13, 2018

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, who helped establish the foundation for hip-hop as a member of the Last Poets and in his own solo work, died on June 4 at a hospital in Atlanta. He was 73.

The cause was lung cancer, said Umar Bin Hassan, a fellow member of the Last Poets.

The Last Poets emerged in Harlem at the end of the 1960s, reciting rhythmic verses over conga drumming and speaking directly to the disenfranchised youth of New York City’s black community. The group’s poetry pushed revolution and self-determination, while admonishing listeners about survival in an environment defined by racialized poverty.

With his high, declamatory voice and his way of milking words for their sonic potential as well as their meaning, Mr. Nuriddin (pronounced noo-ruh-DEEN) stood out. He delivered some of the group’s most urgent and incisive verses, and although the Last Poets’ lineup rotated over time, he performed with the group well into his later years.

By then he had come to be widely known as the “grandfather of rap,” a laurel he proudly accepted.

With the release of their debut album, “The Last Poets,” in 1970, the group became an underground sensation, reaching No. 29 on the Billboard album chart and staying on the chart for 30 weeks despite being rarely played on radio. Mr. Nuriddin was fond of saying that the record “sold over a million copies by word of mouth,” though he never had the documentation — or the income — to prove it.

As the civil rights movement lost steam and gave way to the separatism of Black Power, the group spoke from a standpoint of disillusionment, although with vigorous attitude. In “On the Subway,” Mr. Nuriddin rapped:

Me knowing me

Black proud and determined to be free

Could plainly see my enemy yes

Yes, yes, I know him

I once slaved for him body and soul

And made him a pile of black gold

Off the sweat of my labor he stole

But his game his game is old

We’ve broken the mental hold

Things must change

There’s no limit to our range

Mr. Nuriddin may have made his greatest contribution to the future of popular music as a solo artist. In 1973, using the pseudonym Lightnin’ Rod, he released “Hustlers Convention,” an album that unified the black tradition of toasts — rhymed stories about the heroic exploits of renegades and rebels, and the battles between them — with the contemporary sound of streetwise funk.

Rapping in a crackling growl, Mr. Nurridin told an extended story of two young men surviving on the New York streets, with lush backbeats provided by Kool and the Gang and A-list session musicians.

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On “Sport,” the album’s opening track, he wove a boasting first-person narrative about street hustling, cool and deliberate but adamantly paced. Aside from the improvising horn and guitar lines that swept across the album, this represented almost the exact sonic and lyrical blueprint that rappers like Melle Mel and Eazy-E would pick up on a decade later, when they released some of the first major hip-hop singles, using D.J.s instead of live bands.

The Last Poets in their early years. From left, Mr. Nuriddin, Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan.CreditMichael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Mr. Nuriddin arrived at the idea to put a funk band behind his verses with the producer Alan Douglas, who had recorded the Last Poets’ first few albums. Mr. Nuriddin said he had meant the album’s contents as a cautionary tale.

“I wrote the album so people would sit up, take notice and not become one of the hustlers, card cheats, prostitutes, pimps and hijackers I rapped about,” he said in a 2015 documentary about “Hustlers Convention.”

In the documentary, the rapper Chuck D. of Public Enemy called the album a “verbal bible” for understanding the culture of the New York streets.

Mr. Nurridin was born Lawrence Padilla on July 24, 1944, in Brooklyn and grew up in a housing project in the Fort Greene neighborhood. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

“I had this need to express myself,” Mr. Nuriddin said of his childhood. “Everything was bottled up — not just within myself, but in the African-American people in general. So I began to write poetry.”

By his mid-20s, having briefly changed his name to Alafia Pudim, he was becoming known for his facility with words, and for speaking in spontaneous rhyme. (He began going by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin in 1973.) He soon befriended members of the Last Poets, a group with a loose membership that had started in 1968 on Malcolm X’s birthday. He eventually became a core member.

Mr. Douglas got wind of the Last Poets and released their first album on his label, Douglas Records. But radio and television avoided the group, partly because of its unflinching attacks on institutional racism, and partly because it often used one particular word.

On pieces like Mr. Nuriddin’s feverish “Wake Up Niggers,” the Last Poets spoke directly to the street communities that they sought to help liberate, using an African-American lexicon that had rarely been caught on commercial recordings and alienating many listeners in the process.Record sellers often slapped cautionary stickers onto the “Last Poets” album (“Recommended for Mature Adults Only”) in yet another moment that presaged the conflicted relationship that hip-hop would havewith the mainstream.

Despite tensions with Abiodun Oyewole, an original member of the Last Poets, Mr. Nuriddin continued performing under the Last Poets name for many years, typically alongside Suliaman El-Hadi. Mr. Nuriddin is featured on Last Poets recordings including the influential “This Is Madness” (1971), the sonically experimental “Chastisement” (1973) and “Scatterap/Home” (1993).

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Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (July 24, 1944 – June 4, 2018) was an American poet and musician. He was one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City.

He was born in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Earlier in his career he used the names Lightnin' Rod and Alafia Pudim. He is sometimes called "The Grandfather of Rap".^[1]

In 2004 Nuriddin wrote the foreword to Malik Al Nasir's poetry collection Ordinary Guy, published under Malik's pre-Islamic name Mark T. Watson in the UK by Fore-Word Press.^[2] Nuriddin was also featured in the documentary Word Up – From Ghetto to Mecca, along with poets Gil Scott Heron, Mark T. Watson a.k.a. Malik Al Nasir, Rod Youngs (Gil Scott-Heron's Amnesia Express) and dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, where he discussed the significance of the spoken word as an extension of the African oral tradition, as well as the origins of rap and the work of his student and friend Malik Al Nasir. In the film Nuriddin recites from Al Nasir's book "Ordinary Guy" the poem he wrote as a foreword to the book called "Malik's Mode". Nuriddin also later recorded Malik's Mode with Al Nasir's band "Malik & the O.G's" for the album Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol's 1 & 2 at Mercredi 9 Studios in Paris while filming the Word Up documentary. The album Rhythms of the Diaspora Vol's 1 & 2 was released on 1 August 2015 on Mentis records in the UK.^[3]

Nuriddin returned to the UK in 2014 to perform live the seminal solo album Hustlers Convention, credited as being the first ever rap album^[4] live at the Jazz Café in Camden Town, London. The event was produced by Fore-Word Press for Riverhorse Communications who filmed it as part of a documentary on the forgotten roots of rap called Hustlers Convention. The executive producer is Public Enemy's front man Chuck D. The film Hustlers Convention,^[5] directed by Mike Todd, premiered at Docfest in Sheffield UK in 2015, with its London premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, on June 14, 2015. The Hustlers Convention Live featured The Jazz Warriors International Collective, Malik & the O.G's and poet Lemn Sissay. The UK DVD release of the historical Hustlers Convention was in 2015. After the film premiered in the UK at Docfest 2015 it went on general release through Kaleidoscope, and premiered in New York at Tribeca Film Festival 2015 for its USA cinema release. Nuriddin screened the film also in Canada in 2016 as part of a tour with UK poet Malik Al Nasir called "The Revolution Will Be Live" comprising seminars, poetry performances, school visits, workshops and joint screenings of Al Nasir's film also featuring Nuriddin, called Word-Up.

Jalal died after a long battle with cancer on June 4, 2018.^[7]

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Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (b. July 24, 1944, Brooklyn, New York – d. June 4, 2018, ) was an American poet and musician. He was one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City.

Nuriddin was born Lawrence Padilla on July 24, 1944, in Brooklyn and grew up in a housing project in the Fort Greene neighborhood. Information on survivors was not immediately available.Earlier in his career he used the names Lightnin' Rod and Alafia Pudim. He is sometimes called "The Grandfather of Rap".

He cofounded the Last Poets in May 1968, with fellow poets Omar Ben Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, and percussionist Nilijah.

The Last Poets, the critically-acclaimed spoken-word group, won early hip-hop fans over with their political rap vocals behind percussion accompaniments in the early 1970s.

Nuriddin, under the name Lightnin' Rod, also appeared on a 1973 solo album "Hustlers Convention," an album considered to be a cornerstone in the development of what is now a part of global and hip-hop culture.

"Hustlers Convention" became one of the most sampled albums ever made, with groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, Beastie Boys, and Red Hot Chili Peppers lifting ideas from it.

At some point in 1973, Lightnin' Rod transitioned to the name of Jalal Mansur Nuriddin.

Music icons like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones hailed the Last Poets as groundbreakers in the genre that became rap and hip-hop music. After converting to Islam, the artist changed his name from Alafia Pudim to Jalal Mansur Nuriddin. When Hassan and Oyewole left the Last Poets in 1973, poet Sulaiman El Hadi joined and the group and started using poetry over tribal percussive beats, to an all-out band with spoken word at its core.

Jalal died after a long battle with cancer on June 4, 2018.

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Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, who earned the title the "Grandfather of Rap," through his work with the influential urban group the Last Poets, died Monday at 74, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

The Brooklyn native, who was professionally known as Alafia Pudim, died of cancer, The Guardian said.

He cofounded the Last Poets in May 1968, with fellow poets Omar Ben Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, and percussionist Nilijah.

The Last Poets, the critically-acclaimed spoken-word group, won early hip-hop fans over with their political rap vocals behind percussion accompaniments in the early 1970s, Rolling Stone said.

Nuriddin also appeared on a 1973 solo album "Hustlers Convention," which rapper Fab 5 Freddie called, "a cornerstone in the development of what is now a part of global culture [hip-hop]," Rolling Stone reported.

Producer Ron Saint Germain called "Hustlers Convention" "one of the most stolen and sampled albums ever made," with groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, Beastie Boys, and Red Hot Chili Peppers lifting ideas from it, according to Rolling Stone.

Music icons like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones hailed the Last Poets and groundbreakers in the genre that became rap and hip-hop music, The Guardian wrote.

"If you were 14 years old and trying to understand the streets, it was sort of like a verbal Bible," Chuck D, of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group Public Enemy, said of "Hustlers Convention," Rolling Stone wrote.

The Guardian wrote that after converting to Islam, the artist changed his name from Alafia Pudim to Jalal Mansur Nuriddin. When Hassan and Oyewole left the Last Poets in 1973, poet Sulaiman El Hadi joined and the group and started using poetry over tribal percussive beats, to an all-out band with spoken word at its core.

Many remembered Nuriddin on social media with some decrying that enough is not being made of his contribution the music industry.

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Nuriddin, Jalaluddin Mansur

Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin (b. July 24, 1944, Brooklyn, New York – d. June 4, 2018, Atlanta, Georgia) was an African American poet and musician. He was one of the founding members of The Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians that evolved in the 1960s out of the Harlem Writers Workshop in New York City.

Nuriddin was born Lawrence Padilla on July 24, 1944, in Brooklyn and grew up in a housing project in the Fort Greene neighborhood. Information on survivors was not immediately available.Earlier in his career he used the names Lightnin' Rod and Alafia Pudim. He is sometimes called "The Grandfather of Rap".

He cofounded the Last Poets in May 1968, with fellow poets Omar Ben Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole, and percussionist Nilijah.

The Last Poets, the critically-acclaimed spoken-word group, won early hip-hop fans over with their political rap vocals behind percussion accompaniments in the early 1970s.

"Hustlers Convention" became one of the most sampled albums ever made, with groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, Beastie Boys, and Red Hot Chili Peppers lifting ideas from it.

At some point in 1973, Lightnin' Rod transitioned to the name of Jalal Mansur Nuriddin.

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin died after a long battle with cancer on June 4, 2018.