Daniel L. Kastner

Daniel L. Kastner (born 1951)[1] is an American physician and researcher specialising in the genetics of autoinflammatory disorders. He is scientific director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he is a National Institutes of Health Distinguished Investigator.[2][3] He was awarded the 2021 Crafoord Prize for Polyarthritis for his pioneering work on autoinflammatory diseases.[4]

Education

Kastner has an AB in philosophy from Princeton University and an MD and PhD from Baylor College of Medicine.[2]

Career

Kastner joined the National Institutes of Health in 1985 and as of 2020 is scientific director of the Division of Intramural Research of the National Human Genome Research Institute. His research there "has focused on using genetic and genomic strategies to understand inherited disorders of inflammation".[2]

His work has led to the recognition and treatment of a range of autoinflammatory disorders. In 1987 his was one of two teams which simultaneously discovered and published the genetic mutation which causes FMF, and since then he has worked on disorders including TRAPS and DADA2.[5] In 2020 he was one of the authors of the paper which first described the VEXAS syndrome.[6][7] As of 2021 he is working on Behçet's disease.[4]

As of 2021 Kastner has said that he plans to leave his post of scientific director at NHGRI "in the next few months". He will continue to work with the 3,000 patients in his clinic, and "find yet more disease genes, understand how they work, and develop new treatments."[5]

The chair of the Crafoord Prize comittee, Olle Kämpe, said in 2021:

Dan Kastner is often called the father of autoinflammatory diseases, a title that he thoroughly deserves. His discoveries have taught us a great deal about the immune system and its functions, contributing to effective treatments that reduce the symptoms of diseases from which patients previously suffered enormously, sometimes leading to premature death[4]

Honors and recognition

Kastner was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010[8] and to the National Academy of Medicine in 2012.[9]

In 2018 Kastner was named "Federal Employee of the Year" in the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals ("the Sammies").[10][11] and in 2019 he won the Ross Prize for Molecular Medicine.[12]

He was awarded the 2021 Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis, with the citation "for establishing the concept of autoinflammatory diseases".[4][5]

References
  1. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/health/daniel-kastner-rare-diseases-autoinflammatory-scn/index.html
  2. "Dan Kastner, M.D., Ph.D." Genome.gov. National Human Genome Research Institute. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  3. "Dan Kastner, M.D., Ph.D." NIH Intramural Research Program: Principal Investigators. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  4. "The Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis 2021". Crafoord Prize. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  5. Hunt, Katie (2 February 2021). "Mysterious untreatable fevers once devastated whole families. This doctor discovered what caused them". CNN. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  6. "VEXAS: how a deadly disease was discovered". www.thenakedscientists.com. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  7. Beck, David B.; Ferrada, Marcela A.; Sikora, Keith A.; Ombrello, Amanda K.; Collins, Jason C.; Pei, Wuhong; Balanda, Nicholas; Ross, Daron L.; Ospina Cardona, Daniela; Wu, Zhijie; Patel, Bhavisha; Manthiram, Kalpana; Groarke, Emma M.; Gutierrez-Rodrigues, Fernanda; Hoffmann, Patrycja; Rosenzweig, Sofia; Nakabo, Shuichiro; Dillon, Laura W.; Hourigan, Christopher S.; Tsai, Wanxia L.; Gupta, Sarthak; Carmona-Rivera, Carmelo; Asmar, Anthony J.; Xu, Lisha; Oda, Hirotsugu; Goodspeed, Wendy; Barron, Karyl S.; Nehrebecky, Michele; Jones, Anne; Laird, Ryan S.; Deuitch, Natalie; Rowczenio, Dorota; Rominger, Emily; Wells, Kristina V.; Lee, Chyi-Chia R.; Wang, Weixin; Trick, Megan; Mullikin, James; Wigerblad, Gustaf; Brooks, Stephen; Dell’Orso, Stefania; Deng, Zuoming; Chae, Jae J.; Dulau-Florea, Alina; Malicdan, May C.V.; Novacic, Danica; Colbert, Robert A.; Kaplan, Mariana J.; Gadina, Massimo; Savic, Sinisa; Lachmann, Helen J.; Abu-Asab, Mones; Solomon, Benjamin D.; Retterer, Kyle; Gahl, William A.; Burgess, Shawn M.; Aksentijevich, Ivona; Young, Neal S.; Calvo, Katherine R.; Werner, Achim; Kastner, Daniel L.; Grayson, Peter C. (27 October 2020). "Somatic Mutations in UBA1 and Severe Adult-Onset Autoinflammatory Disease". New England Journal of Medicine: NEJMoa2026834. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2026834.
  8. "Daniel L. Kastner". www.nasonline.org. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  9. "Daniel L. Kastner, M.D., Ph.D." National Academy of Medicine. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  10. Palmer, Kiara S. (October 2, 2018). "NHGRI Scientific Director Dan Kastner Named 2018 Federal Employee of the Year". Genome.gov. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  11. "Daniel L. Kastner, M.D., Ph.D." Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  12. "Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine: Past winners". Molecular Medicine. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
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