Don Gilden Lecture Part I
Don Gilden Lecture Part II
Don Gilden Memorial Lectureship
2017 Lecturer
Paola Sandroni, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Sandroni’s main research focus is autonomic disorders, specifically pure autonomic failure, autoimmune autonomic neuropathies, postural tachycardia syndrome and multiple system atrophy where she has characterized and described the natural history of these disorders, assessed quality of life for patients with these conditions, identified predictors of good versus poor outcome and conducted therapeutic trials to control most disabling symptoms. Dr. Sandroni is also interested in pain syndromes. She has studied extensively complex regional pain syndromes (and planning more studies), participated in a multicenter trial to test a new medication for patients with post herpetic neuralgia and is actively involved in neuromodulation particularly for refractory central pain syndromes. She is very active in clinical practice, and also chair of her department; she is chair of the autonomic division and director of the autonomic disorders fellowship. She enjoys traveling and has been lecturing all over the globe.
Don Gilden, M.D. (1937 – 2016)Don Gilden received his BA from Dartmouth College and his M.D. from the University of Maryland, completed Neurology residency at the University of Chicago and postdoctoral fellowship in neurovirology at Johns Hopkins. He was Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wistar Institute before moving to Colorado where he served as Professor of Neurology and Microbiology, as well as Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine for more than 24 years. Don published over 450 papers, reviews and chapters and had NIH funding continuously. He received many distinctions including the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service from the University of Chicago School of Medicine, the Pioneer Award of the International Society for NeuroVirology, the Honor Award and Gold Key for outstanding contributions to medicine and distinguished service to mankind from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the Drexel University College of Medicine Hilary Koprowski Prize in Neurovirology. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians, the Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. Don was a superb clinician, outstanding teacher and effective administrator. Don’s passion for science and medicine was second only to his love for his wife, Audrey, and family. Don will always be remembered as a supportive mentor, friend to all and the “heart of CALS.”
Don Gilden was a brilliant and talented scientist. He was a respected and beloved teacher, mentor, neurologist, and virologist who looked at life and science in original ways. That enabled him to discover aspects of disease due to varicella-zoster virus (VZV) that no one had thought of previously. Two of his discoveries were forms of zoster without rash and reactivation in arterial tissues leading to temporal arteritis and giant cell arteritis. It is especially tragic that he did not survive to see whether the newer and very potent vaccines against zoster will be able to prevent some of these VZV complications. His contribution however was that he recognized these unusual problems that were not what one thinks of as infectious diseases. He was an outgoing optimist who was interested in the well-being of others, and a most generous person. He loved his family and also his music. The world is a little smaller since he left us, but he won’t be forgotten. We are all lucky to have known him and interacted with him, and he left us an important scientific medical legacy.” - Anne Gershon, M.D.
Lectureship supporters
- Ann Arvin
- Donald Coen
- Thomas Kristie
- Luis Schang
- Nicholas Baird
- Elisabeth Cohen
- Todd Margolis
- Deepak Shukla
- Marius Birlea
- Randall Cohrs
- Satish Mehta
- Padma Srikanth
- John Blaho
- Leonardo D'Aiuto
- Duane Pierson
- Vaibhav Tiwari
- David Bloom
- Lynn Enquist
- Rozanne Sandri-Goldin
- Hua Zhu
- Edouard Cantin
- Anne & Mike Gershon
- Nancy Sawtell
