Mark T. Gladwin is an American physician, scientist, and academic administrator serving as the dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine since 2022. He is also the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and vice president for medical affairs of the University of Maryland, Baltimore^[1][2].

Education and Career

Gladwin earned a B.S. and M.D. (1991) from the University of Miami.^[3] He completed an internal medicine internship and residency in 1994 and served as chief resident in 1995 at the Oregon Health & Science University.^[3] He was a critical care fellow at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in 1996.^[3] In 1998, he completed a fellowship in pulmonary critical care at the University of Washington.^[3] He returned to the NIH Clinical Center as a senior research fellow in critical care medicine until 2000, also serving as the Chief of the Pulmonary and Vascular Medicine Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.^[4][3]

Gladwin was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the inaugural director of the University’s Vascular Medicine Institute.^[5] On August 1, 2022, he was appointed dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine,^[3] succeeding longtime dean E. Albert Reece.^[5]

Research

Gladwin is a vascular, heart, and lung physician-scientist who has specialized in the study of reactive nitrogen molecules, like nitric oxide and nitrite, and how they regulate blood flow via reactions with hemoglobin. Researchers in the late 1970s^[6] discovered that nitric oxide (NO) regulated blood flow by triggering vasodilation, the widening of blood vessels. However, scientists considered metabolites of NO, such as nitrite (NO2), to be inert^[7]. But in 2003, Gladwin and a team of researchers published a paper in Nature Communications demonstrating that nitrite could also trigger vasodilation, through conversion to NO, under low oxygen conditions in the body such as during a heart attack or stroke^[8]. Subsequent studies by other researchers suggest nitrite administered before or immediately following a heart attack could help preserve heart tissue.^[9]

Gladwin has also conducted research on hemoglobin-related proteins, such as neuroglobin, and their possible application as antidotes to carbon monoxide poisoning^[10][11][12]. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Globin Solutions, Inc., a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company researching rapidly acting antidotes for carbon monoxide poisoning, including a modified form of neuroglobin.^[13][14] In December 2023, Gladwin and his team of researchers published a study in Nature Communications on the discovery of the first-ever link between hemoglobin-like protein and normal cardiac development.^[15]

In June 2020, Gladwin initiated a 22-site Phase II clinical trial in France, Brazil, and the U.S. that is exploring whether blood transfusions that use the patient's own blood can improve outcomes and extend survival in patients with sickle cell disease.^[16][17]

Personal Life

Dr. Gladwin was born in Palo Alto, California, and was raised in various locations in the U.S. as well as in remote locations in Ghana, Guatemala, and Mexico. His parents, Hugh Gladwin, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology at Florida International University, and Christina Gladwin, Ph.D., a professor of food and resource economics at the University of Florida, studied in these locations.

He is married to Dr. Tammy Shields, an epidemiologist and scientific investigator who has published research on cancer epidemiology and prevention. They have three children. Dr. Gladwin is an avid soccer and fitness enthusiast, currently playing competitive soccer in an over-40 outdoor premier league.

References