ReachMD

W. Virgil Brown, MD, received his BA degree from Emory, medical degree from Yale University and completed Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins. He then joined the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he worked with Drs. Donald Fredrickson and Robert Levy isolating and characterizing for the first time, 3 of the major proteins involved in the structure of the plasma lipoproteins. These proteins proved to be important in regulating the levels of blood triglycerides and cholesterol. After completing a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Yale-New Haven Hospital, he joined the faculty at the University of California at San Diego, where he was Director of the Lipid Research Clinic. In 1978 he became Director of the Metabolic Disease Division and the Joseph Lowe and Louis Price Professor at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. In 1991, he returned to his alma mater as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Atherosclerosis and Metabolic Disease. In 1998 he became Chief of Medicine at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Dr Brown's research has improved the understanding of how various lipoproteins and enzymes work together in the blood to transport fat from one tissue to another. His work has also contributed to our understanding the way dietary changes and medications alter and improve the metabolism of the plasma lipoproteins. This research has produced over 300 manuscripts in the medical literature.

He chaired the Gordon Conference on Lipid Metabolism in 1982 and the Metabolism Study Section of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) 1984 to 1985. Dr Brown has served the American Heart Association as a member of several research review committees, as Chairman of the Nutrition Committee, as Vice Chairman for the Education and Community Program Committee and as the National AHA President (1991-1992). He was the first President of the Southeast Lipid Association (1998-2002), the first President of the National Lipid Association (2002 to 2004) and first President of the National Board of Clinical Lipidology (2004-2008). He currently is the Editor of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, and Immediate Past President of the International Atherosclerosis Society (2010 to 2012).

His honors include election to Chairman of the Faculty, UC San Diego School of Medicine (1977-1978); Distinguished Professor of Medicine of the Year, 1987 (Mt. Sinai School of Medicine); the "Gold Heart Award" for lifetime service to the American Heart Association (1996); President of the Emory University Senate (1997); the R. Bruce Logue Award for Lifetime Contribution to Medicine (2000); and the Master Physician Award of the American College of Physicians. In 2008, he was given the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award by the Emory U. School of Medicine Alumni Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National lipid Association in 2009. He delivered the Commencement address for Emory College at Oxford, 1993 and the Klassen Lecture at Ohio State University 2010. In May 2009, he became Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Emory University and retired from service to the Department of Veteran's Affairs.