Joseph D. Schulman
Encyclopedia
Joseph D. Schulman is a physician, medical researcher, and biomedical entrepreneur in the fields of genetics diseases and human reproduction.
Schulman was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, educated in the New York City public schools, and graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College
. He then studied at Harvard Medical School
(M.D. cum laude, 1966), the Massachusetts General Hospital
, the National Institutes of Health
, and Cornell Medical College, and became qualified in the specialties of pediatrics
, obstetrics and gynecology, and medical genetics
. Dr. Schulman then worked at Cambridge University with Dr. Robert Geoffrey Edwards and Mr. Patrick Steptoe
helping to develop the first methods for successful human in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
In 1974, Dr. Schulman joined the staff of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
where he headed the Section on Human Biochemical Genetics, and founded and was first Director of the Interinstitute Program in Medical Genetics. He remained at the National Institutes of Health until 1983. During this period, the major research contributions of Schulman and his associates were in the field of the inborn errors of metabolism, especially diseases of sulfur metabolism. They demonstrated that cystinosis
is a lysosomal storage disease
caused by hereditary absence of the transmembrane lysosomal carrier for cystine
, and proved that the enzyme
gammma-glutamyl transpeptidase was not, contrary to current theory, required for normal transcellular amino acid
transport. Schulman and David Cogan of the National Eye Institute
were also the first to utilize cysteamine
eyedrops for treatment of the painful photophobia
and ocular crystals characteristic of cystinosis, and this treatment is widely utilized today. The prevention of abnormal genital masculinization in female fetuses with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
by prenatal administration of dexamethasone
to the mother, first proposed and utilized by Dr. Schulman and his colleagues at NIH, has also become a widely accepted therapy.
In 1984, Dr. Schulman founded the Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF), which has pioneered the development and early introduction of numerous innovative diagnoses and treatments in human genetics and infertility, and is now an international company in these fields. The Institute was the first in the United States to introduce transvaginal non-surgical IVF (replacing laparoscopy
and now the standard method worldwide), and also to report pregnancies using ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection
) for the treatment of severe male infertility
. GIVF also discovered the method of non-surgical sperm aspiration for treatment of male infertility in combination with ICSI. The Institute was one of the first centers in the world to introduce chorionic villus sampling
(CVS) as an earlier alternative to amniocentesis
for prenatal diagnosis
, the first to offer clinical testing for certain common mutations in the BRCA1
and BRCA2
genes which cause a significant fraction of hereditary breast cancer
s, and the first to offer prenatal testing for cystic fibrosis
. Dr. Schulman and associates also developed the world's first system for the use of non-disclosing preimplantation genetic testing for the prevention of Huntington disease. More recently, Schulman and his colleagues have established that flow-cytometric sorting (MicroSort) of living human sperm can greatly modify the proportion of viable X-bearing and Y-bearing sperm and that such technology can substantially increase the proportion of girls or boys born after insemination
with sorted sperm. The Institute under Dr. Schulman's direction was also responsible for starting the first modern genetics/infertility treatment center in China
, and this facility in Shanghai
is currently one of the largest IVF programs in the world.
Schulman was CEO of the Genetics & IVF Institute until 1998, and remains Chairman of its Board of Directors. He is also an affiliate professor at the medical schools of Virginia Commonwealth University
and the University of California - San Diego. Additional information on Dr. Schulman and his work is provided in Marquis Who's Who
and various online sources including the Medline
database of biomedical publications.
Dr. Schulman is the author of Robert G. Edwards A Personal Viewpoint, a personal account of Nobel Laureate, Robert G. Edwards, and events that are relevant to the development of modern methods of assisted reproduction. He has also written several other professional and non-professional books listed below as external links.
Dr. Schulman is married and has two grown daughters.
Schulman was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, educated in the New York City public schools, and graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
. He then studied at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
(M.D. cum laude, 1966), the Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
, the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
, and Cornell Medical College, and became qualified in the specialties of pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
, obstetrics and gynecology, and medical genetics
Medical genetics
Medical genetics is the specialty of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from Human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, but medical genetics refers to the...
. Dr. Schulman then worked at Cambridge University with Dr. Robert Geoffrey Edwards and Mr. Patrick Steptoe
Patrick Steptoe
Patrick Christopher Steptoe FRS was a British obstetrician and gynaecologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment. Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards for developing in vitro fertilization...
helping to develop the first methods for successful human in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
In 1974, Dr. Schulman joined the staff of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , created by Congress in 1962, supports and conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations...
where he headed the Section on Human Biochemical Genetics, and founded and was first Director of the Interinstitute Program in Medical Genetics. He remained at the National Institutes of Health until 1983. During this period, the major research contributions of Schulman and his associates were in the field of the inborn errors of metabolism, especially diseases of sulfur metabolism. They demonstrated that cystinosis
Cystinosis
Cystinosis is a lysosomal storage disease characterized by the abnormal accumulation of the amino acid cystine. It is a genetic disorder that typically follows an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. Cystinosis is the most common cause of Fanconi syndrome in the pediatric age group...
is a lysosomal storage disease
Lysosomal storage disease
Lysosomal storage diseases are a group of approximately 50 rare inherited metabolic disorders that result from defects in lysosomal function...
caused by hereditary absence of the transmembrane lysosomal carrier for cystine
Cystine
Cystine is a dimeric amino acid formed by the oxidation of two cysteine residues that covalently link to make a disulfide bond. This organosulfur compound has the formula 2. It is a white solid, and melts at 247-249 °C...
, and proved that the enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
gammma-glutamyl transpeptidase was not, contrary to current theory, required for normal transcellular amino acid
Amino acid
Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...
transport. Schulman and David Cogan of the National Eye Institute
National Eye Institute
The National Eye Institute is one of the US National Institutes of Health that was established in 1968. The mission of NEI is to prolong and protect the vision of the American people. The NEI conducts and performs research into treating and preventing diseases affecting the eye or vision....
were also the first to utilize cysteamine
Cysteamine
Cysteamine is the chemical compound with the formula HSCH2CH2NH2. It is the simplest stable aminothiol and a degradation product of the amino acid cysteine. It is often used as the hydrochloride salt, HSCH2CH2NH3Cl....
eyedrops for treatment of the painful photophobia
Photophobia
Photophobia is a symptom of abnormal intolerance to visual perception of light. As a medical symptom photophobia is not a morbid fear or phobia, but an experience of discomfort or pain to the eyes due to light exposure or by presence of actual physical photosensitivity of the eyes, though the term...
and ocular crystals characteristic of cystinosis, and this treatment is widely utilized today. The prevention of abnormal genital masculinization in female fetuses with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia refers to any of several autosomal recessive diseases resulting from mutations of genes for enzymes mediating the biochemical steps of production of cortisol from cholesterol by the adrenal glands ....
by prenatal administration of dexamethasone
Dexamethasone
Dexamethasone is a potent synthetic member of the glucocorticoid class of steroid drugs. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant...
to the mother, first proposed and utilized by Dr. Schulman and his colleagues at NIH, has also become a widely accepted therapy.
In 1984, Dr. Schulman founded the Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF), which has pioneered the development and early introduction of numerous innovative diagnoses and treatments in human genetics and infertility, and is now an international company in these fields. The Institute was the first in the United States to introduce transvaginal non-surgical IVF (replacing laparoscopy
Laparoscopy
Laparoscopy is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis through small incisions with the aid of a camera...
and now the standard method worldwide), and also to report pregnancies using ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.-Indications:...
) for the treatment of severe male infertility
Infertility
Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...
. GIVF also discovered the method of non-surgical sperm aspiration for treatment of male infertility in combination with ICSI. The Institute was one of the first centers in the world to introduce chorionic villus sampling
Chorionic villus sampling
Chorionic villus sampling , sometimes misspelled "chorionic villous sampling", is a form of prenatal diagnosis to determine chromosomal or genetic disorders in the fetus. It entails sampling of the chorionic villus and testing it...
(CVS) as an earlier alternative to amniocentesis
Amniocentesis
Amniocentesis is a medical procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid, which contains fetal tissues, is sampled from the amnion or amniotic sac surrounding a developing fetus, and the fetal DNA is examined for...
for prenatal diagnosis
Prenatal diagnosis
Prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. The aim is to detect birth defects such as neural tube defects, Down syndrome, chromosome abnormalities, genetic diseases and other conditions, such as spina bifida, cleft palate,...
, the first to offer clinical testing for certain common mutations in the BRCA1
BRCA1
BRCA1 is a human caretaker gene that produces a protein called breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein, responsible for repairing DNA. The first evidence for the existence of the gene was provided by the King laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1990...
and BRCA2
BRCA2
BRCA2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the BRCA2 gene.BRCA2 orthologs have been identified in most mammals for which complete genome data are available....
genes which cause a significant fraction of hereditary breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
s, and the first to offer prenatal testing for cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
. Dr. Schulman and associates also developed the world's first system for the use of non-disclosing preimplantation genetic testing for the prevention of Huntington disease. More recently, Schulman and his colleagues have established that flow-cytometric sorting (MicroSort) of living human sperm can greatly modify the proportion of viable X-bearing and Y-bearing sperm and that such technology can substantially increase the proportion of girls or boys born after insemination
Insemination
Insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into the uterus of a mammal or the oviduct of an oviparous animal for the objective of impregnating a female for reproduction...
with sorted sperm. The Institute under Dr. Schulman's direction was also responsible for starting the first modern genetics/infertility treatment center in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and this facility in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
is currently one of the largest IVF programs in the world.
Schulman was CEO of the Genetics & IVF Institute until 1998, and remains Chairman of its Board of Directors. He is also an affiliate professor at the medical schools of Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
and the University of California - San Diego. Additional information on Dr. Schulman and his work is provided in Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who, a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc., is the American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies...
and various online sources including the Medline
MEDLINE
MEDLINE is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journals covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care...
database of biomedical publications.
Dr. Schulman is the author of Robert G. Edwards A Personal Viewpoint, a personal account of Nobel Laureate, Robert G. Edwards, and events that are relevant to the development of modern methods of assisted reproduction. He has also written several other professional and non-professional books listed below as external links.
Dr. Schulman is married and has two grown daughters.