earth science

Robert Yarchoan

Robert Yarchoan is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Robert Yarchoan rather than just read about it. In short: Robert Yarchoan (born 1950) is a medical researcher who played an important role in the development of the first effective drugs for AIDS. He is the Chief of the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and also coordinates HIV/AIDS malignancy research throughout the NCI as director of the Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy.

Key takeaways

Robert Yarchoan belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Robert Yarchoan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Robert Yarchoan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Robert Yarchoan (born 1950) is a medical researcher who played an important role in the development of the first effective drugs for AIDS. He is the Chief of the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and also coordinates HIV/AIDS malignancy research throughout the NCI as director of the Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy.

Education and career Yarchoan was raised in Oceanside, New York. He graduated from Amherst College in 1971 with a degree in biophysics and received his M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. He completed internship and residency training in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota and subsequently trained in immunology in the Metabolism Branch of the NCI. After completing his training he joined the laboratory of Dr. Samuel Broder. In 1991 he was appointed to be a Section Chief of the Medicine Branch and in 1996 he named chief of the newly formed HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch. Dr. Yarchoan was also appointed to be the first director of the NCI Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy in 2007, which supervises all HIV/AIDS and AIDS malignancy research within the NCI.

Medical and Research Achievements Along with his colleagues Drs. Samuel Broder and Hiroaki Mitsuya in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), he co-developed the first effective treatments for HIV/AIDS. With his colleagues, he conducted the first clinical trials of zidovudine (AZT), didanosine (ddI), zalcitabine (ddC), and lamivudine (3TC). These trials were the first to demonstrate that administration of anti-retroviral drugs could reverse the declines in CD4 cells and immunologic impairment caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Dr. Yarchoan also conducted the first trials of combination anti-HIV therapy. The development of these drugs was a breakthrough in AIDS therapy. Zidovudine and didanosine were components of early highly active antiretroviral drug therapy (HAART), and zidovudine, didanosine, and lamivudine remain in widespread use and are included in the World Health Organization's "Essential Drugs List", which is a list of minimum medical needs for a basic health care system. It is estimated that the development of these and other AIDS drugs have saved over 3 million life-years in the United States and over 15 million life-years throughout the world. His research efforts have also focused on AIDS malignancies, focusing on the pathogenesis and treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma and other virus-associated tumors. He led the first clinical studies showing that paclitaxel was an effective therapy for Kaposi's sarcoma and that thalidomide has activity in this disease. He also developed several novel therapies for Multicentric Castleman's disease caused by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also called human herpesvirus-8 [HHV-8]. With his colleagues at NCI, he also identified a new disease called KSHV-Associated Cytokine Syndrome (KICS) in some people with HIV/AIDS.

Awards and honors Yarchoan is a co-editor of several journals. He has received many awards, including the Assistant Secretary for Health Award and the U.S. Public Health Service Outstanding Service Medal. He also was awarded the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) World AIDS Day Award in December, 2006 for his work in developing drugs for AIDS. In November, 2007, he was awarded the NCI HIV/AIDS Research Excellence Award along with his colleagues, Drs. Samuel Broder, Robert C. Gallo, and Hiroaki Mitsuya. In October 2009, he received the National Cancer Institute Director's Awards of Merit for leadership in promoting and supporting HIV/AIDS research and HIV-associated malignancies at the National Cancer Institute, and in 2014 received the American Society for Microbiology Award in Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology. He has been inducted as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and in 2016 as a member of the Association of American Physicians. In 2013, Dr. Yarchoan received an honorary degree for his contributions to HIV/AIDS research from his alma mater, Amherst College.

Personal life Yarchoan is married to Italian–American scientist Giovanna Tosato of the National Cancer Institute, and is the father of physician-scientist Mark Yarchoan of Johns Hopkins University and John Yarchoan.

References

External links NIH Bio and Oral History of Dr. Yarchoan describing development of AIDS drugs Website of HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch NCI Document on the Development of Didanosine(Videx) Website of the NCI Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy Archived 2017-02-27 at the Wayback Machine Yarchoan R, Mitsuya H, Broder S. AIDS therapies. Scientific American 1988;259(4):110-9 Saville, M.W., Lietzau, J., Pluda, J.M., Feuerstein, I., Odom, J., Wilson, W.H., Humphrey, R.W., Feigal, E., Steinberg, S.M., Broder, S., Yarchoan R. 1995. Treatment of HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma with paclitaxel. Lancet 346:26-28. Yarchoan Amherst Honorary Degree Description Article on KSHV-MCD and KICS

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Robert Yarchoan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Robert Yarchoan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Robert Yarchoan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Robert Yarchoan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Robert Yarchoan

In research: Robert Yarchoan appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Robert Yarchoan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Robert Yarchoan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, American immunologists, Amherst College alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Robert Yarchoan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Robert Yarchoan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Robert Yarchoan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Robert Yarchoan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Robert Yarchoan in simple terms?

Why does Robert Yarchoan matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Robert Yarchoan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Robert Yarchoan.