{{short description|American virologist and epidemiologist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2016}} thumb|right|Robert E. Shope '''Robert Ellis Shope''' (February 21, 1929<ref name=Lancet_obit /> – January 19, 2004) was an American virologist, epidemiologist and public health expert, particularly known for his work on arthropod-borne viruses and emerging infectious diseases. He discovered more novel viruses than any person previously, including members of the ''Arenavirus'', ''Hantavirus'', ''Lyssavirus'' and ''Orbivirus'' genera of RNA viruses. He researched significant human diseases, including dengue, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers and Lyme disease. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of viruses, and curated a global reference collection of over 5,000 viral strains. He was the lead author of a groundbreaking report on the threat posed by emerging infectious diseases, and also advised on climate change and bioterrorism.
==Biography== Born in 1929 in Princeton, New Jersey, Shope was the son of Richard E. Shope, also a prominent virologist.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis/><ref name=NYT_obit /> His brothers, Richard E. Shope, Jr and Thomas C. Shope, were also virologists.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/111015s.aspx?PF=1 |title=Obituaries |publisher=American Veterinary Medical Association |date=September 28, 2011 |access-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref> Shope attended Cornell University, where he gained a BA in zoology (1951) and an MD (1954).<ref name=emerg_inf_dis>{{citation |pmc=3323084 |title=In Memoriam: Robert Ellis Shope: 1929–2004 |author1=Frederick A. Murphy |author2=Charles H. Calisher |author3=Robert B. Tesh |author4=David H. Walker |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=762–65 |year=2004 |doi=10.3201/eid1004.040156 }}</ref><ref name=NYT_obit>{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/23/us/robert-shope-74-virus-expert-who-warned-of-epidemics.html?_r=1 |title=Robert Shope, 74, Virus Expert Who Warned of Epidemics |author=Stuart Lavietes |journal=New York Times |date=January 23, 2004 |access-date=January 29, 2016 }}</ref><ref name=Yale_obit>{{citation |url=http://news.yale.edu/2004/02/04/memoriam-world-renowned-authority-infectious-diseases-robert-e-shope |title=In Memoriam: World Renowned Authority on Infectious Diseases, Robert E. Shope |work=YaleNews |publisher=Yale University |date=February 4, 2004 |access-date=January 29, 2016 }}</ref> After an internship at Yale School of Medicine, Shope joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps and served for a total of three years at Camp Detrick in Frederick, Maryland and then at the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He subsequently joined the Rockefeller Foundation and – after a year studying with Max Theiler in New York – he was posted to Belém, Brazil, at the foundation's International Virus Program, where he spent six years, rising to direct the institute.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=Yale_obit /><ref name=Tesh_obit>{{citation |title=In Memoriam: Robert E. Shope, M.D |author=Robert B. Tesh |journal=Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases |year=2004 |volume=4 |issue = 2|pages=91–94 |doi=10.1089/1530366041210701 |pmid=15228809 }}</ref>
Returning to the US in 1965, Shope joined the recently established Yale Arbovirus Research Unit (YARU) at Yale School of Medicine with other virologists from the Rockefeller Foundation. Initially an associate professor, he rose to direct the unit for 24 years.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=Yale_obit /><ref name=Tesh_obit /><ref name=Science_Enserink>{{citation |jstor=3075031 |title=Working in the Hot Zone: Galveston's Microbe Hunters |author=Martin Enserink |journal=Science |year=2000 |volume=288 |issue=5466 |pages=598–600 |doi=10.1126/science.288.5466.598|pmid=10798991 |s2cid=33194987 }}</ref> Shope also headed the university's Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology.<ref name=Yale_obit /> After his retirement from Yale in 1995, Shope and his colleague Robert B. Tesh moved to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas, where they founded a new arbovirus centre.<ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=Yale_obit /><ref name=Tesh_obit /><ref name=Science_Enserink /><ref name=Science_Kaiser /> Shope subsequently held the university's John S. Dunn Distinguished Chair in Biodefense.<ref name=Lancet_obit /><ref name=Yale_obit />
==Research== thumb|left|upright|alt=Transmission electron micrograph showing dengue virus|Transmission electron micrograph showing dengue virions, one of many arboviruses Shope researched The virologist Charles Calisher described Shope as a "walking encyclopaedia on the arbovirus catalogue,"<ref name=Lancet_obit /> and during his career Shope contributed to the discovery of hundreds of novel viruses<ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=Yale_obit /> – more than any person previously.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=ASTMH_fellowship /> His research encompassed not only the areas of virology, tropical and emerging infectious diseases, but also epidemiology, vector biology and public health.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /> Calisher and emerging infectious disease specialist C. J. Peters highlighted his multidisciplinary approach, stating that "He brought the virus community together and served as a bridge between classical arbovirology and many other disciplines" including ecology, genetics and structural biology.<ref name=symposium>{{citation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OCUVr8VLNx4C&pg=PP5 |chapter=Preface|author1-link=C. J. Peters|author1=C. J. Peters|author2-link=Charles Calisher|author2=Charles H. Calisher |year=2006 |title= Infectious Diseases from Nature: Mechanisms of Viral Emergence and Persistence |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-211-29981-4 }}</ref> Epidemiologist and emerging infectious disease specialist Stephen S. Morse considered Shope to exemplify the approach of "integrating the laboratory and the epidemiological and being able to think broadly about the evolutionary issues as well as the specifics."<ref name=Lancet_obit />
Shope initially studied the Australian disease then known as "epidemic polyarthritis" with S. G. Anderson, showing that it was caused by an alphavirus, later characterised as Ross River virus.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /> His interest in infectious diseases was stimulated by his military service in Malaysia, where he investigated fevers among army personnel and locals.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=Tesh_obit /> During his time in Brazil in the early 1960s, he characterised over fifty different arboviruses (viruses transmitted by arthropods) including Guama and Oropouche viruses, many previously unknown. He also studied the viruses' vertebrate reservoirs, including birds, marsupials and rodents.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis />
Later that decade while at YARU, he characterised novel arboviruses from birds in Egypt. In 1969, his research turned to outbreaks of Lassa and yellow fever in Nigeria. The following year, with Frederick A. Murphy, he discovered Duvenhage, Lagos bat and Mokola viruses, which were the first viruses shown to be related to rabies. He characterised Thottapalayam virus, later shown to be the first hantavirus, from an Indian shrew in 1971. With Murphy and others, he discovered multiple viruses related to bluetongue, including bluetongue 20 virus, the first bluetongue-like virus from Australia.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /> In the late 1970s, with Jim Meegan, he showed that Rift Valley fever virus – previously believed to be restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, and mainly to infect livestock – was the cause of an epidemic in Egypt in which around 200,000 people were infected.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref>{{citation |jstor=3964604 |title=African Epidemic: Where Is It Heading? |author=Julie Ann Miller |journal=Science News |year=1980 |volume=117 |issue=11 |pages=170–71 |doi=10.2307/3964604}}</ref> With Allan Steer, he was the first to describe Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial disease, in the US. He subsequently worked on viral hemorrhagic fevers, discovering Sabiá and Guanarito viruses, the causative agents of Brazilian and Venezuelan hemorrhagic fevers.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /> He also researched dengue and its vaccines.<ref name=Lancet_obit>{{citation |url=http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2804%2915866-2.pdf |title=Robert E Shope |author=Ivan Oransky |journal=The Lancet |year=2004 |volume=363 |issue=9414 |page=1081 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(04)15866-2 |s2cid=54366756 }}</ref><ref name=emerg_inf_dis />
During Shope's time at Yale, YARU became the global repository for arboviruses.<ref name=Science_Enserink /><ref name=Science_Kaiser>{{citation |jstor=2885158 |title=Yale Arbovirus Team Heads South |author=Jocelyn Kaiser |journal=Science |volume=266 |issue=5190 |pages=1470–71 |year=1994 |doi=10.1126/science.7985009|pmid=7985009 |bibcode=1994Sci...266.1470K }}</ref> When he and Tesh moved to University of Texas Medical Branch in 1995, they brought the arbovirus collection – consisting of more than 4,000 strains of arbovirus and more than 1,000 other viral strains, as well as reagents such as antibodies – with them.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=Yale_obit /><ref name=Science_Enserink /><ref name=Science_Kaiser /> The collection is used by scientists internationally to identify virus strains.<ref name=Science_Enserink /><ref name=Science_Kaiser /> At Galveston, Shope widened his focus to include bioterrorism, winning $3.7 million in funding to develop measures to counter the threat. His group identified alphavirus, arenavirus and flavivirus as potential bioterrorist risks, and Shope worked with structural biologist David Gorenstein to develop new small-molecule antivirals targeted against these viruses.<ref name=Lancet_obit /><ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=Science_Enserink />
==Public health and advisory work== {{Reduced pull quote|align=right|quote=The medical community and society at large have tended to view acute infectious diseases as a problem of the past. But that assumption is wrong. We claimed victory too soon.|author=Robert Shope (1992)|source=<ref name=Lancet_obit />}} Shope led a high-profile investigation, with Joshua Lederberg and Stanley Oaks, into the risks posed by emerging infectious diseases and the measures necessary to respond to them for the Institute of Medicine. The findings were published in 1992 as ''Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States'', with Shope as the principal author, and the publication was swiftly recognised as groundbreaking. It suggested that the success of vaccines and antibiotics had led to the threat of infectious diseases being underestimated.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=CJ_Peters_Fields>{{citation |chapter= Emerging Viral Diseases |author=Clarence J. Peters |title=Fields Virology |editor1=David M. Knipe |editor2=Peter M. Howley |volume=1 |pages=605–6 |year=2007 |edition=5 |isbn=978-0-7817-6060-7 |title-link=Fields Virology |publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |author-link=C. J. Peters }}</ref><ref name=Lashley_Durham>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jkjL2t_EafIC&pg=PR11 |title=Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues |author=Felissa R. Lashley |author2=Jerry D. Durham |publisher=Springer |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8261-1474-7 |page=xi}}</ref> Shope stated at the press conference announcing the report's publication: "The medical community and society at large have tended to view acute infectious diseases as a problem of the past. But that assumption is wrong. We claimed victory too soon."<ref name=Lancet_obit /> The report was important in improving the detection of infectious diseases in the US, and has been credited with stimulating renewed global interest in the area.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit /><ref name=CJ_Peters_Fields /><ref name=Lashley_Durham /> Shope continued to advise the US government on the topic later in the 1990s, and contributed to the establishment of American and international surveillance programs for infectious diseases including ProMED.<ref name=Lancet_obit />
Shope was one of seven scientists to brief Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1997 on the effects of climate change, warning that the range of mosquitoes and other arthropod vectors would increase, affecting the prevalence of dengue, malaria and other infectious diseases.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit /> He also served on the WHO Expert Panel on Virus Diseases and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, as well as numerous committees and expert panels for US national bodies including the Institute of Medicine, National Institutes of Health and National Research Council.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /> He was one of the co-editors of ''Fields Virology'', the "definitive" virology text.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis />
==Personal life== Shope was married to Virginia; the couple had two sons (Peter and Steven) and two daughters (Deborah and Bonnie). He had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, for which he received a lung transplant in December 2003. He died the following month in Galveston, from complications from the operation, at the age of 74.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref name=NYT_obit />
==Societies, awards and honours== Shope served as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in 1980.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.astmh.org/ASTMH/media/Documents/FormerPresidentsCouncilorsandSpecialMemberships.pdf |title=Membership Directory |publisher=American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |access-date=January 29, 2016 }}</ref> He was awarded the society's Bailey K. Ashford Medal (1974),<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.astmh.org/awards-fellowships-medals/awards-and-honors/bailey-k-ashford-medal |title=Bailey K. Ashford Medal |publisher=American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |access-date=March 1, 2016 }}</ref> Richard M. Taylor Award (1987)<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.astmh.org/subgroups/acav |title=American Committee on Arthropod-Borne Viruses (ACAV) |publisher=American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |access-date=March 1, 2016 }}</ref> and Walter Reed Medal (1993).<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.astmh.org/awards-fellowships-medals/awards-and-honors/walter-reed-medal |title=Walter Reed Medal |publisher=American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |access-date=March 1, 2016 }}</ref> In 2005, ASTMH established the Robert E. Shope International Fellowship in Infectious Diseases in his memory.<ref name=ASTMH_fellowship>{{citation |url=http://www.astmh.org/ASTMH/media/Documents/ASTMHShopeFellowshipApplicationGuidelinesFINAL.pdf |title=Robert E. Shope: International Fellowship in Infectious Diseases: Application Guidelines |publisher=American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene |access-date=January 29, 2016 }}</ref> The University of Texas Medical Branch named its biosafety level 4 laboratory, completed just before his death, The Robert E. Shope, M.D. Laboratory, and also set up a fellowship in his memory.<ref name=emerg_inf_dis /><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.utmb.edu/cbeid/safety.shtml |title=Safety and Biocontainment: The Robert E. Shope, MD, Laboratory in the John Sealy Pavilion for Infectious Diseases Research |publisher=University of Texas Medical Branch |access-date=March 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105112231/http://www.utmb.edu/cbeid/safety.shtml |archive-date=January 5, 2016 }}</ref> A symposium was held in his honour on March 18–21, 2004.<ref name=symposium />
==References== {{reflist|30em}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shope, Robert}} Category:1929 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American virologists Category:American public health doctors Category:Medical doctors from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Cornell University alumni Category:Yale School of Medicine faculty Category:University of Texas Medical Branch faculty Category:United States Army Medical Corps officers Category:Military personnel from Mercer County, New Jersey Category:Presidents of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene