William A. Haseltine, PhD
In Dr. Haseltine’s career at the forefront of medical research and application, he has educated a generation of doctors at Harvard Medical School, designed the strategy to develop the first treatment for HIV/AIDS, is well known for his groundbreaking work on cancer, and led the team that pioneered the development of new drugs based on information from the human genome. His relentless focus on delivering world-changing results led TIME magazine to name him one of the “25 Most Influential Global Business Executives.”
Today, as the Chair and President of ACCESS Health International and an internationally recognized expert on the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Haseltine is dedicated to ensuring that quantum advancements in medical technology translate to improved health outcomes around the world.
Dr. Haseltine has founded more than a dozen biotechnology companies, including Human Genome Sciences, Inc. Eight pharmaceutical products from companies he founded are currently approved by U.S. and international regulatory agencies. He is the author of more than two hundred peer reviewed manuscripts and eleven books, including two books on COVID: A Family Guide to Covid and A Covid Back to School Guide. His most recent book, My Lifelong Fight Against Disease: From Polio and AIDS to COVID-19, was published in October 2020. He is currently chair and president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International.
Click here to read Dr. Haseltine’s CVBooks
Viroids & Virusoids: Nature’s Own mRNA
Messenger RNA (mRNA) has become a key therapeutic modality. Propelled into the spotlight by the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are only the tip of the iceberg: there’s an mRNA revolution on the horizon. But long before mRNA was thought of as a potential therapeutic drug, nature devised its own transmissible messenger RNA: viroids and virusoids. By studying the mechanisms of these small, naked RNAs, we can learn to increase the efficiency of mRNA. In his latest book, Dr. William Haseltine explores the world of viroids and virusoids in full detail: from their potential origins in the primordial soup —roughly three to four billion years ago— to the diseases they cause and everything in between. Each step along the way is ripe with implications for fields as diverse as biomedicine and agriculture. In addition to highlighting potential futures for mRNA, the book also discusses how virusoids can help us understand and address the fatal human disease of hepatitis D.The Future of Medicine: Healing Yourself: Regenerative Medicine
“Dr. William Haseltine first coined the term Regenerative Medicine in 1999, since then, the field has rapidly expanded. By studying our natural healing abilities, we are unlocking new ways to regenerate tissues, improve outcomes, and enhance the quality of life for people across the world. Whether it involves cell, gene, or protein therapies, or cutting-edge biomechanical interventions, regenerative medicine is revolutionizing the healthcare landscape as we know it. This book provides an overview of some of the most exciting, emerging areas of Regenerative Medicine, including DNA, antibody, and cellular therapies and organoid and transplant innovations.Monoclonal Antibodies: The Once and Future Cure for Covid-19
“Dr. William Haseltine first coined the term Regenerative Medicine in 1999, since then, the field has rapidly expanded. By studying our natural healing abilities, we are unlocking new ways to regenerate tissues, improve outcomes, and enhance the quality of life for people across the world. Whether it involves cell, gene, or protein therapies, or cutting-edge biomechanical interventions, regenerative medicine is revolutionizing the healthcare landscape as we know it. This book provides an overview of some of the most exciting, emerging areas of Regenerative Medicine, including DNA, antibody, and cellular therapies and organoid and transplant innovations.
A Family Guide to Long Covid
“One in five adults infected with Covid-19 are now experiencing Long Covid symptoms. As more people are affected and awareness of the condition grows, many are searching for answers to their questions about Long Covid. What is Long Covid? How is it different from a Covid infection? What are the symptoms? Who is affected? How do I talk to my doctor about Long Covid? How can I advocate to get the care I need? Infectious disease expert, Dr. William Haseltine answers these questions and more in A Family Guide to Long Covid (ACCESS Health Press, July 2022). Continuing in the accessible question and answer style of the best-selling, A Family Guide to Covid the book provides straightforward answers about all aspects of Long Covid with equal measures of clarity and compassion. A Family Guide to Long Covid: Questions and Answers covers everything you need to know about Long Covid from symptoms and diagnosis to treatment and how different populations are affected. It serves as a resource that patients can use to advocate for their care and a guide for those who want to understand, prepare, and protect their families and friends.”Omicron: From Pandemic to Endemic
Covid-19 has challenged and upended many common notions around viral infection. The Omicron variant is likely the most infectious virus since the 1918 influenza pandemic with over 200 million cases currently confirmed worldwide. As many as a third of the global population may have been infected with the Omicron variant, considering unreported cases and asymptomatic carriers. In his latest book, bestselling author William A. Haseltine and co-author Griffin McCombs offers a detailed analysis of how the Omicron variant evolved to evade our best defenses and provides a roadmap for how we might protect ourselves against future variants. Omicron: From Pandemic to Endemic (ACCESS Health Press, April 2022) collects insights from the latest research on the entire family of Omicron variants and explains the lessons that we need to implement in our public health and medical practices going forward. While many governments and citizens alike are growing weary of protective Covid-19 measures, Haseltine argues that this is not the time to let our guard down. The increasing transmissibility of the Omicron variant demonstrates the immense capacity for evolution by this virus. In terms of lethal potential, SARS-CoV-2 sits on a knife’s edge, one unlucky point mutation away from becoming substantially more dangerous.Natural Immunity
Understanding our natural immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus is critical to understanding the Covid-19 pandemic and serves as a guide to what more we can do to protect ourselves. The natural immune system is what equips the body with the tools necessary to counter new threats from the microbial world and prevent severe disease. Only when these natural protections fail do we succumb to critical illness or death. How natural immunity functions has eluded our understanding—until now. This book collects insights from a fast-growing body of scientific research on the next frontier of pandemic control, not just for Covid-19 but existing and future infectious diseases. We now find ourselves in a uniquely challenging stage of the pandemic, without a long-lasting vaccine and facing a virus that evolves rapidly to become more transmissible and to defeat our best attempts at prevention and treatment. Haseltine argues that one way forward is to develop drugs that strengthen our natural immune defenses and keep vulnerable populations protected and healthy against existing and future variants. The book maps out how the body mobilizes its natural defenses against SARS-CoV-2. It also describes the virus’s extensive set of countermeasures. Strengthening the natural immune system and devising means to thwart the virus’s countermeasures opens a golden path to prevention and treatment of Covid-19.CV-PTSD
In CV-PTSD: What It Is and What To Do About It, bestselling author William A. Haseltine gives us a name for the trauma we have experienced throughout the pandemic, both individually and collectively: Covid Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CV-PTSD). In addition to outlining the shape of our shared experience, the book also lays out a comprehensive road map to help us plot a course to rebuild our societies, better and healthier than they were before./ Each chapter of the book explores the effects of the pandemic on different groups, such as schoolchildren, parents, healthcare workers, and caregivers. Taken together, the work is an urgent call to action for policymakers, healthcare leaders and patients themselves to recognize the symptoms of our shared experience and to find new opportunities to rebuild society more completely and compassionately than before. CV-PTSD is a Living eBook, updated regularly with new information as it unfolds.
Science as a Superpower
When you think about superheroes, what comes to mind? Muscle-bound men and women adorned in capes or hi-tech armor? Superhuman abilities like flying or x-ray vision? It’s unlikely you thought of people in white lab coats looking through microscopes. But in real life, science is the most powerful superpower in the world. Think about it. Scientists have used their powers to make the once impossible happen: cure diseases, extend human life, feed the world, and bring us to outer space and beyond. They are, indeed, modern-day superheroes, saving and improving millions of lives. Dr. William Haseltine discovered the power of science at an early age. And now in his latest book, Science as a Superpower: My Lifelong Fight Against Disease and the Heroes who Made it Possible, he shares his love of science with the hope of inspiring young people to pursue a life in science and someday make their own contributions to improve human life. Woven throughout are stories of his work with some of recent history’s biggest scientific heroes, and of his many successes (and failures) as he learned how to harness the superpower that is science to build a successful—and deeply impactful—career of his own./
Variants!
As the world moves into the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 variants are now the fundamental issue at the root of many of our questions — Will the vaccines work? Will we need new shots each year? Will the pandemic end or can we expect a renewed surge of Covid-19 cases every year, like we see with the flu? Understanding virus variation is critical to understanding how the pandemic will unfold and how Covid-19 may continue to affect our global economy, our societies, and all of us individually. Will the current decline in new infections in the United States, for example, be permanent or a case of seasonal population immunity? These are the questions and issues at the heart of a new book by William A. Haseltine, PhD, Variants! The Shape-Shifting Challenge of COVID-19.My Lifelong Fight Against Disease
“Place this book at the top of your list. You will be inspired to make an impact on the world, with a remarkable guide to help show you the path.”
Sanjay Gupta, MD
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Emory; Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN Anticipating a career in medicine, Dr. William A. Haseltine was in his first weeks of graduate studies at Harvard when a legendary physician-scientist offered this advice: “You can do more for human health through science than you ever could as a doctor.” That advice hit him “like a thunderbolt”—and he took it. Since then, Dr. Haseltine has helped combat cancers, worked to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic and unlocked the power of the human genome to develop dozens of new pharmaceutical cures. His discoveries in molecular biology and genomics, amplified through his counsel at the highest levels of government and in the public eye, have improved the health and lives of millions of people around the world. For the first time, Dr. Haseltine tells his life story—which is still unfolding—in My Lifelong Fight Against Disease, including facing devastating public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlighting exhilarating moments of medical discovery. In writing the story of his wide-ranging career, Dr. Haseltine’s goals are simple: to encourage the next generation to make their own significant contribution to human life, and for all readers to appreciate science as a humanistic enterprise. A compulsively readable and fast paced insider’s account of some of the most brilliant medical breakthroughs in modern history, My Lifelong Fight Against Disease is a candid, evocative and ultimately revelatory exploration into what it means to make science your life.
“A timely, moving and inspirational account of the difference that a curious man can make in the world. He combines his powerful personal story with easy-to-read explanations of his tussles with medical science, and thrilling accounts of the political battles he faced.”
—Gillian Tett, Chair Editorial Board and Editor-at-Large, The Financial Times
”My Lifelong Fight Against Disease is a fascinating memoir from one of the greatest scientists of our time.”
★★★★★ Clarion Review
“Readers will be swept along by the excitement of discovery, the urgency of breakthrough treatment, the impact of policy and the thrill of success. I can well imagine future leaders in health science looking back on this book as formative to their own journeys.”
—Brian Greene, Director, Columbia Center for Theoretical Physics; Co-founder and Chairman, World Science Festival
“Enthusiasm in embracing the public context of science is all too rare in the science community. Bill models this in a joyful way, inspiring others to relish science and public engagement. This book is an instant classic!”
—Mary Woolley, President and CEO, Research!America
“This compelling personal and professional story offers a superbly insightful analysis of what it will take for humanity to keep combatting increasingly complex health challenges and their devastating impacts. A life and career guided by a purpose to improve the health and well being of people everywhere is a legacy that gives hope.”
—Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
“…a timely account of how one individual can impact global health, especially related to viruses… Readers will find this dramatic, self-reflective autobiography an entertaining and enlightening antidote to today's healthcare news.”
—Starred Blue Ink Review
“This gripping autobiography is at once a study in the development of a scientific mind infused with humanist commitment and a candid revelation of a complex and many sided personality. Readers will get to know great scientists, political figures, activists and above all the author himself, whose careers in molecular biology research and biopharmaceutical entrepreneurship have been of immense benefit to humankind.”
—Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., President Emeritus, Georgetown University
“...an elegantly recounted story of a singular life studded with achievements. An erudite, illuminating account of a scientist’s remarkable journey.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinating tale of growth and discovery of a medical scientist who thinks both deeply and broadly.”
—Alfred Sommer, MD
Dean Emeritus and Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
“Place this book at the top of your list. You will be inspired to make an impact on the world, with a remarkable guide to help show you the path.”
—Sanjay Gupta, MD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Emory; Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN
Covid Commentaries: A Chronicle of a Plague
After a lifetime spent in science, medicine, and pursuing better public health, Dr. Haseltine is once again logging eighteen-hour days battling a new and still somewhat unknown disease. His opinions on the course of the pandemic are sought regularly by major broadcast news networks and print media. The COVID Commentaries is a collection of Dr. Haseltine’s writings, research, and interviews on COVID-19.
Writings
How To Mend A Broken Heart: Scientists Chip In
(Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2023)
Research by scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham may herald a breakthrough in the treatment and management of heart attacks and other similar damage. Published in Circulation, the work by Jianyi “Jay” Zhang and his colleagues reveals that certain genes may extend our heart’s ... read more
Understanding A Global Vision Crisis: Cataracts
(Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2023)
Consultation with an ophthalmologist. Medical equipment. Coreometry
This story is part of a series on the current progression in Regenerative Medicine. This piece is part of a series dedicated to the eye and improvements in restoring vision. It also marks part one of a four-part series on cataracts. In 1999, ... read moreThe Synergy of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Medical Practice
(Posted on Friday, September 29, 2023)
Originally published on Forbes on 9/29/23. This story is part of a series on the current progression in Regenerative Medicine. This piece discusses advances in the use of artificial intelligence in medical robotics. In 1999, I defined regenerative medicine as the collection of interventions that restore to normal function tissues and organs ... read more
How Exercise Helps Fight Alzheimer’s Disease
(Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2023)
A silent pandemic is underway. In 2016, , cuts through some of the fog, providing novel avenues for treatment. Working out of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Eunhee Kim and colleagues describe how a protein called irisin breaks down amyloid beta in the brain, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. What ... read more
Through a New Lens: The Promise of Virtual Reality for Enhancing Vision Therapy
(Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2023)
This story is part of a series on the current progression in Regenerative Medicine. This piece is part of a series dedicated to the eye and improvements in restoring vision. In 1999, I defined regenerative medicine as the collection of interventions that restore to normal function tissues and organs that have ... read more