Scientist helped develop response to SARS, H1N1
Dr. Frank Plummer, former scientific director of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, has died. The University of Manitoba confirmed the death of Plummer, 67, a renowned microbiologist and infectious-disease expert.The former scientific director of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory who had experimental brain surgery to battle alcoholism has died.“He was a scientific maverick,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, tweeted on Tuesday.Dr.
Prior to his time at the lab, Dr. Plummer’s research shaped public health policy around the world. He built a world-class research operation in Kenya, where he observed a particular group of women who had a natural immunity to HIV-1. That discovery provided important information for HIV vaccine and drug development.
“His contributions have had a cumulative global impact on saving the lives of tens of thousands of people for decades and also improving the lives of HIV positive people around the world,” added Digvir Jayas, the university’s vice-president of research. Dr. Plummer had recently shared his own battle with alcoholism. In an article he wrote for Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Plummer explained how he began to drink scotch to “to celebrate, relax and deal with stress, anxiety, disappointment and grief.”After decades of drinking, attempts at quitting and a liver transplant, Dr. Plummer decided to get experimental treatment using deep brain stimulation in 2018.
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