I   had the extraordinary good fortune to know and work with the most wonderful, smart, helpful, insightful, good, well-meaning, kind, and supportive program officers, SRO in Jean Hickman, and colleagues in TMP, now DMID NIAID, with Michael who was an exceptional, and  good friend, among the very best. Mike helped our work in many ways: These ways ranged from encouraging me to split our immunology and vaccine work from the human studies work that became the National Collaborative Toxoplasmosis study, to suggesting to us to make a randomized control trial when I had to ask “what does that mean?”, to saying I should take our biochemistry /molecular biology/unique parasite vulnerabilities work work to present at  Eli Lilly to encourage them to support parasitology drug development. He encouraged me develop the first, or one of the first, Data Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs) when I talked with Paul Meier (of Kaplan Meier analyses, “the curve that changed the world”).

          When I came to study section, it was from a hospital with a small research center, I felt so in awe and unqualified when I saw my peers.  I read all 100 grants and Stephanie and Michael smiled. They and Jean told me to “speak up!” Once when we all went to a restaurant at an IRG meeting, I think it was Mike, Rich Locksley, Steve Reed, TV Rajan after a glass of wine, who decided along with me that it should celebrate Jean’s birthday. There was rattlesnake on the menu and different cakes. To relieve the pressure of seeing many innovative and strong grant proposals, frustrated by a ~3rd percentile pay-line and wanting to help many of those grants, we did something silly. We ordered rattle snake and many desserts, each with candles, for Jean. I think Michael was there chuckling more as each cake arrived, each of us finding it was really more and more funny.  Jean was at first perplexed and surprised, it wasn’t her birthday really, but by the third piece of cake she was smiling broadly with good natured amusement and grace. But the silliness relieved the tension of that day. It was good for all of us to laugh together. After all this time I am not positive the details are completely correct, but it reflects  a time of serious scientific discussions, the deep caring about applicants, their work, and  the field, and the fun, playfulness, and friendships that came from Mike, and others. during and after that time. Mike and his colleagues always felt (still feel) like guardian angels for our work. For Mike’s family, I attach our 2020 holiday letter so you might know what Mike and his colleagues helped us to build.

         When I learned Mike had passed away last month, and even now, my eyes fill with tears. I will miss him dearly. I can only begin to imagine how much his family,  Stephanie and Lee must feel. Mike spoke so highly and proudly of all in his family, especially his obstetrician daughter.

         I will continue to think of Mike often, of certain comments he made, Mike’s concern for all people including those living in poverty and underserved, his commitment and passion for. understanding and developing  treatments and vaccines to eliminate these terrible, and often neglected, diseases. I will remember his intelligence, insight, wisdom, his smile and buoyant laugh…and his interest in and affection for all of you./us and we for him.

Warmly,

Rima



Michael, 1993

Mike contributed to each of the following at the start and I think he would be pleased to know
the progress we have made in our work toward eliminating toxoplasmosis this year. I thought his family might like to know the  following: This past year in building a worldwide pre-natal screening program to prevent and treat congenital toxoplasmosis, with colleagues, an exceedingly high functioning lateral chromatography point of care test was created and evaluated through to use in clinical practice. We have initiated an ongoing US clinical trial of this novel diagnostic test.  We have been part of obtaining Ce Mark (European equivalent of the FDA) approval. This was approved December 8, 2020! We are eagerly awaiting review of this same material by the FDA. This has been delayed due to their SARS-CoVi2 work. This inexpensive accurate test will help establish routine screening of pregnant women for acquisition of Toxoplasma to facilitate prompt treatment/prevention to eliminate congenital toxoplasmosis. 

With colleagues we created, formulated, and tested a small molecule inhibitor effective against both fast growing and dormant Toxoplasma in laboratory models. This also cures the malaria parasite. We have plans to develop this toward the clinic with companion compounds. We have established a formal consortium to advance this work. More information about this can be found at the links below and will be added to our updated website “live” early next year at toxoplasmosis.org. We also have a powerful approach for making synergistic anti-sense inhibitors.

We and colleagues are making good progress with innovative recent findings toward a vaccine to prevent infection in humans, stopping oocyst shedding, and better understanding pathogenesis and consequences of this infection.

These are part of Mike and his colleagues wonderful legacy. He truly was a wonderful person.

I apologize for not writing sooner: it is hard to equilibrate to a world without Michael, and harder to pick which thought to write. The central idea seems too big and grand to say flat out, because we all say such flattering things about those who are gone. But here it is: Michael Gottlieb was a catalog of the virtues. He was wise and just and brave and modest. He was thoughtful and prudent and strong. He worked hard and loved his family and loved the communities that he served. He was wry and fun and a joy to be with. He was splendid. I will miss him forever.

I met Michael in person for the first time at the meeting where principal investigators shared ideas of how the Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4) should function, then spent the next few years working with him in support of getting complete genomic sequences for the human malaria parasites, and genomics and missing molecular tools in as many of the other Great Neglected Diseases as we could. Working and traveling with Michael and the Wellcome Trust’s Pat Goodwin was a singular education in how a program officer may serve science and scientists. He was my third great advisor, and he left his intellectual stamp. Without him I might not have realized that funding is just biochemistry, full of interesting kinetics and inhibitors, stoichiometry and topology. And I would have never come to see that my role in science is to lift everyone around me higher. That is not an insight that would have come easily to me if I had leaned on any other teacher, and it is, in the end, the only thing that matters. I am grateful.

 

Michael was like my second dad. We first met when I interviewed at the Foundation for NIH. In my first week as a scientific program manager he called me into his office and sat me down for what I thought would be a conversation about our project. Instead he took out a yellow notepad and a pen and proceeded to tell me about the "two daughters"; one who started putting into her retirement account as soon as she started her first job and the other who did not start a retirement fund until much later. He then calculated out how each daughter would fare later in life; one comfortably in a retirement community with savings, and the other, well, not quite destitute... but barely. I immediately went home that night and told my own father that I better start putting in money immediately into my retirement fund.
After working with Michael for about a year, he told me that he was bringing his daughter to the FNIH yearly picnic and he thought that we would get along. He basically set us up and, since he had an uncanny ability to understand people's true essence, of course he was right and Perri and I became fast friends. Once I moved up to NYC, I met his other daughter, Aren, and that was it; I had an adopted family. It was such a joy to become friends with Michael and then his whole family.
Once Michael got sick and NYC became enveloped in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard to see him but luckily during last summer and into fall we were able to take some nice strolls outside with family by his side and sometimes my toddler would come along as well. He always wanted to focus on how I was doing; asking questions about fellowship and my research. He loved to learn and was always thirsty for knowledge. He will live forever in my heart.

Where to start about our most Michael Gottlieb? At my first faculty job at The Catholic University of America in 1986, we had many worries.  No one in my small department, at a small university, had much experience with NIH RO1 grants, and most of the high-flying parasitologists in the extramural community who did biochemistry/pharmacology were not malariologists (CC, Englund, Beverly, etc).  Culturally, we were prepared to be mostly ignored.  Yet our first program officers (Michael and Stephanie) were encouraging, supportive, and light hearted.  When good things started to happen in the malaria field and in our lab, Michael and Stephanie seemed to be happy, WITH us.  Us included other young ones like Dan Goldberg, Kasturi Haldar, Terry Shapiro, David Roos, etc.  When I showed immense gratitude for securing our first RO1 grant, Michael laughed and said "Oh, you will be back for more!". Haha.  EVERYTIME we saw Michael at meetings, or conferences, or study sections, or local celebrations, he greeted us all with his big laugh.  It always felt like all would be well.  All was always well.  We miss Michael, but we know some people are never gone nor lost. Michael and his spirit are with us. The pictures on this website are truly precious. Thank you.

Michael lived his deeply-held Jewish faith and was a scholar of the scriptures and history. Once he learned that I had a theology degree, we often bantered back and forth in the office. My favorite theme was his response to anything that was troubling me, however mundane. "What's the problem?", he would say. "We have a prayer for that. We have a prayer for everything!!" Rest in peace with your Maker, Michael.

Michael and I worked together for over 30 years, and knew each other professionally even longer.  Michael was one of the great human beings I have had the pleasure to know in my life.  A journalist once called him “avuncular” and I thought that was a great description - he was kind and he built people up. This is why he was so beloved by his colleagues. Over the decades we worked together, I grew to love Michael like a brother. Just as for so many others, he always had a sympathetic ear and wise advice for me. He was a strong source of support and encouragement. This continued even during his illness, when I wanted so badly to support him he was also still supporting me. That was Michael!

Being in the field of tropical medicine, we often travelled, sometimes in some pretty out of the way places. Being a woman alone was not always very comfortable, but I always felt safe when the "big guy" was there.  This picture of us walking on a dusty street in Ifakara, Tanzania, many years ago is one that always touches my heart.  Michael was and always will be my trusted and greatly admired teammate and compadre.