Sherwood L. Gorbach

Biography

Dr. Sherwood Gorbach holds professorships in the Departments of Public Health, Medicine and Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts Medical School. He is also a Professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He has conducted studies of enteric infections and nutrition in India and Latin America. Based on extensive investigations on the intestinal microflora, Dr. Gorbach began studies of anaerobic bacteria in surgical and gynecological infections in 1969. He introduced clindamycin as an anti-anaerobe drug and showed that it was efficacious in treating intra-abdominal infections. He and his colleagues conducted the first randomized, clinical trial of anaerobic infections by studying clindamycin-aminoglycoside versus cephalothin-aminoglycoside in penetrating abdominal trauma. In collaboration with Ron Nichols and Robert Condon, the neomycin-erythromycin bowel prep was devised and tested in patients. He participated in the VA Hospital multicenter trials that established this regimen as a safe and effective bowel prep for elective colon operations, lowering postoperative wound infections from 39% to 8%. He participated in many antibiotic drug trials including those involving clindamycin, cefoxitin, cefotetan, amikacin, vancomycin, bacitracin, imipenem, and ciprofloxacin. He and his colleagues at Tufts reported in 1978 that Clostridium difficile was the cause of pseudomembranous colitis and then described the cytotoxin assay which is still used for diagnosis. Dr. Gorbach researched lactic acid bacteria and fermented milk products. Along with Dr. Barry Goldin, he undertook a discovery program for improved probiotic strains. As a result of this effort, Lactobacillus GG (LGG) was discovered in 1985. Research on the beneficial properties of LGG continues to this day. This probiotic is now marketed in 40 countries as a dairy product or in a tablet form. Dr. Gorbach has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Institutes of Health for research in gastrointestinal infections and nutrition. He was awarded a MERIT Award in 1986 for studies of diet and breast cancer. Currently he is principal investigator on a Center grant for studying nutrition and metabolic issues in drug abusers with HIV in four cities in the USA and in India, Vietnam and Argentina. Dr. Gorbach has published over 550 papers and has authored nineteen books and he serves as editor of Clinical Infectious Disease. He earned his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. After an internship and residency in internal medicine at Cornell-Bellevue Medical Center, he returned to the New England Medical Center for a fellowship in infectious disease. He received additional postgraduate training in parasitology and entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in gastroenterology at the Hammersmith Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London.

Research Interest

Dr. Sherwood Gorbach holds professorships in the Departments of Public Health, Medicine and Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts Medical School. He is also a Professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He has conducted studies of enteric infections and nutrition in India and Latin America. Based on extensive investigations on the intestinal microflora, Dr. Gorbach began studies of anaerobic bacteria in surgical and gynecological infections in 1969. He introduced clindamycin as an anti-anaerobe drug and showed that it was efficacious in treating intra-abdominal infections. He and his colleagues conducted the first randomized, clinical trial of anaerobic infections by studying clindamycin-aminoglycoside versus cephalothin-aminoglycoside in penetrating abdominal trauma. In collaboration with Ron Nichols and Robert Condon, the neomycin-erythromycin bowel prep was devised and tested in patients. He participated in the VA Hospital multicenter trials that established this regimen as a safe and effective bowel prep for elective colon operations, lowering postoperative wound infections from 39% to 8%. He participated in many antibiotic drug trials including those involving clindamycin, cefoxitin, cefotetan, amikacin, vancomycin, bacitracin, imipenem, and ciprofloxacin. He and his colleagues at Tufts reported in 1978 that Clostridium difficile was the cause of pseudomembranous colitis and then described the cytotoxin assay which is still used for diagnosis. Dr. Gorbach researched lactic acid bacteria and fermented milk products. Along with Dr. Barry Goldin, he undertook a discovery program for improved probiotic strains. As a result of this effort, Lactobacillus GG (LGG) was discovered in 1985. Research on the beneficial properties of LGG continues to this day. This probiotic is now marketed in 40 countries as a dairy product or in a tablet form. Dr. Gorbach has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Institutes of Health for research in gastrointestinal infections and nutrition. He was awarded a MERIT Award in 1986 for studies of diet and breast cancer. Currently he is principal investigator on a Center grant for studying nutrition and metabolic issues in drug abusers with HIV in four cities in the USA and in India, Vietnam and Argentina. Dr. Gorbach has published over 550 papers and has authored nineteen books and he serves as editor of Clinical Infectious Disease. He earned his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. After an internship and residency in internal medicine at Cornell-Bellevue Medical Center, he returned to the New England Medical Center for a fellowship in infectious disease. He received additional postgraduate training in parasitology and entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in gastroenterology at the Hammersmith Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London.