Eugene Lindsay Opie

Eugene Lindsay Opie (5 July 1873 – 12 March 1971) was an American physician and pathologist who conducted research on the causes, transmission, and diagnosis of tuberculosis and on immunization against the disease. He served as professor of pathology at several U.S. medical schools and as Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, Missouri).

Opie was born in Staunton, Virginia on July 5, 1873. His father, Thomas, was an obstetrician-gynecologist, and one of the founders and deans of the University of Maryland College of Medicine in Baltimore. Eugene attended Johns Hopkins University, both as an undergraduate and a medical student. He received an A.B. degree in 1893, and was in the first graduating class of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, earning the M.D. degree in 1897.

The first medical school graduating class of Johns Hopkins University, 1897. Opie is second from the left in the back row.

Under the tutelage of the pathologist William H. Welch, Opie developed a special affinity for tissue pathology. As a medical student, he observed consistent morphological alterations in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans in patients with diabetes mellitus – an observational epiphany that shed light on the pathogenesis of that disease. Opie stayed on at Johns Hopkins after completing medical school, to receive additional training in pathology from Welch. He continued his work on pancreatic diseases, establishing the relationship between obstruction of the ampulla of Vater (e.g., by gallstones) and the subsequent development of acute pancreatitis.

In 1904, Opie moved to New York City to work at the Rockefeller Institute, with a focus on the enzymatic constituents of leukocytes and their role in inflammatory conditions. He concurrently served as a "visiting" pathologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and was named an editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology.

In 1910, Opie was appointed Chair of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis. He served as Dean of the school from 1912 to 1915, presiding over a significant expansion of its physical facilities, scientific mission, and curriculum.

When the United States entered World War I, Opie took a leave of absence from WUSM to enter the U.S. Army. He served in France as a Colonel (O6) in the Medical Corps, with special work on infectious diseases and their prevention among allied soldiers. Significant new data were accrued on influenza, tuberculosis, and "trench fever" (bartonellosis) during that time. Upon returning to civilian life, Opie continued his duties at WUSM until 1923.

Opie narrowed his general interest in infectious disease to focus on tuberculosis, an international scourge in the early part of the 20th century. In 1923 he became the Director of the Phipps Institute for the Study and Treatment of Tuberculosis at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A concomitant appointment as Professor of Pathology was also given to him. Through Opie's work over the next decade, much was learned about the modes of tuberculous infection in children and adults, as well as aspects of immunity, hypersensitivity, and cellular defenses regarding that disease. Opie moved to Cornell University Medical Center in New York in 1932 to continue his research. There, as Chair of the Pathology department, he recruited several young pathologists – including Robert A. Moore, D. Murray Angevine, Jules Freund, and others – who would all go on to distinguish themselves as renowned investigators in their own rights. Like Opie, Moore also served as chair of pathology and dean of the medical school at Washington University in the 1940s and 1950s.

Opie retired from full-time professional work in pathology in 1941, although that was not the end of his scientific endeavors. He again worked at the Rockefeller Institute as a "guest investigator" for the next 28 years. Peer-reviewed manuscripts bore his name as an author until 1970. In addition to infections, Opie did work on hepatic carcinogenesis, alterations in nucleic acid content in various disease states, and tissue fluid flux.

Opie served as the President of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists; the American Society for Experimental Pathology, the National Tuberculosis Association; the American Association of Immunologists; and the Harvey Society. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Yale University, Rockefeller University, and Washington University. Other accolades included the Weber-Parks Medal, the 1959 Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the 1960 Academy Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science from the New York Academy of Medicine, and the T. Duckett Jones Award.

Opie first married Gertrude Lovat Simpson on August 6, 1902, and had four children with her: Thomas Lindsay, Anne Lovat, Helen Lovat and Gertrude Eugenie. Seven years after Gertrude's death in 1909, he married her sister Margaret Lovat Simpson on September 16, 1916.

Opie died at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on March 12, 1971 at the age of 97.