When you talk to Dr. Alan Landay about his career, a palpable, positive energy fills the room as he smiles and takes you through his decades-long journey that has now brought him to the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Landay, who has been the Vice President of Team Science at UTMB since February, has extensive experience with the idea that the answers to global problems can more readily be discovered when scientists and researchers from various disciplines, specialties and countries collaborate to study and solve the issues.
“Science has been my life and my passion,” says Landay.
Previously holding a similar title with Rush University where, among many roles, he served as assistant provost of Team Science, Landay set the foundation to thrive in this space much earlier on in his career, during his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
“While pursuing my PhD I learned quite a bit about clinical immunology, and it really engaged me,” says Landay, who is a basic immunologist by training. “I was very interested in the field of translational medicine and the idea of taking discoveries found at the bench and moving them to the bedside.”
That interest is what drove him to work under Dr. Max Cooper, a world renowned immunologist at the time ,whom Landay was sure could teach him the skills and tools he would need to be successful in the translational realm.
“Dr. Cooper taught me a great deal when I would accompany him to clinic,” recalls Landay. “We would see a patient with an unusual diagnosis and then go back to the lab and do experiments to understand the biology and mechanism of human disease.”
His experience with Cooper proved pivotal and formative. A few years later, Landay would be tasked with leading the Clinical Immunology Lab at Rush University.
“There I was, a basic immunologist, doing clinical medicine and clinical work,” he says.
Simultaneous to his start at Rush, his work at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was taking off. In 1983, he partnered with Abbott Laboratories to develop the first HIV antibody test—a transformative, career-defining discovery licensed by the FDA in 1985 and used to screen the blood supply.
Landay’s background and the confluence of events explains much about who he is and how he contributes to the world of academic medicine and science now.
Going from basic scientist to translational expert in a matter of a few years—while learning the ropes of being an academic medical professional working with industry—exposed him to the inner workings and nuances of varying sectors of science.
That knowledge is serving him well today as he settles into his role with UTMB.
“My mission is to work to develop research across the entire health system,” says Landay. “We have extremely strong basic science departments that include the No. 1 funded Microbiology Department in the U.S. and the No. 3 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program in the country based on Blue Ridge Rankings.”
He goes on to tout other programs and work coming out of the institution, including infectious disease research, the Sealy Center for Aging, UTMB’s Aerospace Medicine Program, the Brain Health Institute and more.
“There’s amazing opportunity to take a lot of this basic science and really move it into the Health System and start to work within the hospital so that we’re integrating across UTMB’s four missions of research, education, innovation and clinical care," Landay says.
To date, his work not only transcended barriers and fields of study, it also frequently crossed state and international borders.
From exploratory, informative sabbaticals across the country and abroad, to opportunities such as working with the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition— a global, multi-sector scientific and public health partnership whose primary objective is the early detection and mitigation of infectious disease threats of pandemic potential—Landay has had a myriad of experiences that have helped him foster and develop an international network of colleagues and partners.
These connections have already proven invaluable to the UTMB community, as Landay references how one of the several grants that have been submitted since his start date in early February is in collaboration with colleagues in Dublin, Ireland.
“This collaboration provided a great opportunity to engage with Dr. Scott Weaver and Dr. Robert Cross in our Microbiology Department in the Galveston National Lab to study Ebola,” he said. “What we’re doing here is really transnational, and ultimately intergalactic, work as we move to working more with NASA and space medicine.”
Long-term, he’s eyeing collaborations with colleagues in Brazil, Colombia, Australia, India, and Thailand.
“My first grant was submitted on my first day working here. That grant was a collaborative grant between the U.S. and Senegal to study Alzheimer’s disease in both African Americans and Africans to look at basic mechanisms and epidemiology,” Landay says.
Armed with a boundless curiosity and penchant for camaraderie, Landay approaches the work ahead of him at UTMB as he has everywhere else—with an open mind and eagerness to contribute and understand as much as he can.
“My goal at this stage in my career is not so much leading the grant, but being the supporting cast for the next generation,” says Landay. “I came to UTMB to really build the next generation of scientists, whether they’re MDs, PhDs, MD-PhDs or anyone in any field. I’m here really to work with our students, with our young faculty, even our mid-level faculty to develop and grow their careers.”
While he has lots of wisdom and advice to share with those around him who are earlier in their careers, he’s far from done expanding his own mind, and is constantly looking for new knowledge he can soak up and absorb.
“Every day, I’m learning and thinking, ‘What else can I do? What else do I need to know?’”