ohn B. West, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, San Diego, California, will speak on “Vulnerability of Pulmonary Capillaries in Health and Disease” at the ASA 2006 Annual Meeting Plenary Session. The presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, October 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. at McCormick Place in Chicago.

John B. West, M.D., Ph.D.

Born in Australia, Dr. West studied in both Australia and London. While in London, he became involved in studies on the effects of gravity on the lung, including regional differences of ventilation, gas exchange and alveolar size.

In 1960, he became one of a small group of physiologists who joined Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition, wintering at 19,000 feet to carry out an extensive physiological program. Subsequent measurements were extended up to 24,400 feet on Mt. Makalu. Thus began a long interest in high-altitude medicine and physiology, culminating in Dr. West leading the 1981 American Medical Research Expedition to Mt. Everest, during which five people reached the summit and the first physiological measurements on the summit were made. These studies addressed this basic scientific question: How can humans survive the extreme oxygen deprivation of these great altitudes, which are right at the limit of human tolerance? His interest in the field continues to this day with a project on oxygen enrichment of room air at high altitude, which promises to be important for commuters who need to work at very high altitudes. He also edits a new journal, High Altitude Medicine & Biology.

His interest in the effects of gravity on the lung led him to take a sabbatical leave to study the lung in weightlessness at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in 1967-68. During that time, he submitted a proposal to NASA to study pulmonary function in astronauts. This study was funded the following year, and NASA has supported it ever since. Experiments have been conducted on four spacelabs in orbit, with a current experiment on the International Space Station. Because the lung is arguably the organ most vulnerable to gravity, the basic question is how lung function is altered by both short-term and long-term exposure to weightlessness.

Dr. West has been on the faculty of UCSD since 1969. His research has ranged over a wide field, including an extensive study of ventilation-perfusion inequality in the lung. He continues to have an interest in pulmonary circulation and in the dilemma of the blood-gas barrier, which has to be both extremely thin and immensely strong. When the pressure in pulmonary capillaries becomes high or the lung is inflated to large volumes, stress failure of the walls of the capillaries occurs. This phenomenon is important in a variety of lung diseases. He is addressing the basic biological question of how the blood-gas barrier of the lung is regulated so that it is sufficiently thin for efficient gas exchange yet strong enough to avoid stress failure.

Dr. West’s little red book, Respiratory Physiology: The Essentials, has been translated into 13 languages and is used around the world. His strong interest in the history of medicine has led him to write several books on the subject. His monograph, High Life, is a standard history of high-altitude physiology and medicine. He has developed an archival collection of material in high-altitude medicine and physiology for the special archival library at UCSD.

His many honors include serving as president of the American Physiological Society, foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, honorary doctorates from the universities of Barcelona and Ferrara, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.