Paul David Berk, editor extraordinaire and bilirubinologist
Authors: James L. Boyer, Allan W. Wolkoff
Journal: Hepatology (2021)

Paul D. Berk passed away on July 11, 2021 after a prolonged illness. The Hepatology Community mourns his loss. He was 83. Paul was born on April 3rd, 1938 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He showed an early interest in editing, serving as Editor-in- Chief of The Spectator. the Stuyvesant High School newspaper and a similar position at Swarthmore College where he graduated in 1959 Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in chemistry. After graduation he was a Fulbright Scholar for a year in the Department of Applied Mathematics, at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland pursuing additional skills in mathematics which were to serve him well later in his research career. He then entered Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he obtained his medical degree in 1964 with honors and then completed an internship and assistant residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York. There, he encountered the late Stanley Bradley, the Chief of Medicine, who stimulated his interests in quantitative tests of liver function. For the next 3 years following his clinical training, Paul was a Clinical Associate in the Metabolism Branch, at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, and a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service. There he came under the influence of Nathaniel Berlin who introduced him to the subject of hematology and hematologic aspects of bilirubin metabolism. Paul utilized his mathematical expertise to examine the kinetics of radiolabeled bilirubin disappearance in people, and came up with and solved the differential equations that permitted him to analyze this complex physiologic system as a three compartment model. He then extended these studies to encompass individuals with Gilbert syndrome, a common benign, inheritable disorder characterized by mild jaundice, showing that, as compared to normal control individuals, subjects with Gilbert syndrome had substantially delayed clearance of bilirubin from their circulation. These seminal studies provided Paul with a focus of investigation that he pursued for the next 20 years. In 1969, he returned to Columbia for a one-year fellowship in Hematology with the renowned Louis Wasserman after which he came back to NIH as a Senior Investigator in the Metabolism Branch of the National Cancer Institute. From 1973 until June 1977 he served as Chief of the newly established Section on Diseases of the Liver (Liver Unit) in the Digestive Diseases Branch, with appointments as Clinical Assistant and then Associate Professor, in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. In 1977 he was recruited to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York as Professor of Medicine with Tenure and Chief of the Division of Hematology, succeeding Wasserman, a position he held until 1989 when he became Chief of their Division of Liver Diseases. Shortly after returning to New York, Paul was asked to create a new hematology journal by Henry Stratton of Grune and Stratton publishers. He declined the offer as his focus was leaning toward the liver and with the influence of Hans Popper, his Dean and friend as well as a father of the field of Hepatology, he ultimately became the founding editor of Seminars in Liver Disease in 1981. Paul remained its editor for more than 3 decades, except when he served as Editor of Hepatology between 1991 and 1996, clearly an extraordinary record of editorial accomplishments. Later in his career, Paul focused on the mechanisms of Long chain Fatty acid (LCFA) transport into hepatocytes and other cells, demonstrating with others that this was a regulated facilitated process, a concept that was originally disputed. This led to a growing interest in fatty liver disease and obesity that had much to do with his final academic move in 2004, when he returned to his alma mater as Professor of Medicine, in the Department of Medicine, Division of Digestive and Liver Disease at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. There he focused on the role of LCFA in obesity and the pathophysiologic effects of bariatric surgery in humans. During his career he was supported by NIH for nearly 40 years and published over 300 peer reviewed papers. He approached all of these activities with an incisive mind and was a wonderful mentor, educator and colleague to generations of students and faculty throughout the world. His trainees at NIH included Bruce Scharschmidt, Jim Martin, Allan W. Wolkoff, John Vierling, Bennett Blitzer and Juerg Reichen. Trainees at Mt Sinai included Barry Potter, Wolfgang Stremmel, Rosa Nunes, Hiroaki Okuda, Luis Isola and Dario Sorrentino. Paul received many honors during his career. He was President of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in 1988 and received its Distinguished Service Award in 2003. In 2004 he received the George Jamieson Humanitarian Award, from the American Liver Foundation where he had served as Chair of their Board. He was a member of the ASCI and AAP. Paul is survived by his wife Nicole, daughter Claire and sons Philip, Ted and David. He will be greatly missed.