neuroplex
New York Association of Neuropathologists
Leroy Sharer, M.D. |
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Professor of Pathology (Neuropathology) |
Tel: 973.972.4770 |
Biography:
Leroy R. Sharer, M.D., a native of Pennsylvania, graduated from Cornell University, in
Ithaca, New York, in 1965, and he received his medical degree at Cornell (now Weill Cornell)
University Medical College in New York City in 1969. After an internship in internal medicine
at the University of Florida from 1969 to 1970, he returned to Cornell and New York Hospital,
where in 1970 he began his residency in both anatomic pathology and neuropathology, which at
that time was directed by the late Dr. Robert Porro. He followed this training with a fellowship
in neuropathology from 1974 to 1976 under Dr. Philip Duffy at Columbia-Presbyterian, where
he also studied with Dr. David Cowen, Dr. Arthur (Rusty) Hays and Dr. Abner Wolf, among
others. After Columbia, Dr. Sharer spent five years as the first ever neuropathologist at North
Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, with a clinical appointment at Cornell. In
1981, he joined the faculty at New Jersey Medical School (NJMS, part of UMDNJ) in Newark at
the invitation of Dr. Eun-Sook (Lucia) Cho, and he has remained there ever since. In 1983, he
began work on the neuropathology of HIV and AIDS in children, in collaboration with Dr. Leon
Epstein, a pediatric neurologist who is now on the faculty of Northwestern Medical School in
Chicago. This ultimately led to funding from the NIH (NINDS), including as project leader in a
multi-institutional NINDS-funded Program Project study of AIDS and the nervous system, with
the PI being Dr. David Volsky, a neurovirologist at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and
Columbia University in New York. He continues to collaborate with Dr. Volsky, with current
funding from the NIMH for study of a murine model of HIV-1 infection.
At NJMS, Dr. Sharer is a tenured Professor of Pathology and Director of the Division of Neuropathology. In addition to clinical service work, his teaching duties include lectures and laboratory demonstrations for the second year medical students in Pathology and Neuropathology, as well as elective rotations in Neuropathology for senior residents in Neurological Surgery, Neurology and Pathology. He has been a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) since 1983, and he was Chair of the IRB for three years, from 1989 to 1992. Dr. Sharer has chaired the promotion and tenure committee as well as a task force that was charged with revising the promotion and tenure guidelines for the Medical School. He is currently Chair of the Newark Campus Committee for Research Integrity.
Nationally, Dr. Sharer has been a reviewer for the NIH, including chairing two Program Project
site visits. He was a charter member of the AIDS and Related Research (AAR-7) Study
Section from 1990 to 1994, and he was a member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board
(DSMB) for the NeuroAIDS Research Consortium (the NARC) of the NINDS, from 1994 to
2004. Dr. Sharer is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuropathology and
Experimental Neurology (JNEN) and the Journal of Neurovirology. Dr. Sharer was invited to
become a Charter Member of the Diagnostic Slide Session (DSS) of the American Association
of Neuropathologists, Inc. (AANP), in 1989. He took over the duty as Manager of the DSS from
Dr. Raymond Clasen in 1996, serving with Dr. E. Tessa Hedley-Whyte, the Moderator of the
DSS, and later with Dr. Anthony Yachnis. He stepped down from the position of Manager in
2009, relinquishing it to Dr. Mark Cohen. He was also Vice-President of the AANP in 2005,
when Dr. Harry Vinters was President. Locally, Dr. Sharer has been involved with the New
York Association of Neuropathologists, also known as The NeuroPlex, the largest regional
neuropathology group in the United States, since its inception in the late 1980's, when it was
begun by the late Dr. Joanna Sher, the late Dr. Marius Valsamis and Dr. Carol Petito. He
became President Pro Tempore of The NeuroPlex in 1999, and, following incorporation of The NeuroPlex in 2001, its first elected President, a position he held until 2011. For The NeuroPlex
in 2005, he initiated the annual Marius Valsamis Lecture, and this has been a highly successful
lecture series. In 2011, Dr. Sharer received the Meritorious Service to Neuropathology Award
from the AANP, presented at the annual meeting of the AANP in Seattle, Washington.