Allan G. Redeker, M.D. (1924‐2021)

Luncheon with former colleagues and fellows in January 2020 Allan (Al) G. Redeker, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine for 40 years and the twenty-second president of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, died peacefully on January 22, 2021, at his home. Dr. Redeker was a pioneer in clinical hepatology and together with Dr. Telfer (Pete) Reynolds, he co-led the world-renowned USC Liver Unit and trained more than 100 hepatology fellows, many of whom went on to lead hepatology programs in the United States and internationally. Dr. Redeker was born in Nebraska and grew up in Boone, Iowa, where his father owned a successful furniture business that is still in business. His undergraduate studies at Coe College, Iowa, were interrupted by World War II when he enlisted in the US Army. After the war, he continued his education with the GI Bill at Northwestern University, where he received his undergraduate and medical degrees. In medical school he struck up a close and lifelong friendship with fellow Iowan and classmate Thomas Starzl. Following graduation, Allan Redeker left the Midwest for Southern California for further training and to seek relief from his severe hay fever. He completed an internal medicine residency in Chicago and at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles before becoming Telfer Reynolds’ first liver fellow. His initial research interest was in porphyria, a group of inherited or acquired enzymatic defects of heme synthesis, which at that time was an exciting area of active liver research. He received a traveling fellowship from the Giannini Foundation, which gave him the opportunity to work in the laboratories of Professor Cecil J. Watson at the University of Minnesota; Professor Claude Rimington at University College Hospital in London, UK; and Professor Jan Waldenstrom at Malmo General Hospital, Sweden. Upon his return to USC, he established his own laboratory with National Institutes of Health funding and described the clinical manifestations of erythropoietic protoporphyria and the benefit of phlebotomy for the treatment of porphyria cutanea tarda. Dr. Redeker’s research interests covered broad fields in hepatology and are critical to our current practice of hepatology. In collaboration with Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Redeker was one of the first to measure portal venous hemodynamics by transhepatic portal vein and hepatic vein catherization. His personal relationship with Dr. Thomas Starzl resulted in several patients from the USC liver unit being transferred to Colorado and being among the first to receive liver transplantation. However, Dr. Redeker is best known for his research in viral hepatitis. An award from the US Army to study the safety of plasma in 1968 and the discovery of hepatitis B several years earlier led Dr. Redeker to begin his research in the nascent field of viral hepatitis. He first reported the efficacy of hepatitis B immune globulin given postexposure at preventing transmission of HBV. Dr. Redeker was well prepared for his new interest as he had previously created a weekly hepatitis clinic at Los Angeles County–University of Southern California (LAC-USC) Medical Center in 1964. For each patient, fellows meticulously recorded demographic and clinical information on duplicate 8 × 5″ cards. In addition to routine blood work, extra serum was collected and stored at –20°C at the Liver Unit for future research. After each visit, he personally transcribed lab test results on these cards while keeping a log of all patients with acute hepatitis. This repository was the resource for the groundbreaking work in viral hepatitis he did with hepatology fellows in training, including studies on delta hepatitis with Kevin DeCock and Sugantha Govindarajan. He and Kevin DeCock collected stool specimens on a patient recently returned from Pakistan with acute hepatitis that led to one of the first isolations of the hepatitis E virus in the United States. In 1981, Jorge Rakela and Allan Redeker described the natural history of acute non-A nonhepatitis. Serum samples from carefully pedigreed patients with chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis were provided to Dr. Michael Houghton at Chiron Laboratory that directly led to the molecular identification of HCV in 1989. He continued his work with chronic hepatitis C with John McHutchinson, Mauricio Bonacini, Steven Han, Eli Zuckerman, Ke-Qin Hu, and Sumita Verma. He also made significant contributions in hepatitis B research working with Myron Tong, Karen Lindsay, Timothy Morgan, and Sanjeev Gupta. All of his former fellows can attest to Dr. Redeker’s kindness and generosity. At the beginning of fellowship, he encouraged fellows to come up with research projects using the cards from the Hepatitis Clinic and guided them along the way, including hours spent helping them rewrite drafts of manuscripts. The hepatology fellows at the USC Liver Unit fondly remember Drs. Redeker and Reynolds as the best teachers in their medical career. Both were dedicated to teaching and were notorious for their demanding standards. The clinical cases at LAC-USC Medical Center, the largest hospital in Los Angeles for indigent patients, never failed to provide a plethora of unique cases where fellows were put on the spot to make and defend diagnoses and explain pathophysiology. On patient rounds, medical students, residents, and fellows were taught the importance of obtaining a thorough history and physical findings characteristic of liver disease, such as the vascular spiders, hepatic bruits, and Cruveilhier-Baumgarten murmurs, all at the bedside. Dr. Redeker’s national stature in hepatology was recognized by his prominence in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, serving on the association’s governing board and as its president in 1971. He was regularly chosen to provide state-of-the-art and postgraduate lectures on acute viral hepatitis, alcohol-associated liver disease, porphyria, and cirrhosis and served on national and international panels and advisory groups on liver disease and viral hepatitis research. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. After his retirement, his regular attendance twice weekly at the Hepatitis and Liver Clinics until his early 90s was a testament to his dedication to teaching and mentoring residents, fellows, and junior faculty. He was highly sought after by faculty for his expert clinical advice on challenging clinical cases. Dr. Redeker was beloved by his former students, residents, fellows, and colleagues and will never be forgotten. Just before the COVID pandemic a luncheon honoring him was attended by more than 20 former fellows and colleagues, some traveling from out of state. A virtual ninety-sixth birthday was attended by over 40 fellows and colleagues including Neil Kaplowitz, Andrew Stolz, Laurie Deleve, Takeshi Saito, Marion Peters, Karen Lindsay, Paul Pockros, Timothy Morgan, Tse-Ling Fong, Jeffrey Kahn, Marty Cohen, Steven Han, Ke-Qin Hu, Edward Mena, Sarah Sheibani, Saro Khemichian, Lily Dara, Michel Mendler, and Jay Hoofnagle. One month before his death he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Southern California Society of Gastroenterology, whose cochairs were Paul Pockros, Jeffrey Kahn, and Steven Han, three of his former fellows. Allan Redeker will be long remembered by so many not only as the consummate clinician-researcher-academician but also as a kind and generous teacher and mentor. He is survived by his loving wife Andrea, children Martha and James, stepdaughters Lizbeth and Alise, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son Thomas.