George J. Dover, M.D. - Director
Given Professor and Director
Department of Pediatrics
Pediatrician-in-Chief
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Professor
Hematology, Medicine, Oncology
Professor
Pediatrics, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Department of Population and Family Health Sciences
Specialty:
Hematology
Oncology
Location(s):
Department of Pediatrics
Bloomberg Children's Center, Rm 8491
Johns Hopkins Hospital
1800 Orleans Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21287
Education:
Medical School:
Louisiana State University Medical School
Residency:
Johns Hopkins Hospital – Pediatrics
Fellowship:
Johns Hopkins Hospital – Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Special Interests:
Sickle Cell Disease
Medical Education
Genetics
Thalassemia
Cooley’s Anemia
Biography:
Given Professor of Pediatrics George J. Dover, M.D., is chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of Hopkins Children’s, where he is pediatrician-in-chief. Former director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology at Hopkins, Dover has a long history in the study and treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). Responsible for many of the initial observations of the biology and genetic control of Hb F in SCD, he is one of the pioneers in the area of pharmacologic manipulation of Hb F, and has made many substantial contributions to this area. Along with Hopkins’ Samuel Charache, M.D., he discovered that a cancer drug, hydroxyurea, decreases the pain and lung disease associated with SCD.
A 1968 graduate of Washington and Lee University, Dr. Dover received his medical degree in 1972 from Louisiana State University Medical School. He trained in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, completing a fellowship there in pediatric hematology/oncology before joining the Hopkins faculty in 1977 as an instructor and a research associate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for Human Biochemical Genetics. Moving up the ranks at Hopkins, he directed the Division of Pediatric Hematology, 1990-1996, until his appointment in 1997 as director of both the Department of Pediatrics and Hopkins Children's. In recent years, he led faculty and staff in the development and design of a new pediatric hospital building on Hopkins’ east Baltimore medical campus. Now under construction and scheduled to open in early 2011, it will be the third pediatric hospital building in Hopkins’ history and, like its predecessors, revolutionary for its time.
Dr. Dover is a recipient of the George J. Stuart Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching, awarded by the senior medical students at Johns Hopkins; the Alexander Schaffer Award for Outstanding Teaching of the Harriet Lane Pediatric Residents; and the MERIT Research Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His research in molecular biology and genetics, thalassemia and sickle cell has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1980, and he has held one NIH RO1 grant for over 20 years. He was part of the team of physicians at Johns Hopkins responsible for developing the FDA-approved therapy for SCD with hydroxyurea.
The author of nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications as well as author or co-author of more than 26 book chapters in the fields of pediatric hematology and genetics, Dr. Dover has been a consultant on numerous NIH grants and is active in federal government advisory committees. He is a board member of the NIH Medical Advisory Board, Cooley’s Anemia Foundation and the NIH NILBI Special Clinical Trials Study Section. In addition, he chairs the DSMB NIH Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centers and is principal investigator on two ongoing research support projects: the “Child Health Research Career Development Award” and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s “Institutional Training for Pediatricians.”
Phone: 410-955-5976
Fax: 410-955-9850
Email: gdover@jhmi.edu