Endowed Chairs & Professorships

Drs. Harold and Mary Zirin Chair in Pulmonary Biology

Investigating lung disease

The continued study of the cells of the lungs and airways will help contribute to our understanding of asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, and other severe lung diseases.

The cure for these diseases depends on our understanding of their biological nature. By endowing a chair in pulmonary biology, Drs. Harold and Mary Zirin help ensure the discovery of more effective treatments and cures fro respiratory ailments that affect millions around the world.

Physician-scientist Greg Downey, MD, was hired in the Fall of 2006 to be the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at National Jewish Health and holds the Drs. Harold and Mary Zirin Chair in Pulmonary Biology.  Previously, he served as an endowed Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine and Chief of Respirology at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Downey oversees academic and research programs at National Jewish Health, integrating the clinical and research efforts of the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics and Immunology. 

In addition to his positions at the University of Toronto, Dr. Downey has served since 2001 as the Canada Research Chair in Respiration for the Canada Institutes of Health Research.  Dr. Downey’s research and clinical interests include pulmonary cell biology and acute lung injury.  He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles, editorials and book chapters.

Dr. Downey received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba in 1980, did his internship and residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and completed his clinical fellowship in pulmonary medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and National Jewish Health in 1986.  He then completed a research fellowship in pulmonary cell biology in 1988 at National Jewish Health, while simultaneously serving as a staff physician and Medical Director for the Adult Special Care Unit at National Jewish Health. 

Dr. Downey has received numerous honors throughout this career, beginning with a 1989 Career Scientist Award from the Ontario Ministry of Health.  In 1997 he was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and in 1999 he received a Department of Medicine Research Award from the University of Toronto.  More recently, he was named a Scholar with the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2004 and received the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Zeller’s Senior Scientist award for outstanding contributions to Cystic Fibrosis Research.  He has served as the Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology since 2002. 

Greg Downey, MD