Dorr Dearborn, MD

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After receiving his B.A. from Williamette University in 1961, Dr. Dearborn studied his Ph.D. in Biochemistry until 1969 and his M.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1970. His Postdoc in Biochemistry was carried out at the NIH, NHLBI from 1971 to 74. Dr. Dearborn became an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Pediatics and Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University in 1974. He became Research Director of the Cleveland Cystic Fibrosis Center in 1979. In 1981 Dr. Dearborn was promoted to Associate Professor. He completed his pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital from 1983 to 1984. In 1996 Dr. Dearborn became Director of the Pulmonary Hemosiderosis Prevention Program at Case. He was appointed Professor in 2001.

Dr. Dearborn was named Mary Ann Sears Swetland Professor and Director of The Swetland Center for Environmental Health in 2003. In 2006 he became the Chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

Dr. Dearborn 's most significant contributions to environmental health began in the fall of 1994 when he recognized an outbreak of pulmonary hemorrhage in Cleveland infants. He notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and was an integral part of the agency's investigation, which found an association of the often-fatal disorder with toxigenic mold in the infants' water-damaged homes. In 1996, Dearborn instituted the Pulmonary Hemosiderosis Prevention Program, a public health initiative involving the local health and housing agencies which has played a role in decreasing the incidence of the disorder.

His research program -- supported by the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -- studies the effect of toxic mold on the lungs of infant animals and the impact of mold and moisture on the health of infants and young children. The latter research is performed in conjunction with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Cleveland Department of Public Health. In recent years, Dearborn has published 26 papers in this area of environmental health. He frequently speaks at national and international meetings and serves on national committees, including the Healthy Homes Initiative of HUD and the Environmental Health Policy Committee of the American Thoracic Society.

Dr. Dearborn's clinical practice is currently limited to following infants after they have had an Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemorrhage and to infants and children who have had an extensive indoor fungal exposure.

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