Harvey Levy

Recipient of the Robert Guthrie Award 1997

Dr. Harvey L. Levy qualified as MD at the Medical College of Georgia. After graduation he trained in paediatrics and subsequently, in metabolism. Following his metabolic training he joined the medical staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. At the MGH he engaged in clinical and basic research. Later he transferred his involvement in clinical research and care to the Children’s Hospital Boston where he currently serves fulltime. Apart from his clinical appointments he has been well known for many years first as Director of the Massachusetts Metabolic Disorders Program and later as Chief of Biochemical Genetics in the New England Newborn Screening Program.

Dr Levy served on numerous local, regional and US national committees and task forces on newborn screening and metabolic disorders. He has been active in many professional societies, notably the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders as Director-at-Large and President.

Dr Levy’s scientific career has focused on the clinical follow-up of inborn errors identified in newborn screening as well as the evaluation of newborn screening methods. This has led him to concentrate on amino acid and carbohydrate disorders, in particular phenylketonuria, galactosemia, homocystinuria and methylmalonic acidemia. In particular, Dr.Levy’s studies concerning maternal PKU can be considered a milestone in the rethinking about the long term effects of newborn screening.

In the more recent years Dr.Levy has been involved in the efforts to expand newborn screening by using modern technology of tandem mass spectrometry. He has been the (co-)author of over 200 scientific papers.

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From left to right: Dr. Jan Østrup (Wallac OY), Dr. Harvey Levy and Dr. Brad Therrell (President ISNS)