2022 Lundquist Legends Scott Filler, MD, and Darrell Harrington, MD, Honored for Their Outstanding Career Achievements

The 19th Annual Lundquist Legends tradition continued in 2022 with the recognition of two of its most outstanding investigators: Dr. Scott Filler and Dr. Darrell Harrington. Both Legends have enjoyed a long affiliation with UCLA as they both graduated from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and then came to and stayed for their whole careers at Harbor-UCLA and the Lundquist Institute. This year’s event took place at the Institute’s Medical Research Laboratory on the Institute campus and was also livestreamed online on December 7th.

Dr. Filler is a Principal Investigator at the Institute, the former Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and a Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He will be honored for his research on understanding the mechanisms by which the fungi Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus invade and damage cells of hospitalized patients, causing infections that are frequently fatal, even with current antifungal therapies. Fungal invasions and their host receptors—the first two of which have been identified by Dr. Filler’s lab—are key to the eventual development of fungal vaccines. Dr. Filler’s laboratory is also proficient in using mouse models of fungal infection for analyzing the virulence of mutant strains of fungi and experimental antifungal agents.

Dr. Harrington is an Investigator at the Institute, the Chief Academic Officer at Los Angeles County Health Services, and a Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He will be celebrated for his work in overseeing the Graduate Education program at Harbor-UCLA, for developing optimal internal medicine protocols while he served as the Chief of General Internal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and for his research on acutely ill medical patients who are significant risk for developing VTE during hospitalization and treatment interventions that can reduce the risk of VTE and its burden.

“On behalf of the whole Institute community, I congratulate these two amazing and distinguished investigators on a lifetime of superb accomplishments in the fields of medicine and research,” said David Meyer, PhD, President and CEO. “Both of these trailblazers have been leaders in the field of medicine and research, and we honor their legacies of innovation and enduring commitment to science.”