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Hello Far Hills Community,
I am Dr. Harry E. Peery. Please call me Harry.
I have a background in nursing and medicine and a great interest in pathology, neurology, cardiology, and endocrinology. I was in an MD-PhD program, in which the Ph.D. was to be completed after the first two years of medicine. I never returned after the Ph.D. to complete the last two years of the MD. I also have an Associate Degree in nursing, which I obtained while teaching nursing students full-time so I could better relate the course material to nursing. I practiced for 6 years as an RN in the US (New York State and Arizona). I am actively licensed in Arizona.
Pictured here is Foothills Medical Center in Calgary, where I do my research. The front range of the Rockies is 40 miles away.
Our new cancer center (rendering above) is under construction at Foothills. 1.3 million square feet of research and treatment facilities. Open in 2023.
I have a bachelor’s degree in biology and an MS and ABD (all but dissertation—an unofficial designation) in medical microbiology which included immunology and epidemiology. My Ph.D. research was in neuropharmacology (including toxicology), measuring the intramitochondrial and cytosolic levels of calcium in response to glutamate and two antidepressant drugs, mirtazapine, and citalopram. I found that the drugs prevented the normal calcium influx after glutamate administration.
I have taught medical, dental, nursing, and graduate students across North America. At the University of Calgary, I taught medical students, medical residents, and graduate students in anatomy and assisted in pathology. At the University of Washington, Seattle, I teach pathophysiology (PHARBE 505) live online in the Winter term and in the Fall term, the first course in this program, Molecular and Cell Biology (PHARBE 500), which also covers the molecular pathophysiology of immunology and microbiology. In Calgary, as an Associate Member of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Research Institute and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, I continue my research in imaging small tumors. For this, I grow glioblastoma and neuroblastoma cell lines. As soon as possible, I will also be starting to look at epigenetic factors in stem cell aging and in stem cell-to-cancer transformation.
As a result of my Ph.D. research, I became interested in a paraneoplastic neuroautoimmune disorder and so established, with three others, a foundation, The Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis Foundation, Inc., based in Ottawa, to help people with the disorder and to serve as a clearinghouse for physicians who want more information. I serve as its Basic Science Director. The URL is https://www.antinmdafoundation.org/
I also write and contribute to textbooks. I usually do the recruiting and am the corresponding author and editor. Our most recent book was in medical endocrinology (publication was March 26, 2021) for which I recruited MD endocrinologists from Yale and Calgary. I am currently working on an integrated text for medical students in physiology/anatomy/radiology/pharmacology using pathology as a platform. Proposals for two more textbooks have been submitted to interested publishers. I have co-authored papers and chapters in textbooks in genetics, Alzheimer's disease, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, and medical history.
I live in Calgary, Alberta with Susan, my spouse, our two Shih Tzu’s, and a black cat from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
Pictured here are part of my medical library and three of my four computer screens.
In my home office, I maintain a large current medical reference library covering almost all of the medical specialties and I have access to almost all medical research journals through the University of Calgary and the University of Washington. I am interested in the impact of diseases, disorders, and drugs on history, and maintain a small library on medical history and historical people who had serious illnesses while contributing to the society of their time, for example, Abraham Lincoln, who we now believe suffered from multiple endocrine neoplasia type 3 (MEN-3) which ultimately ends up as cancer.
Please feel free to contact me at harryp4@UW.edu or at harry.peery@ucalgary.ca if you have any questions or need a reference for a research paper.
Best,
Harry
Far Hills Country Day School Class of 1955