Leslie Boyer, MD, FACMT to Receive 2021 Ellenhorn Award

Congratulations to 2021 Ellenhorn Award recipient Leslie Boyer, MD, FACMT. Dr. Boyer will present the 2021 Ellenhorn Address at ASM on April 14th.

Below is a nomination letter from Michelle Ruha, MD, FACMT:

Dear Awards Committee:

I enthusiastically nominate Leslie Boyer MD for the ACMT Ellen horn Award. I have worked closely with Dr. Boyer over the past 20 years on several projects and have become familiar with much of her work. I cannot think of a more inspiring and deserving person to receive this special recognition. She certainly has made extraordinary contributions to the field of medical toxicology.

Dr. Boyer recently retired as a Professor from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she had a broad and distinguished career that traversed clinical toxicology, poison center management, teaching, medical direction of the toxicology laboratory, veterinary medicine, and basic science and clinical research. Since completing her medical toxicology fellowship in 1991, she has focused her expertise and interest on toxinology. Within the areas of venom, envenomation, and antivenom research she has made a huge impact that positively affects the lives of patients locally, nationally and internationally. Dr. Boyer has worked closely with the US FDA to obtain INDs for new antivenom products and was the key person responsible for the North American studies and ultimate approval of Anascorp scorpion antivenom. She had primary roles in obtaining INDs and designing clinical trials of rattlesnake and black widow antivenoms in the US, and she is currently completing a study manuscript describing the safety and efficacy of an F(ab')2 antivenom for Eastern coral snake envenomation after serving as the study director for a phase 3 clinical trial conducted in Florida.

Dr. Boyer is more than a researcher though, she is an innovator. She designed the on line Antivenom Index and is the director of the Antivenom Index program, which allows poison centers throughout the United States to quickly identify where exotic antivenoms may be located when non-native snakebites present to emergency departments. She conveyed the importance of antivenom preparedness to the state of Arizona and secured funding to establish the VIPER Institute, which brings basic science and clinical research together to expand availability of antivenom to patients. Currently she is conducting a large study of expired antivenoms from all over the world to learn more about stability, risks, potency and efficacy.

As you can see in her impressive CV, Dr. Boyer's collaborations and efforts to improve the care of patients with envenomation extend internationally from the US, Mexico, and Brazil to sub-Saharan and North Africa and Central Asia. In addition to her extensive research publications, she has produced numerous book chapters and presentations for medical professionals. She educates the public through production of lay publications, her own blog, and social media venom groups. She has earned her title of 'The UA's Antivenom Advocate'. I sincerely hope that ACMT will honor her great accomplishments with the Ellenhorn Award. In my opinion there is no one more deserving and I sincerely hope the committee agrees.