William Adler, MD '65

In 1997, Dr. Adler retired from his biomedical research career, after 23 years with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he had served as the Chief of Clinical Immunology for the National Institute on Aging.  Trained in pediatrics and clinical pathology at the University of Florida Medical School in Gainesville, Dr. Adler’s research career in immunology focused on host defense mechanisms. His initial appointment at NIH in 1974 was as Section Chief in the Institute of Child Health and Human Development, where his work concerned the immune deficiencies of children. When the National Institute on Aging (NIA) was founded in 1976, Dr. Robert Butler recruited Dr. Adler to join the Gerontological Research Center of NIA in Baltimore, to study the immune deficiencies of aging.  During the earlier years of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, Dr. Adler’s lab received blood samples from patients from many cities along the east coast for AIDS diagnosis, since his lab was the only one equipped to handle the infected specimens safely.  Dr. Adler’s lab diagnosed the first case of pediatric AIDS in the world.  His subsequent research focused on the effects of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus on T cell function and how aging altered the course of HIV infection. Dr. Adler and his lab published over 250 scientific articles and abstracts.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Dr. Adler is a 1961 graduate of Harvard College. He completed his medical degree in 1965 at the State University of New York Medical School at Buffalo. After completing his pediatric residency and serving as Chief Resident at the University of Florida in Gainesville, he turned his interest to clinical pathology and research in immunology, under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Smith. Drafted into the Army in 1970, Dr. Adler served in the Bio-Warfare Defense Program at Fort Detrick, Maryland.  After completing his military service, Dr. Adler moved to England to work in the lab of Nobel Laureate, Sir Peter Medawar, where he studied T cell activation, under the auspices of a Fellowship of the New York Cancer Research Institute.

After retiring from NIH, Dr. Adler turned his attention to the burgeoning biotechnology industry. During his career, he knew many of the individuals starting the biotech companies and was able to evaluate the science behind the ideas and relevant market factors.  Dr. Adler hired students from Harvard College to work for him during summers and part-time during the school year, to help him gather information on companies. In 1998, he founded Wiltshire Biotech, a partnership mutual fund, investing in publicly traded small and medium sized biotech companies. The fund enjoyed great success with an average 24% return per year over 16 years. In 2014, Dr. Adler decided to close the fund, due to the Dodd-Frank regulations that created insurmountable compliance burdens for the small partnership fund.  

Dr. Adler lives in Severna Park, Maryland with his wife, Dr. Rebecca Elon, where he enjoys sculling and sailing on the Magothy River.