Eugene Lindsay Opie

Eugene Lindsay Opie
Eugene Lindsay Opie, in 1903
Born	5 July 1873 Staunton, Virginia
Died	12 March 1971 (age 97) Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Residence	Pennsylvania
Citizenship	U.S.
Nationality	United States
Fields	Medicine, Pathology
Institutions	Johns Hopkins University, Rockefeller Institute, Washington University, Cornell University Medical School, University of Pennsylvania
Alma mater	Johns Hopkins University
Doctoral advisor	William H. Welch
Known for	Research on diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis

Eugene Lindsay Opie (5 July 1873 – 12 March 1971) was an American physician and pathologist who conducted research on the causes, transmission, and diagnosis of tuberculosis and on immunization against the disease. He served as professor of pathology at several U.S. medical schools and as Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, Missouri).

Opie was born in Staunton, Virginia on July 5, 1873. His father, Thomas, was an obstetrician-gynecologist, and one of the founders and deans of the University of Maryland College of Medicine in Baltimore. Eugene attended Johns Hopkins University, both as an undergraduate and a medical student. He received an A.B. degree in 1893, and was in the first graduating class of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, earning the M.D. degree in 1897.

Under the tutelage of the pathologist William H. Welch, Opie developed a special affinity for tissue pathology. As a medical student, he observed consistent morphological alterations in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans in patients with diabetes mellitus – an observational epiphany that shed light on the pathogenesis of that disease. Opie stayed on at Johns Hopkins after completing medical school, to receive additional training in pathology from Welch. He continued his work on pancreatic diseases, establishing the relationship between obstruction of the ampulla of Vater (e.g., by gallstones) and the subsequent development of acute pancreatitis.