Honoring our volunteers

Jesse Dobson

Jesse C. Dobson, who coordinated world-wide efforts to focus attention on restoring the immune system of people with late-stage HIV-disease, died of AIDS on 23 September 1993, in Oakland, California.

“Jesse moved the research community, the industry, and government like few, if any, before him,” remarked Martin Delaney, Founding Director of Project Inform, the nation’s most influential AIDS advocacy organization.

Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, said “I have never met a more courageous and determined man in my life. In my encounters with Jesse, I learned much more about this disease and something about life.”

“I have never met anyone,” noted Dr. Robert Schooley, chair of the National Institutes of Health’s AIDS Clinical Trials Group’s Immunology Committee, “with his drive and commitment to an effort that will ultimately benefit countless other individuals.”

Jesse was one of the brightest and fiercest warriors in the fight against AIDS, respected nationally and internationally. Relentless and committed to seeing an end to this world-wide tragedy, Jesse was co-founder of a local ACT UP chapter and later joined Project Inform where he developed and directed Project Immune Restoration.

Project Immune Restoration, a funded program of Project Inform, was established to follow and advance the “lost child” of AIDS research, immune-based therapies. Historically AIDS research priorities have focused on antivirals, such as AZT and ddI, drugs which slow HIV, the virus which causes AIDS. Even if highly effective antiviral drugs were developed, however, therapies to help restore the immune system of people with advanced disease may be critical to curing AIDS. Project Immune Restoration’s goal is two-fold. First, it attempts to enable HIV positive people to better understand technical issues related to the immune destruction and dysfunction in HIV-disease. Secondly, it is to help prioritize, plan, and implement research worldwide into the development of therapies that can help restore the damaged immune systems of people with advanced HIV disease.

Dobson’s role in Project Immune Restoration was as Founder and Director of the Project. Perhaps his most important contribution was the creation of the Immune Restoration Think Tanks, which have brought together the worlds foremost scientists and clinicians on an on-going basis to develop strategic plans aimed at restoring the immune system of people with AIDS. In a recent interview, Dr. Schooley was quoted as saying, “It is ironic that it took a community-based organization to bring together such a group to do what we’ve needed to do all along—talk to each other in a cooperative, constructive manner.”

To the activists he worked with, Jesse was a friend, an ally, and a mentor—a gay man fighting for his life and the future of the gay community. All remember him, especially for his insistence on putting into words what others would only dare to think in private. “Jesse played such a critical role for several years,” noted Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “in bridging the gap between scientists and persons with HIV infection.” Jesse was awarded the Mobilization Against AIDS “AIDS Hero Award” in 1991 for his contribution to the fight against AIDS. Jesse was celebrated in life for his achievements and his passing is a public tragedy for the AIDS-affected community, and a personal tragedy for those who had the opportunity to know and love him.