Bonnie Ramsey and Richard C. Talamo Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award

The Bonnie Ramsey & Richard C. Talamo Award recognizes individuals who have spent their careers researching and caring for people with cystic fibrosis and whose contributions have altered the course of this disease.

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The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation created the Bonnie Ramsey & Richard C. Talamo Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award to recognize individuals who, like Drs. Ramsey and Talamo, have dedicated their careers to researching and caring for people with cystic fibrosis and whose contributions have altered the course of this disease.

Bonnie Ramsey, MD

Bonnie Ramsey, MD

Dr. Ramsey, professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, has had a highly distinguished career in CF for more than 40 years with huge impacts that cut across care, training, and research. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Stanford University followed by medical school and residency at Harvard University. Dr. Ramsey went on to be senior resident at the University of Washington where she subsequently started her illustrious career as a faculty member at the university’s Department of Pediatrics. 

Dr. Ramsey has been at the forefront of cystic fibrosis clinical research for decades with deep interests in understanding and treating CF infections, improving pediatric CF outcomes, and advancing symptomatic and CFTR-based therapies. After leading research efforts that resulted in FDA approval of inhaled tobramycin for patients with CF with chronic Pseudomonas infection, Dr. Ramsey had the radical idea of establishing a CF clinical trials network to advance new therapies. After a conversation with then-CF Foundation CEO Bob Beall, she founded the Therapeutics Development Network (TDN) in 1997 and served as its director until 2014. 

Dr. Ramsey guided this fledgling collection of eight independent academic research programs into a robust, collaborative, and efficient network of more than 90 sites. Because of her leadership and her development of the network’s capabilities, industry interest in CF and new therapies grew, building upon success that ultimately became the pipeline that we see today. 

Richard C. Talamo, MD

Richard C. Talamo, MD

The late Dr. Talamo pursued a career in pediatrics and became an NIH clinical fellow in the laboratory of the pioneering cystic fibrosis researcher, Dr. Paul di Sant'Agnese. This experience led Dr. Talamo to develop a lifelong passion for understanding CF and caring for those with the disease.

While a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Talamo became deeply committed to the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and served in many capacities, including on the medical advisory committee and board of trustees. During this time, he helped raise interest in cystic fibrosis and encouraged researchers to focus on the disease. Dr. Talamo later became chairman of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 47.

Recipients

Dr. Ramsey was the final recipient of the Richard C. Talamo Award in 2022, when the award was renamed in her honor. Previous recipients include:

2021: Richard H. Simon, MD
2018: George Z. Retsch-Bogart, MD
2015: Peter D. Sly, MD, DSc; Stephen M. Sick, PhD; and Claire E. Wainwright, MD
2014: Peter T.P. Bye, MD; Mark R. Elkins, PhD; Scott H. Donaldson, MD; and William D. Bennett, PhD
2013: Drucy Borowitz, MD, and Wayne Morgan, MD
2009: John LiPuma, MD; Lisa Saiman, MD, and Michael Konstan, MD
2008: Alexandra Quittner, PhD
2007: Antoinette Moran, MD, and Gerald O’Connor, PhD, ScD
2005: Niels Hoiby, MD, DMSc
2000: Beryl J. Rosenstein, MD 

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Dr. Bonnie Ramsey speaks after accepting the Talamo Award at the 2022 North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference.
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