The Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC) is proud to be the institution where Frank Tally’s incredible legacy will be forever recognized through an endowed fellowship.
The fellowship allows us to recruit some of the world’s finest talent – young physician-researchers who are deeply motivated, as Frank Tally was – to revolutionize the treatment of devastating infectious diseases.
Francis (Frank) P. Tally, M, D was a visionary leader in the fight against infectious diseases. As a physician, researcher and professor at Tufts MC and Tufts University School of Medicine from 1975 to 1986, Dr. Tally was an internationally recognized expert on mechanisms and transferability of bacterial drug resistance. Later, in the 1980s and until his death in October 2006, he led teams of scientists at Lederle Laboratories, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in developing 4 major intravenous antibacterial drugs. While serving as Chief Scientific Officer at Cubist, Dr. Tally became increasingly concerned about methicillin-resistant S. aureus and co-invented a key patent leading to the development of Cubicin® (daptomycin for injection), a revolutionary antibiotic used to treat bloodstream and heart infections.
When Frank Tally died at the peak of his career, his family and his colleagues at Cubist colleagues decided it was only fitting to honor his great achievements. His wife Barbara and 3 children, Dr. Kevin Tally, Michaela Tally and Patrick Tally, along with colleagues and friends at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, including Cubist’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Bonney and his wife Alison, created the Dr. Francis P. Tally Endowed Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Tufts MC. Their generosity, in partnership with the support of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, raised a total of $1.25 million. As an endowment, The Tally Fellowship will ensure that future generations of physicians can, in the spirit of Frank Tally, strive to find therapies that will help millions of patients worldwide.
Since the October 2011 celebration of the fellowship, the Tally Fellows include:
- Eavan Muldoon, MD
- Masako Mizusawa, MD
- Bradley Gardiner, MBBS
- Paul Adjei, MBBS
- Jessica Penney, MD, MPH
- Majd Alsoubani, MD