Donald CoffeyAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCHDonald Coffey, a Johns Hopkins University prostate cancer researcher whose accomplishments include the discovery of the nuclear protein matrix, died last week (November 9). He was 85.
Coffey’s lab studied the basics of DNA’s three-dimensional structure and how aberrations in the molecule’s normal function contributes to cancer, as well as the role of androgens in prostate cancer. Coffey was president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) from 1997 to 1998.
“He may be the most remarkable person I’ve ever met,” William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, which Coffey cofounded in 1973, says in an obituary published by the university. “His impact on cancer and the people who will ultimately solve the cancer problem is immeasurable.”
Born in Tennessee in 1932, Coffey started his career at Hopkins washing glassware for graduate students, according to the obituary. His atypical career trajectory saw him working his way up ...
