Tennessee Professor Is The First Veterinarian To Receive Award Relating Smoking And Health

Cancer Researcher For 'Crazy Ideas' AUTHOR: NEERAJA SANKARAN, pp.23 AUTHOR:BARBARA SPECTOR, pp.23 DATE: December 12, 1994 Cancer Researcher For 'Crazy Ideas' Author : NEERAJA SANKARAN, pp.23 Date: December 12, 1994 Beatrice Mintz, a senior member of the Institute for Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was presented with the John Scott Award during a reception on November 18 at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The prize was set up in the early 1800s by John Scott, a Scottish druggist, who entrusted the administration of the award--originally $20 and an inscribed copper medal--to the city of Philadelphia. Scott's intention was to reward people for their useful inventions that contributed in a significant way to the "comfort, welfare, and happiness" of mankind. Early awards went to inventors of such items as a knitting machine and door lock. Notable winners through this century have included Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk, the Wright brothers, and Kary Mullis. "This award is a paeon in praise of crazy ideas," Mintz, who was honored for her novel and creative research in the fields of developmental biology and cancer research, remarked at the ceremony. Her first "crazy idea," she says, was to attempt to fuse embryos of mice having different genotypes into a single mass during the very early stages of development, and eventually produce mice that shared characteristics from both originating embryos. One of her early published works detailing the techniques involved, which appeared in a book she contributed to (Methods in Mammalian Embryology, J. Daniel, Jr., ed., San Francisco, W.H. Freeman, 1971, pages 186-214) has been cited in almost 150 publications, according to the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia. Nowadays, Mintz says, the techniques are so standard that "most people forget to cite the source." Mintz is also well-known for her experimental research in the 1970s that led to the concept of cancers arising from defects in cell differentiation and development (B. Mintz, K. Illmensee, "Normal genetically mosaic mice produced from malignant teratocarcinoma cells," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 72:3585-89, 1975). At 73, she is still actively doing research, her most recent target being malignant melanomas. Mintz received her Ph.D. in 1946 in developmental biology from the University of Iowa. Before coming to the Fox Chase Cancer Center in 1960, she served for several years on the faculty of the University of Chicago. She has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1973 and of the American Philosophical Society since 1982. (The Scientist, Vol:8, #24, p.23, December 12, 1994 / Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) Receive Award Relating Smoking And Health Author : BARBARA SPECTOR, pp.23 Date: December 12, 1994 Hildegard Schuller, a professor of pathology at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville, has become the first woman and the only veterinarian to receive the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Health. The nine-year-old award, presented October 31 at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in New Orleans, honors outstanding research into the mechanisms of smoking-related lung cancer. It carries a cash prize of $15,000 funded by Marion Merrell Dow Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., and is named for the first physician to recognize that cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer. Schuller, 48, points out that her work involves human lung cancer cell lines in vitro, not animals. "Most people think that because I'm a veterinarian, I do all of my research on animals," she notes. "But anyone who has a background in biological sciences could do this type of research." Her award-winning work focuses on nitrosamines, cancer-inducing chemicals found in cigarette smoke as well as beverages, foods, and cosmetics. She determined that these chemicals bind to specific lung-cell receptors that trigger the progression of cancer. Her most startling finding was that "nicotine itself is involved in the stimulation of cells involved in cancer." This went against the conventional wisdom that nicotine is not a carcinogen. "I had great difficulty over the last five years [in getting] this work published and funded," Schuller recalls, adding that the research did not gain credence until Italian and Canadian teams came out with similar findings. Schuller's paper reporting these results (H.M. Schuller, "Cell type specific, receptor-mediated modulation of growth kinetics in human lung cancer cell lines by nicotine and tobacco-related nitrosamines," Biochemical Pharmacology, 38:3439-42, 1989) has been cited in 17 subsequent articles. A native of Germany, Schuller received her veterinary degree in 1971 from Justus Liebig University in Geissen, Germany, and her Ph.D. in pathology in 1972 from the College of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, Germany. Prior to joining Tennessee's veterinary college faculty in 1985, she was on the staff of the National Cancer Institute.

Tennessee Professor Is The First Veterinarian To Receive Award Relating Smoking And Health

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