Dr. Moses Judah Folkman (February 24, 1933 – 14 January 2008) was an American medical scientist best known for his research on angiogenesis and vasculogenesis, that is to say, he discovered that tumours generate tiny blood vessels to nourish themselves. His work founded a branch of cancer research called 'anti-angiogenesis therapy'.
Early life
Born in 1933 in Cleveland, Ohio, Judah Folkman accompanied his father, a rabbi, on visits to hospital patients. By age seven, he knew he wanted to be a doctor, rather than follow in his father's footsteps, so he could offer cures in addition to comfort. His father replied, "In that case, you can be a rabbi-like doctor," words his son took to heart. [1]
Dr. Folkman graduated Ohio State University in 1953, and then Harvard Medical School[2] in 1957. While still a student at Harvard Medical School, he developed one of the first pacemakers[3]. After his graduation, he did his surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he rose to the rank of chief resident in surgery. During this time, Folkman worked on liver cancer and atrio-pacemakers.
Between 1960 and 1962, Folkman served in the United States Navy, as a Lieutenant, where he studied blood vessel growth. He worked at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During his service in the U.S. Navy, Folkman created an implantable device for timed drug-release, and donated it patent-free to the World Population Council. It is now known as Norplant. [3]
Work on angiogenesis
In 1971, he published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, stating that all cancer tumors were angiogenesis-dependent. He postulated that if a tumour could be stopped from growing its own blood supply, it would wither and die. Though his hypothesis was disregarded by most experts in the field at first, Folkman continued his research.
After more than a decade, his theory became widely accepted. He was considered the leading expert and founder of the angiogenesis field, which now offers many potentials in medicine, including reversing blindness caused by macular degeneration[4]. He trained numerous leaders in medicine and biomedical engineering, including Donald Ingber and Robert Langer.
Dr. Folkman pioneered the use of interferon in cancer therapy, healing hemangiomas, growths that often threaten the life of infants. His research has led to the development of progressively more potent compounds, such as angiostatin, endostatin and vasculostatin, which have successfully halted the growth of tumors in laboratory mice[5].
In 2000, a pharmaceutical company sued Dr. Folkman, contending that he and Children's Hospital in Boston stole the credit for developing a promising drug that cuts off the blood supply to tumors[6][7], and he countersued to defend his reputation[8].
At least 50 angiogenesis inhibitors - including endostatin, angiostatin, 2ME2 (Panzem), and a thrombospondin analog -- are in clinical trials today for cancer, including a variety of drugs that have been discovered to have unexpected anti-angiogenic effects. These include the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib (Celebrex); rosiglitazone (Avandia), a drug commonly used to treat Type 2 diabetes; doxycycline, a common antibiotic; and some cancer drugs that also have other mechanisms of action, including Erbitux, Herceptin, Velcade and Tarceva. Even some conventional chemotherapy drugs have demonstrated anti-angiogenic effects when given in frequent, smaller doses (see Anti-Angiogenic Chemotherapy below). Folkman envisions that someday angiogenesis inhibitors will be used together or in combination with conventional anticancer therapies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, or vaccine therapy.[9]
Scientific Legacy[1]
In 1968, Folkman was appointed the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Harvard Medical School, where he was also professor of Cell Biology. In addition to directing the Children's Hospital Boston Surgical Research Laboratories, which grew to become the Vascular Biology Program, for nearly four decades he was the scientific director of the hospital's Vascular Anomalies center. A revered figure at the hospital, Folkman's insights informed many active research efforts outside the field of Vascular Biology, and he forged new collaborations at the hospital to study disorders as wide-ranging as hydrocephalus and hemorrhages in the brains and eyes of premature infants. His presentations consistently drew standing-room-only audiences.
Folkman was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, among many other honorary appointments. He was an author on some 400 papers and more than 100 book chapters and monographs. He received scores of United States awards and honors for his distinguished research, as well as numerous international awards, including Canada's Gairdner Foundation International Award, Israel's Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine, Germany's Ernst Schering Prize, the Italian Association of Cancer Research in Rome's Gold Medal, the United Kingdom Society for Endocrinology's Dale Medal, and Switzerland's Dr. Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award. In 2006, Folkman was one of seven people appointed by President Bush to the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Institutes of Health.
Folkman's scientific accomplishments are unequalled--he founded a new field of biology and a new approach to understanding and treating cancer and other diseases. He has mentored and collaborated with hundreds of brilliant colleagues at Children's Hospital Boston and around the world. Yet, Folkman's greatest legacy may be his calling to heal, to improve care for patients, and to teach others to heal with compassion--lessons learned as the son of a rabbi in Columbus, Ohio.
Death
Dr. Folkman died in Denver[10] of a heart attack[11]. At the time of his death, Dr. Folkman was Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and was also director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston[12].
He is survived by his wife, Paula, two daughters, and a granddaughter.[13]
Awards
His work at Massachusetts General Hospital, earned him the Boylston Medical Prize, Soma Weiss Award and the Borden Undergraduate Award in Medicine.
2006 Jacobson Innovation Award from the American College of Surgeons in honor of living surgeons who have been innovators of a new development or technique in any field of surgery.[1] In 2005, Dr. Folkman was invited to be the main speaker at the "Presidential Science Symposium" at the "ASCO Annual Meeting 2005". The "ASCO Annual Meetings" are the most influential clinical oncology meetings worldwide. In 2003, "The Angiogenesis Foundation" awarded Dr. Folkman a "Distinguished Achievement Award".
See also
A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/ts_nm/cancer_nanoparticles_dc;_ylt=Ai1AfVam4RvyyPRr71ibjrKs0NUE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/ts_nm/cancer_nanoparticles_dc;_ylt=Ai1AfVam4RvyyPRr71ibjrKs0NUE
References
External links
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