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Affichage des articles associés au libellé Genetics and Heredity

Janet D. Rowley, Who Discovered Cancer Can Be Genetic, Dies at 88 – The New York Times on Friday, December 20th 2013 by By MARGALIT FOX

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Dr. Janet D. Rowley, a physician who four decades ago became the first person to show a conclusive link between certain genetic abnormalities and certain cancers, died on Tuesday at her home in Chicago. She was 88. The death, from complications of  ovarian cancer , was announced by the University of Chicago , where Dr. Rowley was the Blum-Riese distinguished service professor of medicine, molecular   genetics   and cell biology, and human genetics. Dr. Rowley, described by The New York Times in 2011 as   “the matriarch of modern cancer genetics,”   made her pathbreaking discovery in 1972, when she found that a particular type of leukemia could result when two chromosomes abnormally exchanged genetic material. Her findings helped establish   cancer   as a genetic disease. They also made possible the development of targeted drug therapies for specific cancers. For her work, Dr. Rowley received the Lasker Award, given for distinguished contributions to medical science; the N