Donald Metcalf

Donald Metcalf ( born February 26, 1929 in Mittagong, New South Wales) is an Australian physiologist, hematologist and cancer researchers. He worked from 1954 to 1996 at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, including from 1965 until his retirement as head of department and deputy director of the institute, and from 1986 to 1996 as a professor at the University of Melbourne. His research, for which he was awarded among others with the Robert Koch Prize, the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research and the Gairdner Foundation International Award, was the regulation of hematopoiesis. He is considered one of the most renowned hematologist and is among the most important scientists of his home country.

Life

Donald Metcalf was born in 1929 in Mittagong in the Australian state of New South Wales and became in 1951 a pre-clinical degree ( undergraduate degree) of Bachelor of Medical Science and two years later the graduation from medical school with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Sydney. Then he initially worked until 1954 as an assistant physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, before moving to Parkville to the Department of Cancer Research of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Here he served from 1958 to 1964 as a laboratory manager and closed during this time in 1961 his PhD at the University of Sydney from. From 1965 until his retirement in 1996, he became the Manager of the Department of Cancer Research and Deputy Director of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. In addition, he worked from 1986 to 1996 as a professor of tumor biology at the University of Melbourne.

Donald Metcalf is married and the father of four daughters. In 2000 appeared under the title " Summon up the Blood: In dogged pursuit of the Blood Cell Regulators" his autobiography. In addition, produced a documentary about his life for the series "Australian Biography" by the company Film Australia, 2007.

Scientific work

Focus of research by Donald Metcalf, who published eight monographs and over 600 scientific publications during his career, was the regulation of the formation of blood cells ( hematopoiesis ) and the role of cytokines in the context of these processes. So that it was, inter alia, to the discovery, isolation and characterization of proteins ( colony stimulating factor, CSF) referred to as colony stimulating factors, and controlled by the activation of intracellular signaling pathways, the proliferation and differentiation of various cells of the blood. This research was fundamental to the introduction of GM- CSF and G -CSF as medicaments for the treatment of cancer and hematological diseases. He also developed techniques for culturing blood cells and made ​​important contributions to understanding the role of the thymus in the origin and development of lymphocytes.

Awards

Donald Metcalf is since 1969 a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and since 1983 a member of the Royal Society, in 1986 the Wellcome Prize and the 1995 Royal Medal awarded him, and since 1987 a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he was in 1976 appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia and promoted to Companion of the Order in 1993.

To the prices that were given for his research include the Robert Koch Prize (1988 ), one of the most prestigious medical awards in Germany, the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize (1989 ), the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research (1993 ), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1993 ), the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal ( 1994) and the Gairdner Foundation International Award ( 1994). In 2001 he received the Science Award of the Australian Prime Minister, the highest state award in his home country in the field of science. In 2007 he was awarded the "Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research " of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR ).

The 1950 founded the International Society for Hematology and Stem Cells ( Iseh ) awards since 1999 named after him Donald Metcalf Lecture Award. From Australia Post was issued in honor of Donald Metcalf in 2002 in the stamp series " Australian Legends " brand.

Works (selection)

  • Clonal Culture of hemopoietic Cells: Techniques and Applications. Amsterdam and New York, 1984
  • The molecular control of Blood Cells. Cambridge MA 1988
  • The hemopoietic colony -stimulating Factors: From Biology to clinical applications. Cambridge and New York 1995
  • Summon up the Blood: In dogged Pursuit of the Blood Cell Regulators. Miamisburg 2000
  • Hematopoiesis: A developmental approach. New York in 2001
Cellular differentiation Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor Postage stamp
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