Introduction to Janet D Rowley E Beutler

Home , Janet Rowley

Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, (MEM-215), 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037–1027, USA

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Janet Rowley, whom I leukemias of childhood. In general, when present the abnor- have known and admired for half a century. As a scientist, malities have been clonal in nature. Each case has been she does not require an introduction for her achievements are characterized by a single stem cell line or small number of renowned. I would like to provide you with some of the back- stem cell lines showing related chromosomal changes.’ But ground behind her major contributions to science. he went on to write, ‘The alterations have differed from case Janet was born in New York, but her family moved to to case. Chicago before she was 2 years of age and she has been a Although there have been some indications that certain Chicagoan most of her life. She attended what was then chromosome groups are more prominently involved than known as a 4-year college, a program instituted at the Univer- others, particularly groups C and D, it has been unusual to sity of Chicago by Robert Maynard Hutchins, who was the find more than two or three patients in any series of acute chancellor at that time. This program was predicated on the leukemias with the same chromosomal change. Nor has it idea that the conventional last 2 years of high school were been possible to relate any particular alteration to a character- essentially wasted time. These years, plus the first 2 years of istic clinical or hematologic picture.1,3 In view of the lack of college, could provide a student with a broad, general edu- uniformity in findings, perhaps hematologists could be par- cation. There was ample time, Hutchins felt, for specialization doned for regarding the changes that did occur as being some afterwards. Janet’s and my university educations ran a parallel kind of secondary phenomenon that was of no real impor- course. I entered the program a few years after she did and if tance. Perhaps the editors of Williams Hematology should it had as profound an influence on her as it did on me, it also be pardoned for eliminating the chapter on cytogenetics would be fair to state that her spectacular professional success in Edition 2, 1977, and Edition 3, 1983, including some of may have been related to this solid foundation of knowledge. the material in chapters dealing with specific forms of leuke- In 1948, 2 years before I graduated from the same school, mia and with genetic principles. However, in Edition 4, pub- Janet received her MD from the University of Chicago. After lished in 1989, we again included a chapter on cytogenetics an internship in the Public Health Service and a short stint in and I am proud to say that it was written by Janet and her infant welfare in prenatal clinics, she began studying neurol- colleague, Michelle Le Beau. ogy. Her work with retarded children and Lejeune’s1 1959 Janet’s faith that there was knowledge to be gained by report of chromosome 21 in Down’s syndrome sparked her studying the chromosomes of patients with leukemia and interest in cytogenetics. She received a Public Health Service other neoplastic disorders turned out to be spectacularly cor- special training fellowship to study cytogenetics in Oxford rect. Because of her work and leadership in this area, we have and, based on this experience, she was appointed as a come to understand better the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and research associate at the University of Chicago in 1962. It was treatment of tumors. It was her recognition that the Philadel- here that she carried out studies of the replication of normal phia chromosome was not a deletion from chromosome 21 and abnormal chromosomes. or chromosome 22, as has had been thought, but a translo- Janet married Don Rowley in the late 1940s and they cation of a fragment from chromosome 22. I well remember recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Her her presentation of this landmark paper at the Young Turks family has always been of great importance to her and she meeting in about 1973. When Janet presented the paper, there now enjoys four grandchildren. From 1962 to 1975, she was was not a single question. I started to stand up to say what a raising her four children and thus worked on her research only great piece of work I thought it was, but then refrained from 3 days a week. Nonetheless, she became an associate commenting, feeling that perhaps it would be presumptuous professor in 1971 and a full professor in 1978. and maybe even appear patronizing for me to make such a The 1960s and early 1970s were difficult and often unre- comment, especially about a field in which I was not working warding days for those studying the cytogenetics of human actively. It is interesting to note that her 1973 paper in Nature4 disease. Lejeune’s observations and the subsequent descrip- was a single-author paper, something that we very rarely see tion of the Philadelphia chromosome by Nowell and Hunger- these days. ford in 1961,2 were beacons that made this a tantalizing area This was a turning point in the application of chromosome for study. Indeed, there was enough interest in cytogenetics analysis to malignant processes, and to Janet’s career as well. that we included a chapter on this topic in the 1972 first edi- Her investigations of patterns of chromosome rearrangements tion of Williams Hematology. In it, Peter Nowell wrote, ‘In in the leukemias has led to recognition of a number of gene acute leukemia with chromosome abnormalities, the vari- alterations that are of etiologic importance and that have ations are considerable from minor rearrangements in diploid pointed to the basic biochemical abnormality. Moreover, they chromosome sets to marked changes in both chromosome have been extremely important in allowing one to stratify numbers and morphology. Perhaps the most extensive alter- patients by risk. ations have been observed in some of the acute lymphoblastic Janet has received recognition for her seminal studies from all over the world. She was awarded the Dameshek Prize at the American Society of Hematology in 1982; was elected to Correspondence: E Beutler the National Academy of Sciences in 1983; presented the Received 25 October 1999; accepted 2 November 1999 Stratton Lecture at the International Society of Hematology in Rowley introduction E Beutler 512 1986; the Karnofsky Lecture at the American Society of Clini- References cal Oncology in 1987; won the Mott prize from the General Motor Cancer Research Foundation in 1989; received the 1 Lejeune J, Gauthier M, Turpin R. Etude des chromosomes soma- Allen Award from the American Society of Human Genetics tiques de neuf enfants mongoliens. CR Acad Sci 1959; 248: 1721. 2 Nowell PC, Hungerford DA. Chromosome studies in human leu- 1991; served as President of the American Society of Human kemia. II. Chronic granulocytic leukemia. J Natl Cancer Inst 1961; Genetics in 1993; was given the Gairdner Award in 1996; 27: 1013–1021. the Albert Lasker Clinical Research Award in 1998; and the 3 Williams WJ, Beutler E, Erslev AJ, Rundles RW (eds). Hematology, National Medal of Science in 1998. In addition, she has been 1st edn. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 1972. recognized by receiving five honorary degrees. I know you 4 Rowley JD. A new consistent chromosomal abnormality in chronic will all join me in welcoming Janet Rowley to this meeting myelogenous leukemia identified by quinacrine fluorescence and Giemsa staining. Nature 1973; 243: 290–293. and be interested in hearing her keynote address on molecular genetics in acute leukemia.

Leukemia