Ira Pastan facts for kids
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Ira Pastan is an American scientist born in Winthrop, Massachusetts on June 1, 1931. He works at the National Cancer Institute, which is a big part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pastan is famous for his important discoveries about how cells work and for developing new ways to fight cancer. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and has won many awards for his work, including the International Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine in 2009. His wife, Linda Pastan, was a well-known American poet.
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Dr. Pastan's Journey: Education and Career
Ira Pastan went to school in Boston, attending the Boston Public Latin School. After that, he studied at Tufts University and then went to Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed his medical training at the Yale School of Medicine from 1957 to 1959.
In 1959, Dr. Pastan started doing research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is a very important place for medical research in the United States. In 1970, he helped create the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) within the National Cancer Institute. Today, he is still a co-chief of the LMB. He spends his time working on special treatments for cancer called Immunotoxin Therapies.
Discoveries in Cell Biology and Cancer Treatment
Dr. Pastan has made many big discoveries in science. He was one of the first to study how animal cells "talk" to each other using special parts called "receptors." He also found out how a molecule called cyclic AMP helps control how genes work in bacteria. This discovery helped scientists understand how hormones affect cells in animals.
New Cancer Fighters: Recombinant Immunotoxins
One of Dr. Pastan's most important current projects is creating new cancer treatments called Recombinant Immunotoxins (RITs). Think of RITs as "smart bombs" that can find and destroy cancer cells.
Here's how they work:
- Scientists use special techniques to combine parts of an antibody. Antibodies are like "search-and-find" tools that can stick to specific things, like cancer cells.
- This antibody part is then attached to a powerful bacterial toxin, which is like a poison.
- So, the RIT finds the cancer cell, sticks to it, and then delivers the toxin right inside to kill it, without harming healthy cells as much.
Dr. Pastan has developed three RITs that are being tested in people with different types of cancer.
Moxetumomab Pasudotox (Moxe)
One of these RITs is called HA22, or Moxetumomab pasudotox (Moxe). This treatment targets a specific protein called CD22 found on certain blood cancer cells. Moxe has shown amazing results in people with a type of blood cancer called Hairy cell leukemia. It has helped many patients go into complete remission, meaning their cancer disappeared for a long time. Moxe is also being developed to treat Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in children, where it has also shown promising results.
SS1P for Mesothelioma and Other Cancers
Another important RIT is called SS1P. This treatment targets a protein called mesothelin. Dr. Pastan and his team discovered mesothelin. It's a great target because it's found on many serious cancers, like:
- Mesothelioma (a cancer often linked to asbestos)
- Ovarian cancer
- Lung cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)
SS1P has shown good results in early tests, especially when combined with other medicines. In one study, SS1P helped shrink tumors in patients with advanced mesothelioma, and these improvements lasted for up to two years. This kind of long-lasting effect had not been seen before in mesothelioma.
Dr. Pastan is always working to make these immunotoxins even better. One challenge is that sometimes a patient's body can create antibodies against the RIT, which stops the treatment from working. Dr. Pastan is trying to fix this by making RITs that are less likely to be recognized by the body's immune system.
Understanding How Growth Factors Work
Dr. Pastan also did important work with his colleague Jesse Roth. They were the first to clearly show that animal cells have specific protein receptors on their surface. These receptors are like tiny antennas that receive signals.
He also studied how growth factors, which are like messengers that tell cells to grow, enter cells. He showed that these growth factors gather in clusters on the cell surface before entering. This helped explain how cells respond to growth factors and why sometimes they stop responding.
Dr. Pastan and his team also made big steps in understanding the EGF receptor. They found that the gene for the EGF receptor was often changed or over-expressed in many cancer cells. This research helped lead to new cancer therapies that target the EGF receptor.
Awards and Recognition
Dr. Ira Pastan has received many important awards for his groundbreaking work:
- Van Meter Prize, 1971
- G. Burroughs Mider Lectureship, National Institutes of Health, 1973
- Membership, National Academy of Sciences, 1982
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1997
- Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology, 1997
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1997
- International Feltrinelli Prize for Medicine, 2009
- Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service from the American Medical Association, 2010
- Membership, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2010
- Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medalist, Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement, 2020
