Mina Bissell facts for kids

Mina J. Bissell is a famous Iranian-American scientist who studies biology. She is best known for her important work on breast cancer. She looks at how the tiny world around a cell, like its extracellular matrix (which is like the glue and scaffolding between cells), affects how tissues work.

Early Life and School

Mina Bissell was born in Tehran, Iran. She grew up in a family that valued education. When she finished high school, she was the top student in her whole country! A family friend helped her come to the United States.

She first went to Bryn Mawr College and then to Radcliffe College, where she earned a degree in chemistry. Later, she got her PhD in bacteriology from Harvard Medical School in 1969. She then received a special fellowship to continue her research at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her Amazing Career

Dr. Bissell started working at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1972. She became a top scientist there and even led different science divisions. She has received many important awards for her work.

In 1996, she won the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. This is one of the highest science honors given by the United States Department of Energy. She is also a member of several important science groups, like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, she was chosen to be part of the National Academy of Sciences, which is a huge honor for scientists.

In 2016, the American Society for Cell Biology gave her the E.B. Wilson Medal. This is their highest science award. They honored her for showing that the physical surroundings of cells are very important. She proved that the extracellular matrix is key to how breast tissue changes and how breast cancer grows. In 2020, she received the Canada Gairdner International Award.

Understanding Cancer

Dr. Bissell used to be the head of life sciences at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. For over 30 years, she has studied how the way tissues are built and the environment around cells affect cancer. Her ideas have become very important in understanding and treating cancer.

She believes that how a cell looks and acts (its phenotype) can be more important than its genetic code (its genotype) in normal development and disease. This was a new and bold idea, but many scientists now agree with her.

Dr. Bissell and her colleague, William Ole Peterson, created a special way to grow cells in 3D for cancer research. They showed that normal breast cells grow into hollow, round shapes. But cancer cells grow into irregular, solid clumps. This helps scientists see how cancer cells behave differently. She has written about 300 articles and book chapters about her discoveries.

In June 2012, Dr. Bissell gave a talk at the TED conference. On Cancer Day in 2013, her talk was featured as one of the top talks about cancer. She explained that a cancer cell doesn't immediately form a tumor. Instead, its growth is greatly affected by signals from the tiny world around it.

See also

In Spanish: Mina Bissell para niños