Editing Janet Rowley

{{short description|American human geneticist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = 
| birth_name = Janet Davison
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| image = Janet Rowley 2009.jpg
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| alt               = 
| caption = Rowley at the White House in August 2009
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|4|5}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|12|17|1925|4|5}}
| death_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]
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| fields            = 
| workplaces        = [[University of Chicago]]
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| alma_mater        = [[University of Chicago]]
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| known_for = Identification [[chromosomal translocation]] as the cause of [[leukemia]] and other [[cancer]]s
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| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = {{Plainlist|
* [[William Allan Award]] <small>(1991)</small>
* [[National Medal of Science]] <small>(1998)</small>
* [[Gruber Prize in Genetics]] <small>(2009)</small>
* [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] <small>(2009)</small>
* [[Pearl Meister Greengard Prize]] <small>(2010)</small>
* [[Japan Prize]] <small>(2012)</small>
* [[Albany Medical Center Prize]] <small>(2013)</small>
* [[Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award]] <small>(1998)</small>
}}
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}}'''Janet Davison Rowley''' (April 5, 1925 – December 17, 2013) was an [[Americans|American]] human [[geneticist]] and the first scientist to identify a [[chromosomal translocation]] as the cause of [[leukemia]] and other [[cancer]]s, thus proving that cancer is a genetic disease.<ref>
*{{Cite journal | last1 = Druker | first1 = Brian J. | author-link1 = Brian Druker| title = Janet Rowley (1925–2013) Geneticist who discovered that broken chromosomes cause cancer| doi = 10.1038/505484a | journal = Nature | volume = 505 | issue = 7484 | page = 484 | year = 2014 | pmid =  24451535| bibcode = 2014Natur.505..484D | doi-access = free }}
*{{cite journal | first1=J. D. | last1=Rowley | title=A Story of Swapped Ends | journal=Science | year=2013 | volume=340 | issue=6139 | pages=1412–1413 | doi=10.1126/science.1241318 | pmid=23788787| bibcode=2013Sci...340.1412R | s2cid=206550237 }}
*{{cite journal | first1=K. | last1=Novak | title=Profile: Janet Rowley | journal=Nature Medicine | year=2006 | volume=12 | issue=1 | page=10 | doi=10.1038/nm0106-10 | pmid=16397540| s2cid=36113381 | doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Olopade | first1=O. I. | title=Obituary: Janet Davison Rowley 1925–2013 | journal=Cell | year=2014 | volume=156 | issue=3 | pages=390–1 | doi=10.1016/j.cell.2014.01.015 | pmid=24757717| doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Goss | first1=K. H. | title=Janet Davidson Rowley (1925–2013) | last2=Le Beau | first2=M. M. | journal=Cancer Cell | year=2014 | volume=25 | issue=1 | pages=1–2 | doi=10.1016/j.ccr.2013.12.020 | pmid=24654260| doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>
*{{Cite journal|year=2014|last1=Kreuzer|first1=K. A.|title=In memoriam Janet D. Rowley (1925–2013) and John M. Goldman (1938–2013)|journal=European Journal of Haematology|volume=92|issue=4|page=275|last2=Borregaard|first2=N|doi = 10.1111/ejh.12295|s2cid=73068763 }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Hokland | first1=P | title=Janet Rowley 1925–2013: A rock star of haematology and genetics | journal=British Journal of Haematology | year=2014 | volume=165 | issue=3 | pages=269–70 | doi=10.1111/bjh.12808 | pmid=24588512| s2cid=207082112 | doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Greaves | first1=M | title=Retrospective. Janet Rowley (1925–2013) | journal=Science | year=2014 | volume=343 | issue=6171 | page=626 | doi=10.1126/science.1251005 | pmid=24503847| s2cid=206555226 }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Mitelman | first1=F | title=Janet D. Rowley 1925–2013 | journal=Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer | year=2014 | volume=53 | issue=4 | pages=275–6 | doi=10.1002/gcc.22156 | pmid=24496781}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/janet-d-rowley/|title=Rowley, Janet D.|website=National Women’s Hall of Fame|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref> Rowley spent the majority of her life working in Chicago and received many awards and honors throughout her life, recognizing her achievements and contributions in the area of genetics.

==Early life and education==
Janet Davison was born in [[New York City]] in 1925, the only child of Hurford and Ethel Ballantyne Davison. Her father held a [[MBA|master of business administration]] degree from [[Harvard Business School]], and her mother a [[master's degree]] in education from [[Columbia University]]. Her parents were educators at the college and high school levels, respectively, and her mother later gave up teaching to become a school librarian.

Davison attended an academically challenging junior high school in [[New Jersey]] and became especially interested in science. In 1940, aged 15, she was granted a scholarship to study in an advanced placement program at the [[University of Chicago Laboratory Schools]] where she finished high school and the first two years of college, followed by completion of her degree at the [[University of Chicago]], where she earned a [[Bachelor of Philosophy]] degree in 1944, a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree in 1946, and [[Doctor of Medicine]] degree in 1948, aged 23. Davison, only 19 years of age, had to wait 9 months in order to attend the university because their quota had already been filled for that semester.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.aacr.org:443/Membership/Pages/FellowDetailsNoModal.aspx?ItemID=79|title=Janet D. Rowley, MD|website=www.aacr.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-18}}</ref> During that time only 3 out of 65 students were to be women in each class accepted.<ref name=":0" /> She married Donald Adams Rowley, also a physician, the day after graduating from medical school. He then went on to become a distinguished [[Pathology|pathologist]] later in life.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Druker|first=Brian J.|date=January 22, 2014|title=Janet Rowley (1925-2013)|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=505|issue=7484|pages=484|doi=10.1038/505484a|pmid=24451535|bibcode=2014Natur.505..484D|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}</ref> In 1951, both Janet and Donald Rowley completed internships at the United States Public Health Service's Marine Hospital in [[Chicago]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/janet-rowley-cancer-genetics-pioneer-1925-2013|title=Janet Rowley, cancer genetics pioneer, 1925-2013|website=University of Chicago News|date=December 17, 2013 |language=en|access-date=2019-11-18}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/janet-d-rowley/|title=Rowley, Janet D.|website=National Women’s Hall of Fame|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref> Rowley continued her work throughout Chicago and worked in a clinic for children with [[Down syndrome|Down Syndrome]].<ref name=":0" /> Rowley worked part-time until the youngest of her four sons was 12 years old.

==Career==
[[File:Janet Rowley - National Medal of Science, 1998.webm|thumb|Rowley discusses her life and career.]]
After earning her medical license in 1951, Dr. Rowley worked as attending physician at the Infant and Prenatal Clinics in the Department of Public Health, [[Montgomery County, Maryland]]. In 1955 she took up a research post at [[Chicago]]'s Dr. Julian Levinson Foundation, a clinic for children with [[developmental disabilities]], where she remained until 1961. She also taught [[neurology]] at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago|University of Illinois]] College of Medicine.

In 1962, Rowley's interest in cancer and chromosomes was sparked as an [[NIH]] trainee, studying the pattern [[DNA replication]] in normal and abnormal human [[chromosome]]s.<ref name=":0" /> Dr. Rowley then returned to the University of Chicago, as a research associate in the Department of [[Hematology]]. She became an associate professor in 1969 and a full professor in 1977. In the 1970s, she further developed the use of existing methods of quinacrine fluorescence and [[Giemsa]] staining to identify [[chromosome]]s, and demonstrated that the abnormal [[Philadelphia chromosome]] implicated in certain types of leukemia was involved in a translocation with chromosome 9 in some cases. Translocation is the process by which a piece of one chromosome breaks off and joins another chromosome, or when two chromosomes exchange material when both break. She also identified translocation between chromosomes 8 and 21 in [[acute myelogenous leukemia]], and between 15 and 17 in [[promyelocytic leukemia]].<ref name="Wapner"/> Rowley also aided in the discovery, through her research, of the formation of [[Retinoic acid|retinoic acid]], a drug that is able to help return normal function to certain protein receptors.<ref name=":1" />

The first chromosomal translocation was discovered by Rowley in 1972 in [[Acute myeloid leukemia|acute myelogenous leukemia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hematology.org/About/History/Legends/2091.aspx|title=Janet D. Rowley|date=2018-06-05|website=www.hematology.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-18}}</ref> When Dr. Rowley published her findings in the 1970s, she argued that specific translocations caused specific diseases, going against the established view of the cause of [[cancer]] which gave little significance to chromosomal abnormalities.<ref name="Wapner"/> Although there was some resistance to her ideas at first, her work has proven immensely influential, and by 1990 over seventy translocations had been identified across different cancers.

==Awards and honors==

In 1984, Dr. Rowley was made the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of medicine, cell biology, molecular and human genetics at the University of Chicago.<ref name=":2" /> She also served as the interim deputy dean for science. In 1989, she was not only presented with the Charles S. Mott Prize by General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, but the Clowes Memorial Award as well.<ref name=":0" /> In 1991, she was elected as a member into the American Philosophical Society.<ref name=":0" /> In 1998, she was one of three scientists awarded the prestigious [[Lasker Award]] for their work on translocation, and received the [[National Medal of Science]] in 1998.<ref>[https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=300 National Science Foundation – The President's National Medal of Science]. Nsf.gov. Retrieved on May 9, 2016.</ref> 
In 1999, Dr. Rowley received the Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref> In 2002, ''[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]]'' magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.<ref name="Svitil">{{cite news|last1=Svitil|first1=Kathy|title=The 50 Most Important Women in Science|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2002/nov/feat50/|access-date=1 May 2019|publisher=Discover|date=13 November 2002}}</ref>
In 2003, she received the [[Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences]] of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref name="franklinscience_recipients">{{cite web|url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/prizes/franklinscience |title=Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences Recipients |publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]] |access-date=November 26, 2011}}</ref> In 2007, she was awarded the Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics by the [[Association for Molecular Pathology]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Recipients |url=https://www.amp.org/membership/awards-grants-honors/amp-award-for-excellence-in-molecular-diagnostics/past-recipients/ |access-date=2023-04-12 |website=Association for Molecular Pathology |language=en}}</ref> In 2009, Dr. Rowley was awarded the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]],<ref>[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Names-Medal-of-Freedom-Recipients/ "President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients"], White House Office of the Press Secretary, July 30, 2009</ref> the United States' highest civilian honor, by then-President [[Barack Obama]],<ref name=":2" /> and the [[Gruber Prize in Genetics]]. Then in 2010, she was awarded the [[Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal|Jesse Stevenson Kovalenko Medal]] by the [[National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=":0" /> In 2012, Dr. Rowley was selected for the [[Hope Funds for Cancer Research Awards|Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award]] of excellence in the area of Basic Research and was elected to the [[Hope Funds for Cancer Research|Hope Funds]] Scientific Advisory Board. Also in 2012, she won the Japan Prize for Healthcare and Medical Technology with two other scientists for her role in the creation of Gleevec.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=jp>[http://www.japanprize.jp/en/laureates_by_year.html Laureates of the Japan Prize]. japanprize.jp</ref> For Rowley's scientific contributions she has received honorary doctor of science degrees from multiple institutions some of which include [[Yale University]] and [[Harvard University]].<ref name=":2" /> She is also a member of multiple scientific and honorary societies. These distinguished groups include the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences|American Academy of Arts & Sciences]] and the National Academy of Sciences.<ref name=":2" /> She published more than five hundred articles and continued her research at the [[University of Chicago]] until shortly before her death. In 2017, she was posthumously inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Posted: Sep 17, 2017 12:53 AM EDT |url=http://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/ten-women-added-to-national-womens-hall-of-fame-in-seneca-falls/812712663 |title=Ten women added to National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca |publisher=Localsyr.com |date=2017-09-17 |access-date=2017-09-28 |archive-date=September 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928150049/http://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/ten-women-added-to-national-womens-hall-of-fame-in-seneca-falls/812712663 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Bio>{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/janet-rowley-dead-cancer-genetics-dies_n_4467019.html | work=Huffington Post | title=Cancer Genetics Pioneer Dies | date=December 18, 2013}}</ref>

==Death==

On December 17, 2013, Rowley died at home at the age of 88 from complications of [[ovarian cancer]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=Bio/>

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="Wapner">Wapner J. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment. {{ISBN|9781615191970}}</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Janet Rowley}}
*National Library of Medicine.{{cite web|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_282.html|title= Biography: Dr. Janet Davison Rowley}}
*The University of Chicago Medical Center.{{cite web|url=http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2009/20090730-rowley.html|title=Janet Rowley, MD, receives Presidential Medal of Freedom for cancer chromosome studies|access-date=July 30, 2009|archive-date=August 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816175138/http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2009/20090730-rowley.html|url-status=dead}}, 2009
*The University of Chicago Medical Center.{{cite web|url=http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2009/20090701-gruber.html|title=Janet Rowley, MD, awarded Gruber Genetics Prize for chromosome studies|access-date=July 30, 2009|archive-date=August 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816150439/http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2009/20090701-gruber.html|url-status=dead}}, 2009
*The University of Chicago Medical Center.{{cite web|url=http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/1999/19990427-rowley-nms-cerem.html|title=Janet Rowley, MD, receives prestigious National Medal of Science at White House ceremony|access-date=July 30, 2009|archive-date=August 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816164530/http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/1999/19990427-rowley-nms-cerem.html|url-status=dead}}, April 27, 1999
*The University of Chicago Medical Center.{{cite web|url=http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/1998/19980920-rowley-lasker.html|title=1998 Lasker Award to Janet Rowley|access-date=July 30, 2009|archive-date=June 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624005420/http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/1998/19980920-rowley-lasker.html|url-status=dead}}, 1998

==External links==
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.ROWLEYJ Guide to the Janet D. Rowley Papers 1940-2013] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
{{Japan Prize}}
{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Winners of the National Medal of Science|biological}}

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[[Category:Scientists from New York City]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients]]
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[[Category:American women biologists]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois]]
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[[Category:Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award]]
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[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]