Fall 1999 Newsletter: Dr. Janet Rowley Receives the Nation's Highest Scientific Honor

In April, 1999, Dr. Janet D. Rowley of the University of Chicago Medical Center received the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor, at a White House ceremony.In September, 1998, Dr. Rowley received the Albert Lasker Clinical Medicine Research Prize, the most distinguished American honor for clinical medical research.

From the Chicago Sun-Times, December 9, 1998: "Dr. Rowley's discoveries of genetic change in cancer cells revolutionized the way the disease is diagnosed and treated. She discovered that parts of chromosomes jump around into abnormal locations in certain types of leukemia. In 1972, she discovered the first two recurring chromosome translocations identified in any human cancer. She and her colleagues learned that chromosomal rearrangements were different for different types of leukemia. When they found certain rearrangements, they could tell a physician that his patient had a particular type of leukemia. "

Dr. Rowley received Cancer Research Foundation funding for laboratory research in 1979, which helped her obtain a National Institutes of Health grant for a major program project involving almost a dozen scientists.