Suzanne Ildstad
Suzanne T. Ildstad (born May 20, 1952 in Minneapolis ) is an American surgeon and immunologist, known for research on stem cell transplantation .
Both Ildstad's mother and grandmother were nurses (the grandmother of the Mayo Clinic's founders , the Mayo Brothers) and Ildstad wanted to study medicine early on. She received her bachelor's degree in biology (summa cum laude) from the University of Minnesota in 1974 and her MD in 1978 from Mayo Medical School. She specialized as a surgeon in organ transplantation in children and was resident at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1978 to 1982 and 1985/86 . She began to deal with immunological issues of tissue rejection in organ transplants and the graft-versus-host reaction in bone marrow transplants . From 1982 to 1985 she conducted research on this at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health . From 1986 to 1988 she was a surgeon (fellow) at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati . In 1988 she became an assistant professor and from 1992 an associate professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh . From 1992 to 1995 she was co-director of the stem cell transplant department and from 1995/96 director of the cell therapy department (Cellular Therapeutics). From 1996 she was Professor of Surgery and Director of the Institute for Cell Therapy at Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia . In 1998 she became Professor of Surgery and Transplantation at the Jewish Hospital and Director of the Institute for Cell Therapy at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky .
Ildstad found ways to process donor bone marrow in such a way that the graft-versus-host reaction is suppressed. Attempts had previously been made to achieve this by filtering out the donor's T cells , but the ability of the bone marrow cells to grow was also lost. In 1994 Ildstad found and isolated special cells that were necessary for the growth of the bone marrow ( called facilitating cells ) and developed a method to separate them from the T cells. She tested bone marrow transplants prepared in this way first in mice (to which she partially transferred the immune system of rats and thus generated a chimeric immune system) and then successfully in humans (facilitator cell technology) . In 1999 she patented the process.
In the early 1990s, she developed a method of transferring bone marrow from baboons to humans with the aim of treating AIDS patients (baboons do not get AIDS). This was tested in 1995 on an AIDS patient who survived for over three years. She is also researching bone marrow transplants as a therapy for autoimmune diseases (such as diabetes) and hereditary diseases such as sickle cell anemia.
She has been a member of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences since 1997 . She received the Mayo Clinic's Distinguished Alumnus Award (first woman) and the National Institutes of Health's James A. Shannon Director's Award.
She has been married to David J. Tollerud, a professor of medicine (public health), since 1972. The couple have two children.
swell
- Pamela Kalte et al. (Editor) American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2005
- Lisa Yount A to Z of Women in Science and Math , Facts on File 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ His whereabouts are unknown. Lisa Yount A to Z of Women in Science , 2008
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ildstad, Suzanne |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ildstad, Suzanne T. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American medic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1952 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Minneapolis |