UChicago Trivia: Which UChicago professor made a series of fundamental discoveries in the 1970s that established cancer as a genetic disease?
UCHICAGO TRIVIA
Today's Question:
Which UChicago professor made a series of fundamental discoveries in the 1970s that established cancer as a genetic disease?
a) Sophonisba Breckinridge
b) Katherine Dunham
c) Susan Sontag
d) Janet D. Rowley
Answer:
d) Janet D. Rowley
Before Rowley, few scientists suspected that chromosomal aberrations caused cancer, but a series of her fundamental discoveries in the 1970s while a professor of medicine at UChicago changed the way that cancer was understood, opened the door to the development of new treatments, and created a model that still drives cancer research. Rowley, U-High’42, PhB’45, SB’46, MD’48, was later awarded the Lasker Award, the National Medal of Science, and in 2009, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.