Dr. Stanley J. Korsmeyer (1951 - March 31, 2005) was an American oncologist. Through his studies of apoptosis, Korsmeyer helped develop the concepts of the role of programmed cell death in of carcinogenesis. In 1989 his lab confirmed the discovery the previous year by an Australian lab[1]  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=3262202) that the Bcl-2 gene inhibited cell death and could thereby contribute to development of cancer. 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Please refer to cancer for the biology of malignant disease, as well as a list of malignant diseases. ... In biology, apoptosis (from the Greek words apo = from and ptosis = falling, pronounced ap-a-tow-sis[1]) is one of the main types of programmed cell death (PCD). ... Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cell division and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue (invasion) or by migration of cells to distant sites (metastasis). ... B cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 is a mammalian protein family whose members govern mitochondrial membrane permeabilisation (MMP), a key event in apoptosis. ...

Korsmeyer was a tenured Professor, first at Washington University and then at Harvard, working within the Howard Hughes Medical Institute while at both universities. He recievd numerous prestigius cancer research awards and was widely respected in the field. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society. Tenure commonly refers to academic tenure systems, in which professors (at the university level)—and in some jurisdictions schoolteachers (at primary or secondary school levels)—are granted the right not to be fired without cause after an initial probationary period. ... Washington University in St. ... Harvard, see Harvard (disambiguation) Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a United States non-profit medical research institute based in Chevy Chase, Maryland and originally founded by the aviator and engineer Howard Hughes in 1953. ... The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... The Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, is an American organization whose purpose is to provide national advice on issues relating to biomedical science, medicine, and health (National Academy of Sciences, n. ... The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, continues to operate to this day. ...

Reference

• Thompson, C. 2005. Stanley J. Korsmeyer. Cell 121:319-320