Peter Carey Nowell (February 8, 1928 – December 26, 2016) was a cancer researcher and co-discoverer of the

Philadelphia chromosome The Philadelphia chromosome or Philadelphia translocation (Ph) is an abnormal version of chromosome 22 where a part of the ''ABL (gene), Abelson murine leukemia'' 1 (''ABL1'') gene on chromosome 9 breaks off and attaches to the ''BCR (gene), break ...

. At the time of his death, he was the Gaylord P. and Mary Louise Harnwell Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Biography

Peter Carey Nowell was born in Philadelphia. His mother was a writer and a teacher, and his father was an electrical engineer for the

Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental conglomerate and monopoly in telecommunication services in the United States and Canada. The company was organized in Bost ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1948 and a medical degree from the

in 1952. He joined the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, and during his tour he conducted research at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. He joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1956. At the time of his death he was chairman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at UP. In 1952 Nowell married Helen Walker Worst. They had five children. His wife died in 2004. Nowell died in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome

Nowell credits his ultimate discovery of the so-called Philadelphia chromosome to an accident he made while cleaning a research slide. While working in a laboratory at UP studying samples of

chronic myeloid leukemia Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumula ...

, he happened to wash his slides with tap water instead of a laboratory solution. When he then studied the slides under his microscope, he saw that the water had caused the cells'

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

s to expand. This was unusual, but since at that time chromosomes were not considered part of the cancer-causing puzzle, he could have disregarded the anomaly. Instead, he decided to investigate (he said later, "I didn’t know anything about chromosomes, but it seemed a shame to throw this away.") He partnered with David Hungerford (1927-1993), a graduate student at the

Fox Chase Cancer Center Fox Chase Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center research facility and hospital located in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The main facilities of the center are l ...

in Philadelphia. Analyzing the white blood cells of patients with this particular form of leukemia, Hungerford consistently noticed that the

Chromosome 22 Chromosome 22 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells. Humans normally have two copies of chromosome 22 in each cell. Chromosome 22 is the second smallest human chromosome, spanning about 51 million DNA base pairs and representing b ...

was noticeably short. The finding was a turning point. Until then, most scientists believed viruses to be the cause of cancer. This new avenue of research fueled decades of scientific research that produced monumental steps in the treatment of cancer. Gradually, technology improved enough to allow scientists to visualize the genetic material in greater detail. Janet D. Rowley, a University of Chicago researcher, determined the chromosome to result from a translocation, in which portions of two chromosomes exchange places, causing cells to turn malignant. Alfred G. Knudson Jr., a geneticist at Fox Chase, made further progress linking genetics and cancer. In 1998, Nowell, Rowley and Knudson received Lasker Awards for their combined work in this area. At present, drugs have been developed that hold chronic myeloid leukemia in remission for years.

University of Pennsylvania career

Nowell received his B.A. from

in 1948 and his M.D. from the

in 1952. He spent two years in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

studying radiation and bone marrow transplantation and then returned to UPenn where he joined the faculty in 1956. He served as chair of the department of pathology from 1967-1973, and as the first director of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, now known as the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1960, Nowell and his graduate student David Hungerford discovered the Philadelphia chromosome, an abnormally small chromosome in the cancerous white blood cells of patients with

chronic myelogenous leukemia Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumula ...

. This discovery was a critical step in showing that cancer has a genetic basis, contrary to a widespread belief at the time. This information made the development of

imatinib Imatinib, sold under the brand names Gleevec and Glivec (both marketed worldwide by Novartis) among others, is an oral targeted therapy medication used to treat cancer. Imatinib is a small molecule inhibitor targeting multiple tyrosine kinases ...

and other targeted therapies possible. In the 1960s, he published that

phytohemagglutinin Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA, or phytohemagglutinin) is a lectin found in plants, especially certain legumes. PHA actually consists of two closely related proteins, called leucoagglutinin (PHA-L) and PHA-E. These proteins cause blood cells to clump ...

was capable of triggering mitosis, which allowed scientists to grow cells in culture for the study for cancer.

Awards

* 1976 Elected member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* 1980 Simon M. Shubitz Cancer Prize and Lectureship * 1986 Rous-Whipple Award of the

American Society for Investigative Pathology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

* 1987 de Villiers International Achievement Award of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society * 1991 Elected member of the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

* 1993 Elected member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

* 1989 Charles S. Mott Prize General Motors Cancer Research Foundation * 1997 Gold-Headed Cane Award of the

* 1998

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

for Basic Medical Research * 2009 Elected fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences * 2011 AACC-NACB award for outstanding contributions to clinical chemistry * 2013

Albany Medical Center Prize The Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research is the United States' second highest value prize in medicine and biomedical research, awarded by the Albany Medical Center. Among prizes for medicine worldwide, the Albany Medical ...

in Medicine and Biomedical Research * 2014 Elected fellow of the

AACR Academy The American Association for Cancer Research elects classes of fellows to recognize influential scientists in the field of cancer research. Six fellows were appointed to Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative Blue Ribbon Panel. Sever ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowell, Peter 1928 births 2016 deaths American oncologists Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Fellows of the AACR Academy Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society Physicians from Philadelphia Wesleyan University alumni Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates Scientists from Philadelphia Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Pennsylvania