Tony Pawson

[A_Britishcolumbian]

Renowned Cell Biologist Dies
Canadian biologist Tony Pawson, whose team was the first to report the specific protein interactions underlying cellular signal transduction, has passed away at age 60.

By Chris Palmer | August 13, 2013

Tony Pawson, a luminary in the field of cell biology, died Wednesday (August 7) of an undisclosed cause at the age of 60. Pawson, a professor at the University of Toronto and a molecular geneticist at Mount Sinai Hospital's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, was best known for his work to elucidate the secret language of cells. In 1990, his team was the first to report the specific protein interactions underlying cellular signal transduction.

“He revolutionized our understanding of cell signaling and his brilliant work has no doubt saved many lives and will continue to do so,” Christine Williams, vice president of research at the Canadian Cancer Society, told The Toronto Star.

Pawson’s discoveries have played an important role in the development of drugs such as the commonly used leukemia drug Gleevec, which targets and inactivates the signaling molecule tyrosine kinase that causes cells to grow and multiply.

Michael Wosnick, former head of research at the Cancer Society, called Pawson’s passing a “huge loss” for the global scientific community, and for Canada. “One of the things he did for Canada, ironically, was stay in Canada,” Wosnick told The Globe and Mail. “This is a guy who could have written his own ticket anywhere . . . and the fact that he chose to stay here speaks volumes.”

The British-born Canadian received numerous awards, including the Kyoto Prize in 2008. He was also honored with the Wolf Prize in Medicine and the Gairdner Foundation International Award.

“We were anticipating one day a Nobel Prize for this guy,” Mr. Wosnick told The Globe and Mail. “Tony certainly would have been the odds-on favorite to be the next Canadian [to win].”

Pawson is survived by two adult children and a stepson.

Read more about Pawson in a 2010 profile by The Scientist.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles. ... gist-Dies/

[A_Britishcolumbian]

Aug 13 Tony Pawson, one of our best
Message to Research Canada Members from President and CEO Deborah Gordon-El-Bihbety on the passing of world-renowned Canadian researcher Dr. Tony Pawson

On behalf of Research Canada's Board of Directors, I am writing to express my profound sadness at the passing of Dr. Tony Pawson, a loss that has stunned the medical research community in Canada and abroad.
I first met Dr. Pawson at the Leaders' Forum for Health Research in 2004 and on several occasions since. A number on our Board knew him well and many of you have worked or trained with him over the years. He was not only a brilliant scientist, but a celebrated colleague and a beloved friend.
A passionate advocate for basic science, Dr. Pawson's research has revolutionized our understanding of how cells grow and communicate with each other, impacting the treatment of a host of diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and immune system disorders. His renowned accomplishments throughout 25 years of dedicated study made him one of this country's most respected researchers and one of the world's top 25 cited scientists in his field.
I would like to extend my sincere condolences to Mount Sinai and to Dr. Pawson's family, friends and colleagues. He was one of our best.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

The members of the board of the CSMB express great sadness about the sudden passing away of Dr Tony Pawson. His
career was exceptional and receiving the society senior investigator award in 1997 was only one of many distinctions.
We regret the loss of a pillar of Canadian science.

Tony Pawson – 2013 CNPN distinguished award in Proteomics research
Through his original identification of the archetypal protein interaction module, the SH2 domain, and his subsequent
embracement of technologies for mapping protein interactions, Tony Pawson has played an essential and instrumental
role in powering the successful wave of proteomics research and in nurturing the many outstanding proteomics scientists
in Canada.
Tony Pawson is inarguably one of Canada’s most influential biomedical scientists and has contributed to several areas of
research, notably through the publication of ~450 scientific manuscripts. Dr. Pawson made a radical discovery in the
mid-1980s, which introduced an entirely new framework for understanding dynamic cell signaling in normal and disease
states. He found that cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase oncoproteins have folded non-catalytic domains which are critical for
their transforming activity. He went on to define the conserved SH2 domain, and to show that it controls the enzymatic
properties of such tyrosine kinases, and their interactions with cellular targets. In a physiological setting, he showed that
the autophosphorylation of receptor tyrosine kinases creates docking sites for the conserved SH2 domains of diverse
cytoplasmic effectors. His discoveries were the nidus for the identification of a large family of interaction domains that
control virtually every aspect of cellular function. His work established the multi-domain nature of regulatory proteins,
revealed the general mechanisms underlying signaling from cell surface receptors and intracellular cues, and elucidated
the predominant function of post-translational modifications. The present concepts that signaling networks are primarily
formed through regulated protein-protein interactions, mediated by dedicated interaction domains, and that aberrant
protein interactions are a fundamental cause of human disease, are directly attributable to Pawson’s work. He has thereby
uncovered a completely new and overarching principle of cellular organization, and has transformed and codified our
understanding of protein regulation and function. Over the past decade, his pioneering findings that oncogenic tyrosine
kinases toggle between active and inactive states, and that cellular pathways and networks are assembled through protein
interactions, have underpinned rational design and mechanistic understanding of clinically important signal transduction
inhibitors.
Throughout his work, Dr. Pawson has developed and applied cutting-edge technologies, primarily proteomics
approaches. He authored some of the earliest studies of mammalian protein-protein interaction networks (e.g. for the 14-
3-3 proteins and the WW domains), and devised clever ways to monitor bidirectional signaling events in mammalian
cells. Sustained and active collaborations with mass spectrometry vendor AB SCIEX have enabled Dr. Pawson to build a
pioneering laboratory dedicated to the development of novel tools in mass spectrometry and proteomics. The success of
this collaboration is evidenced by multiple large grants (CFI, Genome Canada, Ontario Research Fund) in this area. Dr.
Pawson continues to innovate, as evidenced by his recent coupling of affinity purification with selected reaction
monitoring which enables him to accurately track signaling events downstream of receptor tyrosine kinases (Bisson,
Nature Biotech, 2011; Zheng et al., Nature, 2013). He most recently expanded this type of approach to enable the
monitoring of network rewiring in embryonic stem cells (Findlay, Cell, 2013).
The great impact of Prof. Pawson’s numerous accomplishments on biomedical research has been acknowledged by
multiple awards, including the Gairdner award, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences and the Wolf Prize in Medicine. He is
a member of the Order of Ontario, is an officer in the Order of Canada, and was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to the
Order of Companions of Honour.

http://www.csmb-scbm.ca/Downloads/45-TonyPawson.pdf

[BelieveNothing]

dr. pawson's comments with regard to funding cuts for genome canada...

Canadian Genomicists Lament Cuts
2009-01-29 15:27

Researchers funded by Genome Canada, Canada’s preeminent funding body for large-scale genomics and proteomics research, are reacting with shock to news that the Canadian government is withdrawing funding from the 9-year-old organization. The government says the organization can rely on last year's money.

“This is extremely serious,” says Anthony James Pawson, a University of Toronto-based cell biologist who won the $550,000 Kyoto Prize in 2008 for his work on cell communication through signaling proteins, which has been praised for establishing one of the basic paradigms of signal transduction.

Since 2000, the research body has received about $600 million from the Canadian government and has matched that in cofunding. Genome Canada had expected about $100 million from the government for the year ahead. The cut to the genomics budget comes as Canada scales back research funding amid a budget crisis.

Instead, the government has offered nothing. "It's like we fell between the chairs," says the organization’s president, Martin Godbout.

Genome Canada currently supports 33 major research projects at Canadian schools and hospitals, with operating grants of around $10 million a year for each.

Godbout said the lack of funding won't affect projects now funded through previous budgets, but it will limit Canada's ability to contribute to new, large-scale genetics research projects. A lack of funding effectively stalls any new research initiatives, said Godbout.

The Canadian government says that funding from previous years was intended to cover this year.

“There is no cut to funding for Genome Canada," Annie Trépanier, spokesperson for Industry Canada, told ScienceInsider. “Genome Canada has received $840 million since 2000. Budget 2008 provided $140 million, which will support genomics research and Genome Canada operations from 2009-10 to 2012-13.”

But Godbout says this budget strategy is news to him. While money from last year's budget was earmarked to fund future projects, no indication was provided by the government that new initiatives would not be funded this year, he announced on CBC public broadcasting. Genome Canada has been awarded funding every year except 2006, when money allotted to it in 2005 was specifically designated for a 2-year span.

Speaking from a conference in Colorado, Pawson said after the news broke, “Genome Canada has helped build Toronto into a leading center—first among equals—for 21st century large-scale biology. Today, I’m in Colorado at a meeting on large-scale biology where Canada is strongly represented thanks to Genome Canada’s sustained support for so many research teams. Personally, for me this will have very serious consequences. We’ve ramped up a fabulous laboratory with support from Genome Canada. Now will we have to get rid of it?”

http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2009/ ... ament-cuts

The above information I find interesting.

I am in agreement with A_Britishcolumbian.

I would like to know the cause of Dr. Pawson's death, I truly find it odd the way this information is being withheld, it is not typical when someone of such calibre passes away at such a PRIME time in his/her life, with the many statements about him being at the top of his game etc. and no note about poor health prior.

The reports hint at one thing: that he may have been unable to let go of suffering following his wife's illness and death. It is only a brief statement, though it gives the reader a subtle answer that most people will accept unconsciously as "cause of death" and wont question any further.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

with that in mind, it should be mentioned as well, his father died last year too, at 91. this is a very brief overview of the man who was a true champion, and master of many disciplines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Pawson_(cricketer)

while that fact could be considered a potential contributing factor, his fathers amazing capacity, capability and immeasurable fortitude would seem to me more likely to contribute to a strength in dr. pawson rather than a suicidal weakness. all mention of his character is of driven resolve and positive being. it is not like he was alone in the world, he has three children and their families, as well as so very many close friends and colleagues.

(Edited for off-topic content. Please re-read the PM sent earlier - fluffy)

[A_Britishcolumbian]

August 7th of 2013 Dr. Anthony (Tony) Pawson was taken from us so very suddenly.

you can read a bevy of news stories announcing his passing and extolling his virtues and deeds here...

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=52254

here is his wikipedia entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Pawson

there has been no media reports, nor coroner report telling us what his cause of death was.

if anyone has any information that may help us discover what that cause that would be very much appreciated.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

here is a news article published a week after Dr. Pawson's passing.

Anthony Pawson helped discover how cells communicate with each other
GENNA BUCK
The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Aug. 14 2013, 11:00 PM EDT

Anthony Pawson, one of the world’s top cell biologists and a pre-eminent cancer researcher, left behind two very different grieving families when he died suddenly in Toronto last Wednesday at the age of 60.

He was a devoted father to three grown children, a loving partner to Barb Bennett and a proud grandpa to seven-month-old Millicent.

His second family was at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, where he was instrumental in decoding signal transduction, a fundamental process in biology. He was one of the founding scientists of the institute in 1985 and ran the eponymous Pawson Lab there until his death.

Dr. Pawson cared deeply for his co-workers and the students he mentored, and inspired others with his enthusiasm for research, daughter Catherine Pawson said.

“From when I was a little kid, he would at least once or twice a year have his entire lab over to the house for a potluck dinner,” she said. “I remember listening to them talk about science and talk about my dad, and how much they loved what they were doing and how much they loved him.”

The excitement she soaked up while sitting at that table, all ears, really was contagious: She followed in her father’s footsteps and became a cell biologist and postdoctoral researcher.

Dr. Pawson spoke at length about his own life in his commemorative lecture for the 2008 Kyoto Prize, known as “Japan’s Nobel,” which was later published as part of a book. (He was nominated at least eight times for a Nobel Prize, but that honour always eluded him.)

At the Kyoto lecture, he said: “The process of scientific discovery is rather like exploring for new continents in the age of sailing ships – there are long periods at sea, with not much happening.”

“It is that moment of first seeing the land in the distance, of first realizing that one has a thread of evidence for a new way of looking at the world, that provides the most excitement.”

Dr. Pawson had that exhilarating moment early in his career, when he was studying a family of proteins called tyrosine kinases in the late 1980s. They were known to be involved in cancer, but how that worked was almost entirely a mystery.

He discovered that part of a particular tyrosine kinase didn’t seem to be performing any of its known functions. Instead, it regulated the actions of other proteins, like a kind of molecular traffic cop. When this protein piece, called a domain, was activated, it set off a chain of reactions – a signal – that changed the cell’s behaviour.

When the domain didn’t work properly because the proteins involved were scrambled in some way, such as from a mutation in DNA, the cell might grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner, causing cancer.

In the wake of the breakthrough, Dr. Pawson and others learned that this same general type of protein interaction happens in scores of cell types all across the living world, meaning that changes in their various signalling functions, both within and between cells, could be implicated in a whole gamut of diseases, from colon cancer to immune disorders to Alzheimer’s.

“In hindsight it seems so obvious. At the time it was completely novel,” said Jim Woodgett, who took over for Dr. Pawson as director of the institute in 2005. Dr. Pawson had a knack for making connections that were counterintuitive and the guts to take risks, Dr. Woodgett added. “His intelligence was off the charts.”

Dr. Pawson named the protein part the Src homology 2 domain, or SH2 domain.

“Had I known how important it was to be, I would have tried to think of a more memorable name,” he said in his Kyoto lecture.

Dr. Pawson was born on Oct. 18, 1952, in Maidstone, England, the eldest of three children in an upper-class family. He attended the prestigious Winchester College for boys, and later Clare College at Cambridge University, where he graduated with a BA in biochemistry. He earned his PhD in molecular biology from King’s College at London University in 1976, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southern California at Berkeley in the late 1970s before moving to Canada in 1981 to become an assistant professor in the department of microbiology at the University of British Columbia.

He met Margaret (Maggie) Luman, an American living in Britain with her family, probably while visiting a school friend at Cambridge, Catherine Pawson said. They married in London in 1975, Maggie in a long, earth-toned shirt dress with a flower pattern in quintessential 1970s style, he rail-thin and with a mop of long hair, sporting a tri-colour tie.

Dr. Pawson’s mother, Hilarie, was a botanist and taught high-school biology.

“I absorbed my interest in the natural world from her. She was the real academic in the family,” Dr. Pawson said in Kyoto.

His father – the famous Tony Pawson, whom Brits often asked if Dr. Pawson was related to – was a champion fly fisher, footballer and cricketer who competed at the 1952 Olympics and later became a well-known sports writer.

“Tony came from a successful and eminent British family,” said John Scott, a cell biologist at the University of Washington and one of Dr. Pawson’s closest friends and collaborators. “There was an expectation of success, and what came along with that was an ability to interact with people. He always put people at ease, he was very polite, and he had that charismatic quality that makes people feel very special.”

Dr. Pawson would gesticulate wildly and practically dance across the stage when explaining a concept as a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto. The combination of his revolutionary ideas and ebullient personality would have an audience glued to their seats even if they didn’t know what he was talking about, Dr. Woodgett said.

People who knew him agree that he deeply valued and desired recognition from scientific peers. In addition to the Kyoto Prize, he was appointed by the Queen to the Order of the Companions of Honour and received the Wolf Prize in Medicine, among dozens of others.

But he never did get science’s top trophy, although Lou Siminovitch, the founding director of the institute, nominated him no fewer than eight times.

“His dream was the Nobel, and I thought he had a very good crack at it,” Dr. Siminovitch said. “In the area he was in, there were too many people who were at the level or near the level that Tony was.”

Dr. Pawson’s singular focus on basic science – figuring out the fundamentals of how the world works, whether there is an obvious application or not – was sometimes at odds with trends in the scientific community, especially in the way funding is awarded.

He was more than happy that others found important applications for his work, his daughter said. In fact, Gleevec, a targeted cancer drug that was hailed as a “revolutionary new pill” by Time magazine in 2001, was developed as a direct result of Dr. Pawson’s insights.

Dr. Pawson’s vacant office tells the story of someone who left the field in his academic prime. On a large whiteboard is an elaborate diagram of a signalling pathway, with shapes and arrows representing proteins and interactions in the dizzyingly complex system of machinery within human cells. Underneath, scrawled in blue marker, are notes on half a dozen studies he was working on.

He was sought after all over the world as a speaker and as a collaborator in part because he was generous in giving credit to others, said former institute director Dr. Alan Bernstein. He published almost 450 papers and books, the most recent appearing in the journal Nature Immunology on Aug. 4.

Dr. Pawson’s research family was always shifting, as people moved on to new opportunities and students came up through the ranks. But his own family changed drastically in 2011, when his wife died from lung cancer at age 63 after a loving marriage that lasted 36 years.

Catherine Pawson said her most treasured memories of her father are the long hikes they used to take together. She and her two brothers, Nick and Jeremy, each had their special activity they loved to do with him, and he would never miss a school play or a soccer game, she said.

“For someone who had such a high profile and such a successful career, he was always my dad first,” Catherine Pawson said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hea ... e13778193/

[A_Britishcolumbian]

another story, again published a week post mortem...

Professor Tony Pawson

Professor Tony Pawson, the biologist, who has died aged 60, carried out pioneering research into the behaviour of cells, giving new insights into diseases such as cancer and diabetes; he partly attributed his success in the laboratory to his family background in fly-fishing.

6:15PM BST 15 Aug 2013
Pawson devoted his career to understanding how cells communicate with each other, and in 1985 identified the SH2 domain, a component of many proteins, which turned out to play a crucial role in such cellular interaction.
Cells, Pawson explained, were like a jigsaw puzzle. Cell molecules, meanwhile, were like pieces of the puzzle that constantly change shape; his discovery of the SH2 domain was equivalent to finding out how the puzzle pieces communicate in order to slot together again in their new shapes. It also revealed how cells signal these changes to one another, and how errors in this process trigger diseases such as cancer.
Pawson’s discovery was a result of his instinct for the unusual, combined with a bit of luck. He had been looking at a protein fundamental to regulation of the immune system, cellular Src, and trying to understand how it worked. As he did so he decided to pay attention to a previously ignored part of the cell structure, and began to guess at what it might be doing.
Before 1985 scientists had known that cells had conversations with one another, but nobody had identified the common part, or subunit, of the molecule that was activating the signals – nor understood what Pawson called the “balancing act” that keeps them working properly. The implications of his discovery were profound, and it took four years for scientists to appreciate fully what it meant for treatment research.
Cancer is the classic example of cells responding to a wayward signal, which causes them to grow in an uncontrolled manner. Pawson’s research was indirectly responsible for the creation of breakthrough target drugs and treatments such as the “magic bullet”, Gleevec, that blocks cellular signals which prompt the development of cancers.
Later research enabled Pawson to recognise the importance of tyrosine kinases, which are responsible for transmitting the commands to hormones that regulate cellular reproduction and metabolism. Today laboratories around the world are following up this work, with breakthroughs in many areas of medicine, including in diabetes treatment and immunology.
Anthony James Pawson was born at Maidstone on October 18 1952. His father was a cricketer, Olympic footballer and England’s first world fly-fishing champion, while his brother, John, also went on to earn the world fly-fishing title. From boyhood the future biologist was devoted to fishing too. He would later claim that fly-fishing had instilled in him patience and an eye for detail that had been key to his research success.
“There is a lot of similarity between fishing and doing science in the sense that a lot of it is just keeping going,” he said. “But it is also being alert to subtle things. Often, in science, the most important things can reveal themselves in the littlest ways.”
After Winchester, Pawson studied at Clare College, Cambridge, and completed a PhD at King’s College London.
He began his research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, now Cancer Research UK, in London, and then at the University of California, Berkeley. But he soon moved to Vancouver with his Canadian wife, Maggie, where he took a post as assistant professor with the University of British Columbia. It was while there that, alongside a graduate student, Ivan Sedowski, he made his SH2 domain discovery. “It was a transformative idea at the time, almost revolutionary,” said Pawson’s colleague, Dr Alan Bernstein. “That discovery really opened up a whole universe of mechanisms of investigation into how our cells react with each other.”
In 1985 he and his wife moved to Toronto, when he was asked to join the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital as Senior Scientist. In the same year he also joined the University of Toronto as a professor in the department of Molecular Genetics. At Mount Sinai he established his own lab for further investigations into how cell signals are conveyed, and in 2000 was named director of research.
Pawson’s specialism, called signal transduction, is considered an increasingly important field in cancer research, and his lab attracts students from all over the world. His funny, passionate lecturing style also made him a popular speaker, admired for making complex theories sound simple.
He was awarded a host of major prizes for his discoveries, including the Gairdner Award in 1994 and the Wolf Prize in 2005. In 2008 he became the first Canadian scientist to receive the so-called “Japanese Nobel”, the Kyoto Prize.
Pawson was appointed CH in 2006 and to the Order of Canada in 2000. In 1994 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Canada.
Pawson’s death came a month after he and his team of researchers at Mount Sinai announced a new discovery which they hoped might lead to safer drug testing in cancer patients. He described the breakthrough as providing “exquisite detail” on how certain proteins interact with one another.
Tony Pawson’s wife died in 2011. He is survived by a daughter, a son and a stepson.
Professor Tony Pawson, born October 18 1952, died August 7 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... awson.html

[BelieveNothing]

Anthony James "Tony" PAWSON
PAWSON, Anthony James "Tony" - Passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, August 7, 2013 at age 60. Loving father of Nick, Catherine (Tyler Westcott), and Jeremy, proud grandfather to Millicent. Loving partner to Barbra Bennett. Dear brother of John (Tessa) and Sarah (Eian Mantle) Pawson of England. Also remembered and sadly missed by his aunt Tarn Gresser and cousins Claire (Faud), Robin (Lisa), Lucy (Mark), Charis, Lauren. Tony is recently predeceased by his beloved wife Maggie, and by his mother and father, Hillarie and Anthony Pawson. Friends may call at the Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. W., at Windermere, east of the Jane subway, from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, August 23rd. A Service of Remembrance will be held at Runnymede United Church, 432 Runnymede Rd., Toronto on Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 11 a.m. For those who wish, memorial donations may be made to The Tony Pawson Memorial Fund for Research at Mount Sinai Hospital or The Terry Fox Foundation. Online condolences may be made through http://www.turnerporter.ca "And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." -

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thesta ... bLoggedOut

So the word highlighted in red in his obituary indicates to me that Tony Pawson was not sick prior.

This leaves, lethal heart attack/stroke/body failure, lethal accident, suicide or murder.

I have not turned up anything else pertaining to the cause of his death.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

oddly enough, i received a little info from toronto, someone from an advice column at the star i believe, that suggested dr. pawson killed himself, suicide, but i cannot confirm this.

when the ny times, i think, ran the story just a week or so ago, they again tried to reach the family and friends who again declined to give the reason for tony's death, on record at least.

Anthony Pawson, a Canadian cell biologist whose pathbreaking insights about how cells communicate with one another resolved one of science’s oldest mysteries and helped spur the development of a class of drugs that target cancer, diabetes and other diseases, died on Aug. 7 in Toronto. He was 60.

Family members and colleagues declined to disclose the cause.

In his 1990 breakthrough, Dr. Pawson and his research team identified the specific protein interactions involved in cell signaling, the process by which cells tell one another what to do, when to do it and when to stop.

Scientists had long known that cells communicated, but no one knew the exact cellular mechanism involved until Dr. Pawson’s research pinpointed it: a protein structure on the surface of every cell membrane. The structure, which he called the SH2 domain, serves as a landing pad for signaling proteins, which in turn set off a molecular chain reaction carrying information to the cell’s nucleus.

SH2 domain proved to be the linchpin of the cell communications system, and its discovery basically confirmed Dr. Pawson’s initial theory, that “when cells fail to communicate properly, disease happens,” as he defined it in an interview.

Anthony Hunter, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the Salk Institute Cancer Center in San Diego, called the identification of the SH2 domain an “enormously influential idea” that introduced scientists to a fundamentally new principle about how cells work.

“It was a seminal finding,” said Dr. Hunter, who collaborated with Dr. Pawson on several papers about cell communication.

Dr. Pawson’s research opened a new field of study into the causes and effects of breakdowns in cellular communication. And studies based wholly or in part on his discoveries have produced new treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and heart ailments, essentially by blocking or unraveling intercellular miscues.

Perhaps the best-known of these is Gleevec, a cancer drug that blocks the abnormal cell signal that causes a rare form of blood cancer called chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Dr. Pawson, who was frequently nominated and widely considered to be a shortlisted candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, received many international awards for his work, including the 2008 Kyoto Prize in basic sciences and the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2005. British-born, he was named to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2007 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Dr. Pawson had worked at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto since 1985, serving as director of research there from 2000 to 2005. At his death, colleagues said, he was continuing his cellular research, a pursuit he recently summarized as “understanding how life works.”

In accepting the Kyoto Prize, Dr. Pawson said he had been unaware of the larger implications of his work when he first recognized the SH2 domain. (SH2 is short for the protein subunit known as the Src homology 2 domain.) “Had I known how important it was to be,” he said, “I would have tried to think of a more memorable name.”

Anthony James Pawson — who was known as Tony to his friends and often published papers under the name Tony Pawson — was born on Oct. 18, 1952, in Maidstone, England, the eldest of three children in a well-off family. His father, also known as Tony, a world-class cricketer, champion fly fisherman, and member of the British national soccer team at the 1948 Olympics, wrote about cricket for The London Observer. His mother, Hilarie, was a botanist and high school biology teacher who inspired his interest in science.

Dr. Pawson told friends that he had left Britain in part to escape the shadow of his father’s enduring popularity with sports fans. Receiving an award in England recently, he told Dr. Hunter that a fellow scientist had approached him to shake his hand, saying, “I’ve always wanted to meet Tony Pawson.”

“He meant Tony’s father,” Dr. Hunter said.

Dr. Pawson attended Winchester College for boys, graduated from Cambridge University with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology from King’s College at London University in 1976. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1970s before moving to Canada in 1981 to become an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of British Columbia.

His wife, Margaret, died of lung cancer two years ago. His father died last year at 91.

Dr. Pawson is survived by his sons, Nick and Jeremy; a daughter, Catherine Westcott Pawson; a brother, John; a sister, Sarah Mantle Pawson; and a granddaughter.

At the time he won the Kyoto Prize, Dr. Pawson praised the scientists who had developed drug treatments based on his findings, and he went on to make a larger point. He had spent decades studying a virus related to cancer in chickens, he said, before he happened upon a tiny bit of information that led him to his work on cell communication. That, in turn, led to breakthroughs in cancer treatments for humans.

“Governments increasingly want to see immediate returns on the research that they support,” he said. “But it is worth viewing basic science as a long-term investment that will yield completely unexpected dividends for humanity in the future. I believe that this progress underscores the importance of giving free rein to human inventiveness.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/world ... .html?_r=0

[BelieveNothing]

oddly enough, i received a little info from toronto, someone from an advice column at the star i believe, that suggested dr. pawson killed himself, suicide, but i cannot confirm this.

Interesting.

I think in the end it is not hard to fathom that this may have been the case (or made to appear as the case) I can not see any reason why a heart attack/stroke or lethal accident would not have been disclosed, suicide on the other hand holds many questions and possibly pride.

The insistence on noting the wife's cause of death in every article leads me think that his cause of death is in some way "shaming" to publicize.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

as well as the passing of his dear family members, i think maybe more importantly, the loss of funding for his lab, and what he saw to be a rapidly declining environment for the sciences in 'canada' were possibly greater contributing factors to assumed depression in a very passionate man.

while his father and wife had passed, he was still young enough, healthy man, with a good sized young family left.

of course, we can speculate that possibly suicide, or a perceived suicide, was not actually the cause of death. this was a very influential man and he was butting heads with some very unscrupulous entities.

[BelieveNothing]

as well as the passing of his dear family members, i think maybe more importantly, the loss of funding for his lab, and what he saw to be a rapidly declining environment for the sciences in 'canada' were possibly greater contributing factors to assumed depression in a very passionate man.

while his father and wife had passed, he was still young enough, healthy man, with a good sized young family left.

of course, we can speculate that possibly suicide, or a perceived suicide, was not actually the cause of death. this was a very influential man and he was butting heads with some very unscrupulous entities.

Makes sense.

Without ever having known him, it is difficult to say whether or not he would be the type to succumb to depression and suicide. IT does however SEEM unlikely.

Though, there are things inside people that we never know ... he found answers to help fight cancer, yet his wife died of cancer. All a tad defeating....

Yep..speculation is all we have.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

i believe this article could be related to the death of dr. pawson...

Scientists live in a ‘climate of fear’; poll suggests federal researchers can’t speak freely

By Andrea Hill, Postmedia News October 21, 2013 2:12 PM

OTTAWA – Ninety per cent of Canadian government scientists feel they can’t speak freely to the media and half say they have seen the health and safety of Canadians or environmental sustainability compromised because of political interference with scientific work, says a national survey of federal scientists.

“Science is increasingly being frozen out of policy decisions and scientists themselves are not able to provide timely, vital scientific information to Canadians,” said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada union, which represents 60,000 government workers.

PIPSC commissioned the Environics Research Group to conduct an online survey of the union’s 15,000 federal scientists in 40 government departments this summer, amid mounting complaints of “muzzling” of scientists by the government and an ongoing investigation into the matter by federal information watchdog Suzanne Legault. Survey responses were collected for two weeks in June and results were made public Monday.

The 4,000 scientists who responded to the survey made it clear that muzzling of scientists is prevalent and is negatively affecting Canadians, Corbett said. PIPSC spokesman Peter Bleyer said the response rate was “robust” for an online survey; Environics says the results would reflect the opinions of federal scientists within 1.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

More than 70 per cent of respondents said the government is not using the best scientific evidence to develop laws and policies. This includes 63 per cent of Environment Canada scientists and 62 per cent of Department and Fisheries and Oceans scientists who said their departments are ignoring the best climate change research available.

“Science seems no longer to have a strong place in decision making,” noted one survey respondent.

Almost one- quarter of scientists said they had been asked to exclude or alter scientific information in federal documents. These complaints were most prevalent among scientists at Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Environment Canada.

And even if scientists weren’t personally asked to censor their work, many said they had witnessed such activity. Sixty-seven per cent of Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists and 59 per cent of Environment Canada scientists who responded said they knew of cases where their departments had suppressed information, leaving the public with misleading or inaccurate information.

“This is not the way it should be,” said Liberal MP Ted Hsu who has previously criticized the government for its behaviour toward scientists. ”Scientists are not supposed to decide what policy is, but they’re supposed to put forward the facts. If scientists are being influenced by political staff to exclude something or change the wording on something that’s not the way things should be if you want to have good evidence-based policy.”

Corbett said the scientists are “facing a climate of fear” and that the majority of respondents — 88 per cent — supported improved whistleblower protection which would allow scientists to better serve the public.

Greg Rickford, minister of state for science and technology, did not respond directly to the survey results, but said that “our government has made record investments in science.”

The report is the first of two being released by PIPSC. A second report looking at the impact of government cutbacks will be published later this year.

http://www.canada.com/Scientists+live+c ... z2iOXZUr6E

[BelieveNothing]

On CBC radio's The Current today:

Scroll down to podcast titled:

Is there a war on Science?

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/curren ... e-current/

Good interviews