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Published online before print December 12, 2008
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In Memoriam |
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center New York, New York
Abstract
This In Memoriam highlights the life of Dr. William L. Gerald, M.D., Ph.D.
William L. Gerald, surgical and molecular pathologist, cancer researcher, and Editorial Board member of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, died on September 14, 2008, after a 6-year battle with cancer. This profound and premature loss is being felt beyond Pathology in the many overlapping communities that benefited from his work and his presence, including Pediatric Oncology, Cancer Genomics, Prostate Cancer Research, and others.
Born March 2, 1954, in Florence, South Carolina, he grew up there and graduated from McClenaghan High School. He went to college at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and to medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston, where he graduated in 1983, obtaining his PhD there the following year. He completed a Residency and Fellowship in Anatomical Pathology at Yale University, New Haven. He returned to South Carolina in 1988 to take the position of Assistant Professor and Director of Molecular Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at MUSC. In 1992, he joined the Department of Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, as Assistant Attending Pathologist and Director of the MSKCC Pathology Research Core Facility (in the latter role, he went on to build one of the largest research tumor banks in the country). By 2002, he had risen to Attending Pathologist and tenured Member. In 2006, he also became one of the founding members of the new Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at MSKCC.
He was scientifically prolific, with over 195 publications listed in PubMed at this writing, and several more still in press. His scientific contributions will live on and will be the basis for further advances for years to come. Below I highlight his contributions to our understanding of four cancers: the desmoplastic small round cell tumor, neuroblastoma, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. The perspective here is my own as a friend and scientific colleague, and I apologize in advance for aspects of his work and people in his career that I have failed to include.
The desmoplastic small round cell tumor is permanently linked to William’s name. It was first described by William while working as a fellow under Juan Rosai in the late 1980’s.1, 2 In 1993, in the joint effort that first brought us together scientifically, William and I identified the characteristic EWS-WT1 fusion in this tumor.3, 4 This also serendipitously tied in with his pre-existing interest in Wilms tumor.5, 6 William went on to establish a fruitful collaboration with Dan Haber, which led to the identification of many target genes of the EWS-WT1 chimeric transcription factor [reviewed in7 ]. He also authored many of the key clinicopathologic studies of this pediatric cancer.8 At the time of his death, he was leading an effort to use current global genomic approaches to define all of the transcriptional targets of EWS-WT1 and using high throughput screening approaches to identify active agents.
Beginning in the late 1990’s, William mounted a major research effort in neuroblastoma genomics involving large-scale allelotyping and expression profiling that generated many significant studies in this area.9, 10, 11, 12, 13 He was also a longstanding member of the Neuroblastoma Biology Subcommittee of the Children’s Oncology Group.
The Gerald laboratory also produced some of the pioneering expression profiling studies of prostate cancer.14, 15, 16, 17 At the time of his death, he was still actively working on the assembly and analysis of a large prostate cancer genomics project integrating expression profiles, genomic copy number profiles, and large scale sequencing. Among his many projects, this one was perhaps highest on his mind as his health was deteriorating. When he asked a colleague, Charles Sawyers, to ensure the completion and analysis of this rich integrated genomics dataset, it was one the first signs of his acknowledgment of the tightening timeline.
In the area of breast cancer, his group’s expression profiling efforts led to the discovery of an androgen-responsive estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer subset,18 an observation now being evaluated in clinical trials. These breast cancer expression microarray data were also central to a recent series of landmark papers on the process of breast cancer metastasis that emerged from an ongoing collaboration with Joan Massagué’s laboratory.19, 20, 21 More generally, the carefully assembled cancer genomics datasets generated by the Gerald laboratory in these and other tumor types have had a multiplying effect on the work of many collaborating groups too numerous to list here [for some examples, see Refs 22, 23, 24 ].
William was a pioneer in the application of the new comprehensive genomic technologies to the molecular pathology of cancer. He led the MSKCC prostate cancer group in the Director’s Challenge, the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored cooperative tumor expression profiling effort initiated in 1999. As a group, the Director’s Challenge investigators played a major role in developing and standardizing genomic strategies for analyzing tumor specimens.25 After the end of this NCI program, he continued to participate in a focused cooperative effort in lung cancer expression profiling with other former Director’s Challenge groups.26 He was instrumental in setting up the MSKCC microarray facility, now one of the busiest in the country. Since 2006, he was also a member of the MSKCC Cancer Genome Characterization Center, one of seven such centers in the NCI/National Human Genome Research Institute cooperative project The Cancer Genome Atlas, living just long enough to see its first publication.27
On a personal level, William was modest, unassuming, and understated almost to a fault. He always kept a low-key demeanor, but it was apparent to all who were fortunate to know him as a scientific colleague that he was deeply committed to science and passionate about his research. His encouragement, insight, intellect, gentle demeanor, and consistency made a lasting impact on countless trainees and research fellows. For over 10 years, I took advantage of our adjacent offices to pop in on him almost daily to chat about projects, gossip about science and pathology, or, later, just to check on him. We shared many discussions, and his clear thinking and common sense were always in evidence. He was very private about his health and few knew of the extent of his illness or, toward the end, of the severity of the pain from his bone metastases.
He loved the South Carolina coast, cycling, sailing, and paddling, and had a lifelong interest in the history, culture, and traditional music of the American South. He leaves behind a large and loving family, including his wife of 29 years, Lucta Allen-Gerald, and five children, William Cleeland, Emma, Grace Lucta, Anne Marshall, and Sarah Todd.
In his memory, and following the wishes of his family, the Department of Pathology at MSKCC has established The William L. Gerald Pathology Research Fund for the specific purpose of supporting laboratory-based human tumor research, as a tribute to the cause that was his life’s work. He will not be forgotten.
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