Sokolow Memorial Cancer Endowment Lectureship

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About the Lectureship

A creative researcher, respected teacher, and beloved member of the UCSF community from 1936 until 2002, cardiologist Maurice Sokolow, MD, was a pioneer of modern clinical treatment of hypertension.

After the deaths of Dr. Sokolow's daughter, Jane, from Burkitt's lymphoma in July 1970, and that of his wife, Ethel, from a breast malignancy the following December, the Ethel and Jane Sokolow Visiting Scientist Program was established at UCSF by their families, classmates, and friends. Upon the death of Maurice Sokolow in 2002, the Fund was renamed as the Maurice, Ethel, and Jane Sokolow Memorial Cancer Endowment Lectureship.

Born in New York, Maurice Sokolow moved to California as a young child with his family, after which he spent seven years in an orphanage following the death of his mother. He attended UCLA and UC-Berkeley with the help of his sister, Josephine Osborne, then worked his way through medical school at UCSF, living at the Laguna Honda Hospital and working there at night. In receiving his medical degree in 1936 he was awarded the Gold Headed Cane, the honor bestowed upon the top graduating medical student.

Maurice Sokolow ("Soke") spent virtually his entire medical career at UCSF, following a residency at New England Medical Center in Boston and a fellowship in cardiology at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He served in the Navy during World War II, stationed on a hospital ship in Fiji.

During the 1950s, Sokolow was head of the hypertension section at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center. He earned a reputation as a highly creative researcher and teacher, and became a founding member of the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, merging clinical cardiology with academic and research work. He designed and constructed an ambulatory device to show that blood pressure varied throughout the day. His study also confirmed that blood pressures taken in the clinic setting tended to be higher than ambulatory pressures for the majority of patients. This portable recorder provided a major role in hypertension studies throughout the next decades, including the discovery of "white coat" hypertension, a persistently elevated clinical blood pressure when the patient was being seen by a doctor. Sokolow also developed special expertise in the field of electrocardiography and in treating the complications of rheumatic fever.

Among Sokolow's more than 160 medical publications is the textbook Clinical Cardiology, co-authored with Melvin D. Cheitlin, MD, and Malcolm McIlroy, MD. Now in its 6th edition, the textbook has been translated into seven languages.

Jane Sokolow died in 1970 at the age of 25 of the rare cancer Burkitt's lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In the U.S., only about 300 new cases of Burkitt's lymphoma are diagnosed each year.

Ethel Schwabacher Sokolow, diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35, was a longtime cancer survivor in an era when few therapeutic options were available, and her resilience continues to serve as an inspiration to her friends and family. An actress, Ethel Sokolow appeared in Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run" in 1969, the year before she succumbed to metastatic cancer at age 54. Her death followed that of her daughter by five months.

Dr. Maurice Sokolow's own death, 32 years after that of his wife and daughter, was from lymphoma. Surviving members of his family include two daughters, Gail and Anne, and their families. Gail and her husband Marc Goldyne, MD, have two children -- Serena Goldyne Brenner (husband Matthew Brenner, son Eli, and daughter Sophia), and Avi Goldyne (wife Dara and son Milo). Anne and her husband Peter Levine, MD, have two children, Joshua (wife Christa and son Zach) and Sara.

Previous Visiting Scientists

• David Tuveson, MD, PhD (2019) Professor and Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center
• Patrick S. Moore, MD, MPH and Yuan Chang, MD (2017) University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
• John Dick, PhD, FRS (2016) Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine of the University Health Network; Professor of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
• René Bernards, PhD (2015) Professor of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Netherlands Cancer Institute
• James P. Allison, PhD (2014) Chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Immunology
• Joan Brugge, PhD (2012) Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology; Head of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School
• Robert A. Weinberg, PhD (2011) Member, Whitehead Institute; Professor of Biology, MIT
• Tyler Jacks, PhD (2010) David H. Koch Professor of Biology and Director, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Harald zur Hausen, DSc, MD (2008) Professor Emeritus, German Cancer Research Centre
• Eric S. Lander, PhD (2008) Director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Professor of Biology, MIT; Professor of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School; Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
• Elaine Fuchs, PhD (2007) Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor, Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology & Development, Rockefeller University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (New York, NY)
• Charles Sawyers, MD (2005) Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology, UCLA; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Los Angeles, CA)
• Susan B. Horwitz, PhD (2003) Professor and Co-Chair, Department of Molecular Pharmacology; Professor, Department of Cell Biology; Rose C. Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY)
• Charles J. Sherr, MD, PhD (1999) Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Herrick Foundation Chairman of the Dept. of Tumor Cell Biology, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, TN)
• M. Judah Folkman, MD (1996) Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
• Edward E. Harlow, Jr., PhD (1995) Research Professor of Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
• Stanley Korsmeyer, MD (1994) Chief, Molecular Oncology; Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Washington University (St. Louis, MO)
• Michael B. Sporn, MD (1993) Chief, Laboratory of Chemoprevention, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD)
• David Livingston, MD (1992) Director, Dana-Farber Cancer Center (Boston, MA)
• Peter Howley, MD (1990) Chief, Laboratory of Tumor Virus Biology, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD)
• John D. Minna, MD (1989) Chief, Navy Medical Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD)
• Webster Cavenee, PhD (1988) Director, Montreal Branch, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Montreal)
• Anthony Cerami, PhD (1987) Professor and Head, Laboratory Medicine and Biochemistry, Rockefeller University (New York, NY)
• Thomas A. Waldman, MD (1986) Chief, Metabolism Branch, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD)
• Philip Leder, MD (1985) Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
• George E. Palade, MD (1983) Nobel Laureate, 1974; Research Scientist and Professor of Cell Biology, Yale University (New Haven, CT)
• Elwood V. Jensen, PhD (1982) Director, The Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research; Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• Lloyd J. Old, MD (1980) Professor of Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY)
• Henry S. Kaplan, MD (1978) Professor of Radiology, Stanford University Medical Center (Stanford, CA)
• Renato Dulbecco, MD (1976) Nobel Laureate, 1975; Salk Institute for Biological Research (San Diego, CA) and Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories (London)