Anita Roberts

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Anita B. Roberts, (April 3, 1942 – May 26, 2006) was a molecular biologist who made pioneering observations of a protein that is critical in healing wounds and bone fractures and that has a dual role in blocking or stimulating cancers. Roberts was the 49th most-cited scientist in the world and the third most-cited female scientist as of 2005.

Roberts was born in in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she grew up. She attended Oberlin College and earned her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. After postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Roberts joined the National Cancer Institute in 1976. From 1995 to 2004, she served as Chief of the institute's Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis, and continued her research until her death in 2006.

In the early 1980's, Dr. Roberts and her colleagues at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland began to experiment with the protein, called T.G.F.-beta, short for transforming growth factor beta.

Dr. Roberts isolated the protein from bovine kidney tissue and compared her results with T.G.F.-beta taken from human blood platelets and placental tissue. Institute researchers then began a series of experiments to determine the protein's characteristics. They discovered that it helps play a central role in signaling other growth factors in the body to heal wounds and fractures speedily.

T.G.F.-beta was later shown to have an effect on regulation of the heartbeat and the response of the eye to aging.

In later research, Dr. Roberts and others found that T.G.F.-beta inhibits the growth of some cancers while stimulating growth in advanced cancers, including cancers of the breast and lung.

Dr. Roberts was a former president of the Wound Healing Society. In 2005, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In an ironic twist of life, after over 25 years of cancer research, Roberts was diagnosed with stage IV gastric cancer in March 2004. She received a degree of fame in the cancer community for her blog, detailing her daily struggles with the disease. She died on May 26, 2006.