Mina Bissell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mina J. Bissell is an Iranian-American biologist and a world-recognized leader in the area of the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and microenvironment in regulation of tissue-specific function, with special emphasis on breast cancer.

Mina Bissell, celebrated biologist

She was brought up in a well-educated and well-to-do family. By the time she graduated high school, Bissell was the top graduate in her year in Iran^{[citation needed]}. A family friend, through the American Friends of Iran, encouraged Bissell to come to the United States.[1]

She joined Berkeley Lab as a staff biochemist in 1972 and subsequently became a Senior Scientist, Director of Cell & Molecular Biology, Director of the Life Sciences Division, and Distinguished Scientist. In 1996, she received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and medal, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the United States Department of Energy. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, Bissell was recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Mellon Award from the University of Pittsburgh, and the Eli Lilly/Clowes Award of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Mina is the ex-head of biology at LBL. Her work started over 30 years ago on the effect of tissue architecture and the role of the cellular microenvironment on cancer still has become increasingly influential in the field of cancer biology and cancer therapeutics, and her name has been suggested as a possible candidate for a Nobel prize.

Bissell is credited with the radical, but true notion that phenotype can dominate over genotype in normal development and disease.