| Paul Eston Lacy | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 7, 1924 Trinway, Ohio |
| Died | February 15, 2005 |
| Residence | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Citizenship | US |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Anatomy; Experimental Pathology |
| Institutions | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Alma mater | Ohio State University; University of Minnesota |
| Known for | Research in diabetes mellitus |
Paul Eston Lacy, M.D., Ph.D. (February 7, 1924 - February 15, 2005) was an anatomist & experimentalist and one of the world’s leading diabetes mellitus researchers. He is often credited as the originator of islet transplantation.
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Lacy was born in Trinway, OH in February, 1924. He was educated at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, both as an undergraduate and a medical student, obtaining B.S. and M.D. degrees in 1944 and 1948, respectively. From there Lacy matriculated to the Mayo Clinic & Mayo Foundation in Rochester, MN, for graduate work in anatomy & experimental pathology. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree in that discipline by the University of Minnesota in 1955.[1]
In 1955, Lacy was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. He undertook research into the characterization of endocrine cells in the pancreas, utilizing ultrastructural and fluorescent-antibody-labeling methods.[2][3] That extramurally-funded work resulted in a better understanding of how beta cells in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans produced and exported insulin, and it steadily pushed Lacy up through the academic ranks.
In 1961, Lacy was named the sixth chairman of Pathology at Washington University, having been preceded by Dr. Eugene Lindsay Opie, Dr. Leo Loeb, Dr. Howard McCordock, Dr. Robert Alan Moore, and Dr. Stanley Hartroft.[4] The last of those individuals had concentrated his efforts almost exclusively at building a strong research program in the department, and Lacy furthered that process. Indeed, never having been trained in a clinical patient-care specialty, he took only passing interest in surgical pathology or laboratory medicine. That was ironic, because Dr. Lauren Ackerman—one of the preeminent surgical pathologists of all time—was concurrently a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at Washington University.[5] Ultimately, Lacy did invite Ackerman to join his department; subsequently, the two had a reasonably cordial but somewhat-distant professional relationship for the next decade.[6]
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Lacy collaborated with Dr. Walter F. Ballinger, chairperson of Surgery at Washington University, on the experimental technique of beta islet-cell transplantion in animals as a treatment for diabetes mellitus. [7][8] In 1989, that work eventuated in the first successful islet-cell transplant in a human being.[9] Research into the procedure continues, but as of 2010 it had not been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration as a mainstream clinical therapy.
Lacy stepped down from his Pathology chairmanship in 1984, to be succeeded by Dr. Emil R. Unanue, who was similarly a basic scientist rather than a clinical physician. Lacy remained on the Washington University faculty and retained an active role in diabetes research for another 20 years thereafter.
Lacy had a keen interest in literature, art, and music. He was married to his first wife, Ellen, for more than 50 years; the couple had 2 sons. Mrs. Lacy died in 1998 of lung cancer. In 2002, Lacy married Bonnie Mattingly. The following year, Dr. Lacy developed usual interstitial pneumonia (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis).[10] That condition took his life on February 15, 2005. He is buried in Zanesville, OH.