Anita Bauer Roberts was an American molecular biologist who made pioneering observations of a protein, TGF-β, that is critical in healing wounds and bone fractures and that has a dual role in blocking or stimulating cancers. She is ranked as one of the top 50 most cited biological scientists in the world.
Life
Roberts was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she grew up. In 1964, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in chemistry at Oberlin College. She earned her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1968, working under Hector DeLuca on retinoid metabolism. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, a staff chemist at Aerospace Research Applications Center, and an instructor in chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington. 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 there until her death in 2006. In the early 1980s, Roberts and her colleagues at the NationalCancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland began to experiment with the protein transforming growth factor beta, commonly referred to as TGF-β. Roberts isolated the protein from bovine kidney tissue and compared her results with TGF-β taken from human bloodplatelets 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. TGF-β was later shown to have additional effects, including regulation of the heartbeat and the response of the eye to aging. In her continuing research, Roberts and others found that TGF-β inhibits the growth of some cancers while stimulating growth in advanced cancers, including cancers of the breast and lung. Roberts was a former president of the Wound Healing Society In 2005, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Roberts herself 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.
