Bernard Weinstein, Who Studied Causes of Cancer, Dies at 78

NY Times

November 16, 2008

By JEREMY PEARCE

Dr. I. Bernard Weinstein, a researcher and top administrator at Columbia University who advanced the study of how pollutants and other environmental factors can cause cancer, died on Nov. 3 in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 78.

The cause was kidney disease, his family said.

At Columbia, where he headed the Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1985 to 1996, Dr. Weinstein investigated chemical sources of cancer and how cancers can progress in stages and over time at the molecular and cellular levels.

A former student, Richard Axel, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004, said that as early as the 1970s, Dr. Weinstein had made an important connection in recognizing that carcinogens in the environment would most likely have molecular targets in the body.

Dr. Weinstein and others investigated the cancer-causing properties of a common chemical, benzo(a)pyrene, which is found in tobacco smoke, car exhaust and charbroiled foods. He later studied cancers related to the class of compounds called nitrosamines, which are used in processed meats and pickled food products.

Dr. Axel, now a professor of biochemistry, molecular biophysics and pathology at Columbia, said, “Bernard Weinstein’s knowledge of emerging molecular genetics was combined with his research on the chemical causes of cancer to help in the creation of a new field, the field of molecular epidemiology.”

In the 1990s, Dr. Weinstein and others looked at the mechanism of a gene, known as cyclin D1, and its role in encouraging the growth of cancers of the stomach, breast, prostate and esophagus. The researchers found that irregularities of the gene could lead to a rise in cancer cells and the formation of tumors.

Their findings led to a theory that drugs might be developed to curtail the expression of cyclin D1 and to control abnormalities in cells that could otherwise result in cancer. Such drugs have yet to be found.

I. Bernard Weinstein was born in Madison, Wis. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Wisconsin before conducting research at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Weinstein was named an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia in 1961 and a professor in 1973. He also directed the division of environmental sciences at Columbia’s school of public health from 1978 to 1990 and continued to hold appointments at Columbia in medicine, genetics and public health until his death.

He was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1990 and 1991 was president of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Weinstein is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Joan Anker.

He is also survived by a son, Matthew, of Manhattan; two daughters, Claudia, of Manhattan, and Tamara, of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.