Harvey Itano
Harvey Akio Itano | |
|---|---|
Itano in 1942 | |
| Born | November 3, 1920 Sacramento, California |
| Died | May 8, 2010 (aged 89) La Jolla, California |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley, St. Louis University, California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Differentiating normal and sickle cell hemoglobins |
| Awards | Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1954) Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Achievement Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | I. Contributions to the Study of Sickle Cell Hemoglobin II. A Rapid Diagnostic Test for Sickle Cell Anemia (1950) |
| Doctoral advisor | Linus Pauling |
Harvey Akio Itano (Japanese: 板野 秋雄, November 3, 1920 – May 8, 2010) was an American biochemist best known for his work on the molecular basis of sickle cell anemia and other diseases. In collaboration with Linus Pauling, Itano used electrophoresis to demonstrate the difference between normal hemoglobin and sickle cell hemoglobin; their 1949 paper "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" (coauthored also with S. J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells) was a landmark in both molecular medicine and protein electrophoresis, though the use of electrophoresis to separate hemoglobin variants had been pioneered by Maud Menten and collaborators some years earlier.
In 1979, Itano became the first Japanese American elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (in the Genetics section). Itano was an emeritus professor of pathology at the University of California, San Diego. In 2010, Itano died of complications from Parkinson's disease in La Jolla, California.