Sir Ernest Laurence Kennaway FRS (23 May 1881 – 1 January 1958) was a British pathologist and

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

winner. He first became interested in natural life when, due to a childhood illness, he was encouraged to spend time outdoors. He was trained at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, and in 1898 was accepted into

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

on an open scholarship to study natural sciences. He graduated with a B.A. in 1903, and after three years at

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

he completed a

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United Kin ...

. After graduating he worked for

The Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, u ...

and UCL before returning to Oxford, this time to

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

on a Hulme scholarship in 1909. He became a Travelling Fellow of Brasenose in 1910, a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

in 1911 and a

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

(specifically physiological chemistry) in 1915. In 1909 he became a physiology demonstrator at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

, where he remained until he was made head of the department of chemical pathology at the Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology in 1914. As head of department he conducted research into

purine metabolism Purine metabolism refers to the metabolic pathways to synthesize and break down purines that are present in many organisms. Biosynthesis Purines are biologically synthesized as nucleotides and in particular as ribotides, i.e. bases attached to ri ...

and

ketonuria Ketonuria is a medical condition in which ketone bodies are present in the urine. It is seen in conditions in which the body produces excess ketones as an indication that it is using an alternative source of energy. It is seen during starvation o ...

, proving in 1921 that the carcinogen in coal was a

cyclic hydrocarbon A cyclic compound (or ring compound) is a term for a compound in the field of chemistry in which one or more series of atoms in the compound is connected to form a ring. Rings may vary in size from three to many atoms, and include examples where al ...

. In 1929 he discovered the first pure compound to show evidence of cancer-causing activity, 1:2:5:6-dibenzanthracene, and also discovered a series of other carcinogenic hydrocarbons including

methylcholanthrene Methylcholanthrene is a highly carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon produced by burning organic compounds at very high temperatures. Methylcholanthrene is also known as 3-methylcholanthrene, 20-methylcholanthrene or the IUPAC name 3-methy ...

. In 1930, Kennaway and

Izrael Hieger Izrael Hieger DSc (London) (13 June 1901 – 14 October 1986) was a biochemist whose work focused on carcinogenesis. He discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound. In 1937 Hieger, with colleagues Ernest Kennaway and J. W. Cook, wa ...

showed for the first time that single

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...

s (PAHs), such as dibenz ,hnthracene, are tumorigenic in mouse skin. Between 1932 and 1942 he published six articles on these discoveries in the ''Proceedings of the Royal Society''. After the death of Professor Archibald Leitch in 1931, Kenneway became professor of chemical pathology at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1946. He was awarded the

in 1941 "For his discovery of the nature of the carcinogenic substances in coal tar and for his investigations on production of cancer by synthetic substances." and was knighted in 1947. At a conference commissioned by the Medical Research Council in 1947, he suggested that cigarette smoking rather than air pollution might be a cause of the large and continuing increase in lung cancer. The conference concluded that a large-scale case-control study should be undertaken, which led to the classic study of Doll and Hill that linked smoking to lung cancer. For over thirty years he had suffered from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, and this eventually killed him on 1 January 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennaway, Ernest 1881 births 1958 deaths British biochemists British pathologists Royal Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of New College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Academics of the Institute of Cancer Research