Harvey Akio Itano (November 3, 1920 – May 8, 2010) was an American biochemist best known for his work on the molecular basis of

sickle cell anemia Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red bl ...

and other diseases. In collaboration with

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topi ...

, Itano used

electrophoresis Electrophoresis, from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, "amber") and φόρησις (phórēsis, "the act of bearing"), is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric fi ...

to demonstrate the difference between normal

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythroc ...

and sickle cell hemoglobin; their 1949 paper "

Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" is a 1949 scientific paper by Linus Pauling, Harvey A. Itano, Seymour J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells that established sickle-cell anemia as a genetic disease in which affected individuals have a different ...

" (coauthored also with S. J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells) was a landmark in both

molecular medicine Molecular medicine is a broad field, where physical, chemical, biological, bioinformatics and medical techniques are used to describe molecular structures and mechanisms, identify fundamental molecular and genetic errors of disease, and to develop ...

and

protein electrophoresis Protein electrophoresis is a method for analysing the proteins in a fluid or an extract. The electrophoresis may be performed with a small volume of sample in a number of alternative ways with or without a supporting medium: SDS polyacrylamide gel ...

. In 1979, Itano became the first

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the N ...

(in the Genetics section). Itano was an emeritus professor of

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is ...

.K. W. Lee. "Remarkable Parents Who Raised Remarkable Family." ''Sacramento Union'', June 25, 1979.
Reprint from the ''Nichi Bei Times''
accessed August 25, 2008. Itano died in La Jolla, California of complications from Parkinson's disease.

Early life

Itano was born in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. Itano attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

where he was valedictorian of the Class of 1942. However, due to

Executive Order 9066 Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...

, Itano missed commencement in Berkeley after he and his family were sent to the Tanforan Assembly center, prior to being sent to the Tule Lake internment camp. Itano was later allowed to leave camp to attend the

St. Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

medical school, earning his M.D. in 1945. He then went to graduate school at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, where he received doctorates in chemistry and physics in 1950.

Research

While at Caltech, Itano joined the lab of

and began working on

, a genetic disease that Pauling was interested in. Pauling was convinced that sickle cell disease was caused by defective hemoglobin, and set Itano to find out what made sickle cell hemoglobin chemically different.Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel. ''Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics''. New York:BasicBooks, 1995. p. 90 After failing with a number of other techniques, Itano succeeded in differentiating normal and sickle cell hemoglobins using

moving boundary electrophoresis Moving-boundary electrophoresis (MBE also free-boundary electrophoresis) is a technique for separation of chemical compounds by electrophoresis in a free solution. History Moving-boundary electrophoresis was developed by Arne Tiselius in 1930. Tise ...

.The Register of Harvey Itano Papers 1946 - 2000
", MSS 0226, Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego. Accessed August 25, 2008. He used an apparatus designed by Stanley M. Swingle, a variation on the original apparatus of electrophoresis pioneer Arne Tiselius. He found that, under certain conditions, sickle cell hemoglobin is positively charged while normal hemoglobin is not, creating a difference in electrophoretic mobility. By 1956,

Vernon Ingram Vernon Martin Ingram, (May 19, 1924 – August 17, 2006) was a German–American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Biography Ingram was born in Breslau as Werner Adolf Martin Immerwahr, Lower Silesia. When he ...

had determined that this was caused by a single difference in

peptide sequence Peptides (, ) are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides. A ...

, which by 1958 he determined to be a

valine Valine (symbol Val or V) is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an α- amino group (which is in the protonated −NH3+ form under biological conditions), an α- carboxylic acid group (which is in the deprotona ...

in the sickle cell mutant hemoglobin in place of

glutamic acid Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; the ionic form is known as glutamate) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that the human body can synt ...

in normal hemoglobin A. Itano's subsequent work brought the new field of "molecular medicine" to other genetic and blood diseases. In 1954, he won the

Eli Lilly Award The Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry was established in 1934. Consisting of a bronze medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in biological chemistry by scientists not over thirty-eight years of age. The Award i ...

in Biological Chemistry, and in 1972 he won the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Achievement Award, recognizing his sickle cell work.

References

External links

The Register of Harvey Itano Papers 1946 - 2000
- UC San Diego

- ''It's in the Blood! A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin, and Sickle Cell Anemia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Itano, Harvey 1920 births 2010 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Japanese-American internees Saint Louis University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American biochemists University of California, San Diego faculty American academics of Japanese descent Saint Louis University physicists