Leona D. Samson is the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and American Cancer Society Research Professor of

Biological Engineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where she served as the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences from 2001 to 2012. Before her professorship at MIT, she held a professorship at the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. She is on the editorial board of the journal ''

DNA Repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA dam ...

''. Her research interests focus on "methods for measuring DNA repair capacity (DRC) in human cells", research the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1 ...

recognized as pioneering in her field, for which the NIH granted her the

National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award is a research initiative first announced in 2004 designed to support individual scientists' biomedical research. The focus is specifically on "pioneering" research that is highly innovative ...

Education and career

Samson received her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in biochemistry from the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

in 1974. She then went on to complete her PhD in

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

from the

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

in 1978. She did five years of postdoctoral research at UCSF and UC Berkeley before joining the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1983. In 2001 MIT recruited her and she now holds two endowed professorships at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, one being the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and the other is the American Cancer Society Research Professor in the departments of Biological Engineering and Biology. She was also an adjunct professor of toxicology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 2001 she became the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at MIT. She leads a lab at MIT focusing on researching DNA alkylation repair and developing methods by which one can measure DNA repair capacity. She was recognized by the NIH for her work in 2009, when she was awarded the

, a funded grant awarded to " upportindividual scientists of exceptional creativity, who propose pioneering – and possibly transforming approaches – to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research." Since 2007 she has been a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, "the world's largest general scientific society". She has also been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Research area

Samson specializes in bacterial, yeast, mouse and human

DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA dam ...

. Specifically, her lab's goal is to "understand the biology, the biochemistry, and the genetics of numerous DNA repair pathways that act upon DNA alkylation damage." This is applicable to human

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

research, because

alkylating agent Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting al ...

s are used extensively in

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

and other cancer treatments. This work is also applicable to environmental exposures to alkylating agents in the food we eat, the fluids we drink and the air we breath. She is researching "how eukaryotic cells respond to alkylating agents." Alkylating agents are drugs which work by replacing a hydrogen with an alkyl group, with the result being DNA damage. Alkylating agents inhibit replication, transcription and

protein synthesis Protein biosynthesis (or protein synthesis) is a core biological process, occurring inside Cell (biology), cells, homeostasis, balancing the loss of cellular proteins (via Proteolysis, degradation or Protein targeting, export) through the product ...

and thus damage rapidly dividing cells, among which cancer cells are primarily affected because they divide so rapidly. She measures cells' ability to resist the toxicity caused by DNA-damaging agents, like alkylating agents.

Publications

Most of Samson's contemporary publications are written about alkylating agents in particular or about DNA repair pathways. One of her most-cited articles, "Global response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to an alkylating agent", measures the gene transcript levels of a yeast named

Saccharomyces cerevisiae ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungus microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have been o ...

. Another highly cited article, also about ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'', was published in 2000 and entitled "Regulatory Networks Revealed by Transcriptional Profiling of Damaged Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cells: Rpn4 Links Base Excision Repair with Proteasomes." This paper finds that the transcription and repair of certain genes in the yeast are regulated by the proteasome-associated protein Rpn4. Samson is also an Associate Editor of the journal ''

'', a "leading scientific journal that publishes research on cellular responses to DNA damage."

Awards

*American Cancer Society Scholar Award (1985) *American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award (1987) *Burroughs Wellcome Toxicology Scholar Award (1993) *AACR Women in Cancer Research Award (2000) *Environmental Mutagen Society Annual Award for Research Excellence (2001) *American Cancer Society Research Professor (2001) *Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (2003) *Elected President of the Environmental Mutagen Society (2004) *Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2007) *NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009) *Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation (2012) *Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2014–15) *Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2021)

Personal life

Samson married David Hunter, the Dean for Academic Affairs and current Acting Dean of the Faculty at the

, on August 5, 1989. They adopted their daughter, Claire, in 1994.

References

External links

Samson Lab Homepage

Leona D. Samson’s MIT profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samson, Leona D. Living people American bioengineers Alumni of University College London Radcliffe fellows Women bioengineers MIT School of Engineering faculty Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty 1952 births Members of the National Academy of Medicine Alumni of the University of Aberdeen