Ira Barrie Black (March 18, 1941 – January 10, 2006) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

who was an advocate of

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

research and was the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey at

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Ro ...

which was created to advance research in the field.

Early life and education

Born in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

on March 18, 1941, Black graduated from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

. He majored in philosophy at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and received his

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the 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 professional degree. T ...

from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

in 1965.Pearce, Jeremy
"Dr. Ira B. Black, 64, Leader in New Jersey Stem Cell Effort, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 12, 2006. Accessed August 13, 2009.

Professional career

He was on the faculty of the

Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York (state), New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is af ...

from 1975 to 1990, serving as the Chief of its Laboratory of Developmental Neurology as the Nathan Cummings Professor of Neurology. In 1990 he became the Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Black was an advocate for research using stem cells to repair damage from such conditions as

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 ...

and

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

and his own research showed that the technique could be used to encourage the body's own stem cells to create needed new cells and as a form of

gene therapy Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...

. Studies he performed in 2000 that were published in the ''

Journal of Neuroscience Research The ''Journal of Neuroscience Research'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of neuroscience. It was established in 1975 and is published by Wiley-Liss. The editors-in-chief are Cristina A. Ghiani and J. Paula Warr ...

'' showed that when an

antioxidant Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidation, a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals. This can lead to polymerization and other chain reactions. They are frequently added to industrial products, such as fuels and lubricant ...

was added to stem cells extracted from

bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...

, the undifferentiated stem cells transformed into cells with the characteristics of

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...

s within minutes and were successfully transplanted into the brains and

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...

s of rats. The results were called "an incredible achievement" in opening the path to creating treatments for conditions that had been previously untreatable by using stem cells to create needed cells of different forms. Black's approach was to use neurons developed from the individual's own adult stem cells to avoid issues of

transplant rejection Transplant rejection occurs when Organ transplant, transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between don ...

without requiring modifications to the genome, while avoiding the ethical concerns raised with the use of embryonic stem cells. The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, formed following the passage of legislation in 2004 making

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

the second state in the nation to approve stem cell research, named him as its first director. Affiliated with the

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey, United States. It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a major ...

, he served there as chairman of the department of neuroscience and cell biology. As director of the Stem Cell Institute, he expressed his frustration with federal opposition to embryonic stem cell research, stating that the therapies that could result from such studies had the potential to "get patients out of bed and out of wheelchairs" and that the researchers in the U.S. were trailing those elsewhere who were able to make further progress in their studies. In 1992, Black served a term as president of the

Society for Neuroscience The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a professional society, headquartered in Washington, DC, for basic scientists and physicians around the world whose research is focused on the study of the brain and nervous system. It is especially well kn ...

. Published works include his 1991 book ''Information in the Brain: A Molecular Perspective'' and the 2002 publication of ''The Changing Brain: Alzheimer's Disease and Advances in Neuroscience''.

Personal

A resident of the Skillman section of Montgomery Township and of

Andes, New York Andes is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 1,114 at the 2020 census.2020 US Census, Andes, Delaware County, New York https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cssp=SERP&q=Andes%20town,%20D ...

, Black died at age 64 of

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

related to a cancerous tumor on January 10, 2006, at the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is the flagship hospital of Penn Medicine and is located in the University City section of West Philadelphia. It is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in the United States. Histor ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

.Staff
"Neuroscientist Ira Black, stem-cell expert"
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', January 11, 2006. Accessed August 14, 2009. He is survived by his son, Reed, and his wife of thirty years, Janet Lindquist Black. The couple divorced in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Ira 1941 births 2006 deaths American neuroscientists The Bronx High School of Science alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni Cornell University faculty Deaths from sepsis University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey faculty Harvard Medical School alumni Infectious disease deaths in Pennsylvania People from Andes, New York People from Montgomery Township, New Jersey Scientists from the Bronx Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania