UW Eye Research Institute
Now, over fifty years later, Daniel Albert, MD, MS, is the Retina Research Foundation Emmett A. Humble Distinguished Director of the UW Eye Research Institute. His academic career began at Yale, where he served on the faculty for seven years; he then spent seventeen years as professor at Harvard University. In 1992, he was recruited to the University of Wisconsin to serve as chair of the department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, where he continues as professor and chair emeritus.
During that half-century span, Albert became a world expert in cancer and ophthalmology, and has written over 600 peer-reviewed research publications and 25 textbooks. He is the recipient of numerous national awards, including the prestigious Lucien Howe Medal of the American Ophthalmological Society, the Fight for Sight/Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Lifetime Achievement in Vision Research, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Distinguished Service Award for his service as editor of the premier journal, Archives of Ophthalmology. Each facet of Albert’s career has been shaped by educational experiences and his years of research in the laboratory.
Early laboratory exposure during his undergraduate years at Franklin and Marshall College introduced Albert to tissue culture techniques. “These techniques were advancing in the 1950’s and I was fascinated with the process. We drove to West Chester to get fertilized eggs from a farm, and then dissected the embryos to obtain the cells we needed. We applied nerve growth factors to the cells and learned about the mechanisms that control cell growth.
“We also used HeLa cells, which were cells derived from cervical cancer tissue; these were special in that they divided an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate. We put varying doses of cyanide on the cells to learn how toxic compounds affected cells. In very small doses, the cyanide actually caused cells to grow faster, and increasing the dose then inhibited their growth.”
Daniel M. Albert, MD, MS, reviews and classifies the microscopic changes in tumor cells treated with natural chemotherapeutic compounds.
It wasn’t until his senior year in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania that Albert fell in love with the eye. He had been preparing for advanced training in pathology, but the late renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Harold Scheie convinced Albert that he could do nearly anything related to pathology by pursuing ophthalmology training, as ophthalmic pathology comprised all the diseases of the eye and also required substantial knowledge of cell mechanisms in diseases of the nervous system, neuromuscular system, and other body systems.
These early experiences combined to greatly influence Albert’s research career of nearly 40 years, which has produced significant contributions to the treatment and understanding of eye cancers, and in particular, has spurred his investigations of the use of vitamin D and other natural compounds to reduce tumor size.
His many achievements have included participation in the team that first cloned the gene for retinoblastoma, a childhood eye tumor, and—harkening back to his Franklin and Marshall experiences—the development of the first “immortalized” line of retinoblastoma cells which could be grown indefinitely in a dish. Albert was also part of the group that designed the first lab mouse with retinoblastoma. By studying these genetically-modified mice, Albert and his colleagues can simulate the development and progression of human disease and can create new treatment methods. (Next)(Previous)