Leo Sachs. 14 October 1924—12 December 2013

Abstract

Leo Sachs was a worldwide renowned scientist for his major contributions in several fields. In the mid 1950s he showed that amniocentesis could be used for prenatal diagnosis of sex and blood group antigens. He then focused on various aspects of normal development and cancer, including the control of normal haematopoiesis and leukaemia, carcinogenesis in vitro by polyoma and SV40 tumour viruses, chemical carcinogens and X-rays, chromosomes and the reversibility of cancer, surface membrane changes in malignant cells and suppression of malignancy by inducing differentiation. The cell culture system he established in the early 1960s for the clonal development of normal haematopoietic cells made it possible to analyse the molecular basis of normal haematopoiesis, and discover the proteins that regulate viability, proliferation and differentiation of different blood cell lineages and the changes that drive leukaemia. His studies established significant general concepts, including: the differential responsiveness of cancer cells to normal regulators of development; suppression of myeloid leukaemia by inducing differentiation, bypassing malignancy-driving genetic defects; identification of chromosomes that control tumour suppression; discovering apoptosis as a major mechanism by which WT-p53 suppresses malignancy; and the ability of haematopoietic cytokines to suppress apoptosis in both normal and leukaemic cells. Leo was fortunate to witness his pioneering discoveries and ideas move from the basic science stage to effective clinical applications, using amniocentesis for prenatal detection of genetic abnormalities, augmenting normal haematopoiesis in patients with various haematopoietic deficiencies and suppressing malignancy by inducing differentiation and apoptosis.