Donald Metcalf (1929-2014)
Donald Metcalf, MD, is well known for his pioneering work on the regulation of blood cell formation. Beginning in 1965, he worked to co-develop specialized culture techniques for growing blood cells, which led to the discovery of colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), hormones that regulate white blood cell formation. Dr. Metcalf's work led to the successful cloning and mass production of CSFs, which can speed recovery in cancer patients following chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Dr. Metcalf has received many prestigious honors during his career, including the Lasker Award for Clinical Medicine, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University, and the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.