Marian Orlowski

Marian Orlowski, M.D., a distinguished Professor in Pharmacology at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, died on July 16, 2009, at the age of 86, in Chapel Hill, NC, with dignity and surrounded by family. After surviving the Holocaust through the help of strangers and friends, and with the intercession of God, he met his future wife, Jadwiga, at the Wroclaw Medical University in Wroclaw, Poland. They and their son, Robert, immigrated to America, where Marian was able to pursue his passion for biomedical research. Starting first at Tufts University, he later held positions at Rockefeller University, Cornell University Medical College, and ultimately at Mount Sinai. Among his early contributions while still in Poland was the identification of serum levels of gamma glutamyl transpeptidase as markers of liver damage, which remains a test that is widely used in clinical practice today. Later, in the United States, and in collaboration with Sherwin Wilk, Marian identified and characterized the activities of the 20S multicatalytic proteinase complex, or proteasome, a previously unknown enzyme that proved to be one of the major pathways for protein digestion inside cells. He and his colleagues also synthesized the first inhibitors of the proteasome, and thereby helped pave the way for the development of bortezomib (VELCADE), the first drug targeting the proteasome, which is now used in tens of thousands of patients worldwide to treat multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For his work on the proteasome, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2004. He is survived by his loving wife of 58 years, Jadwiga; his son, Robert and daughter-in-law, Carol of Houston, TX; and his sister, Sabina of New York, NY. A memorial service to celebrate his life will be held in North Carolina at the Judea Reform Congregation (1933 W Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC 27705, (919) 489-7062, on Sunday, July 19, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. Services will also be held at the time of internment in the New York City area at a later date. The family request that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made either to honor Marian’s life’s work, or his heritage. The former can be done by contributing to The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in his name, where the funds will be used to establish an endowed lectureship M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, Texas 77210-4486, or 1-800-525-5841, or http://www.mdanderson.org/gifts The latter can be done by contributing to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Member and Donor Services, P.O. Box 90988, Washington, DC 20090–0988, or 1-866-99USHMM, or http://www.ushmm.org/