MICHAEL SPORN

1933 - 2022

SPORN--Dr. Michael B. Dr. Michael B. Sporn, a physician and internationally recognized giant in cancer research, died on September29, 2022 at his home in Tunbridge, Vermont. He was 89. His prolific career was devoted to developing new approaches and drugs for the prevention and treatment of incurable cancers and chronic disease. Dr. Sporn was born in New York City, the youngest son of Philip and Sadie Sporn. He graduated from Horace Mann School and entered Harvard College at the age of 16. He left after his junior year to attend medical school at the University of Rochester and graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha honors. He began a thirty-five- year career at the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute in 1960. In 1970 he became Chief of the Lung Cancer Branch where his lab made groundbreaking discoveries that established the field of Retinoids. In 1978 he became of Chief of the NCI's Laboratory of Chemoprevention where his lab was credited with novel insights as to how tumor cells communicate with each other and for the breakthrough discovery of Transforming Growth Factor - Beta. In 1995 he left NIH/NCI to become Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School where he pioneered the design and development of synthetic triterpenoid drugs for the treatment of cancer and other chronic disease. In 2016, Dr. Sporn became active Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth and in 2018, at the age of 85, founded Triterpenoid Therapeutics, Inc., which is actively working to commercially develop his final discoveries. Dr. Sporn was known for his willingness to collaborate and mentor younger scientists. His contributions to science are memorialized in more than 500 peer reviewed journal articles. He was credited as an inventor on over twenty United States Patents and his body of research has been cited in thousands of other patent applications. He was an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research and recognized as an Eminent Scholar by the NCI. His awards and honors included the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Brinker Award. Dr. Sporn had a rich life outside of his lab. He was a classical musical enthusiast and lifelong outdoorsman who continued to hike, snowshoe, and swim up until the time of his death. His passion for horticulture was constant, and he continued to volunteer in the Palliative Care Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Dr. Sporn was predeceased by his loving wife of thirty-five years Catherine "Kitte" Sporn in 2009, and his grandson Samuel Sporn in 2015. He is survived by his son Tom and his wife Anne of New Bern, NC; his son Paul and his partner Tracy Van Hoven of Boston; grandchildren Catherine Williford (John), Sarah Daniel (Wilson), Philip Sporn, Jacob Sporn, and Katrina Sporn; and great-grandchildren Sam Williford and Thomas Daniel. A memorial service will be held for Dr. Sporn at the Strafford Town Meeting House in Strafford, VT on November 5, 2022 at 1PM. Additional tributes to Dr Sporn are contemplated for the spring of 2023 in Bethesda, MD. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Tunbridge Public Library in Tunbridge, VT.