MICHAEL WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS--Michael R. M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Robert Michael Williams, aka Dr. R. Michael Williams, untimely passed away on July 18, 2024. Instead of winning the Nobel Prize for his lifetime work, he died unexpectedly due to doctors' arrogance and fatal mistake. To summarize a fulfilling, exciting and productive life of a gifted humanitarian who shared his profound talent and intellectual achievements unselfishly with family, friends, colleagues and patients requires a proper biographical text. He was a rare individual with laudable accomplishments who, without being pretentious, carried himself with precise dignity and professionalism with an absolutely profound knowledge of immunology and the biology of cancer. Well known in the scientific community, Dr. Williams was an excellent student with the gift of intelligence and with the upbringing creating a socially conscious human being capable of interacting with people in a meaningful fashion. He was a valedictorian, he graduated from Yale College in 1969 with a B.A. degree in Culture and Behavior with Honors with Exceptional Distinction, magna cum laude and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from Yale University in 1970 with an M.S. degree in Microbiology (Molecular Biology & amp; Biophysics) and was trained by Dr. Byron Waksman. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1974 with an M.D, degree, magna cum laude and honors with distinction in a special field, and elected Alpha Omega Alpha. That same year, he graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with a Ph.D. in immunology. His predoctoral training was at Harvard with Dr. Baruj Benacerraf (Nobel Prize 1980). Dr. Williams and Dr. Benacerraf collaborated on thirteen papers which became the basis for the Nobel committee to award the Nobel Prize to Dr. Benacerraf in 1980. His experimental work was essential for the award, and in fact, it was Dr. Williams's paper that was presented to the Nobel Committee. He was a Clinical Fellow in Medicine with Dr. Eugene Braunwald at Harvard. His Clinical Oncology training was at Dana Farber Cancer Institute with Dr. Emil T. Frei III. Dr. Williams became an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard before he even finished his training, and later became the youngest Chief of Medical Oncology in the country. He later became the Co Founder of Cancer Treatment Centers of America which was sold to City of Hope in 2022. Dr. Williams had the understanding and knowledge of caring for patients who are ill, frightened, anxious and compromised on many levels. He treated patients as a human being. A recipient of numerous awards and the author of over 100 scientific research papers, he believed in immunotherapy and CAR-T therapy before it was fashionable, getting his Ph.D. on mouse IR (immune response). With one of his best friends, Dr. Daniel Singer (affectionately called Danny by Dr. Williams), he conceived of an immunogenetic theory for overall survival: patients with the highest number of Natural Killer (NK) cells and IgG levels could survive viruses like HIV, cancer and aging. Dr. Williams was phenomenally productive, publishing seven papers as a Yale undergraduate, one of which published as a sole author in PNAS. He published fourteen more papers while a graduate student. He trained future luminaries like Dr. James Hildreth in his lab at Harvard and they remained friends until now. Dr. Williams and Dr. Singer had already thought of how one's immune response genes could affect aging, viral disease, autoimmunity and cancer. Tolerance to self antigens, if broad enough, could leave "holes" allowing the immune system to overlook viruses like HIV orcancers. He collected data showing that patients who lived the longest, whether they had cancer or not, were the ones with the most robust immune system: the highest IgG level, and the greatest number of natural killer cells. He founded a biotech company, Immunogenetics, to exploit this observation. He studied T cell involvement in Type 1 diabetes mellitus, experimental autoimmune encephalitis (Dr. Byron Waksman's favorite experimental model), chronic active hepatitis (Dr. Edmond Yunis), and T cell suppression by HIV. He was always open to novel ideas, and wrote pioneering papers on circadian rhythms in natural killer cells, dietary effects on T cells and NK cells and psychological stress and natural killer cell activity (psychoneuroimmunology). It is fair to say that the work of Dr. Williams was fundamental in enabling the current revolution in immuno-oncology. CAR-T therapy, chimeric antigen receptor T cell treatment, is a direct result of his work in Dr. Benacerraf's lab showing the involvement of MHC genes on T cells that engage tumor antigens. Dr. Williams was known affectionately by his respectful patients as "Doc Mike" and he was trusted completely. Dr. Williams is one of the very few oncologists who was still treating patients with metastatic Stage IV disease decades later and has many Stage IV cancer patients in complete remission. He was so current in his studies that when it came time for his renewal of medical oncology board certification, he passed without studying. Dr. Williams will be sadly missed by all those privileged to have known him. The sadness is tempered by memories of his humor, joy of living, vital energy in all his endeavors and his basic decency. He is survived by his beloved wife of twenty-six years, Ellen Williams (as he affectionately called her Ellen my sweetheart Ellen) and his beloved daughters, Lizzi, Mandee, Mel and Kim. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to First Baptist Church of Augusta, 310 Pearl Street, Augusta, Arkansas 72006.