Abstract
Figure 1. Dr Roti Roti.
April 2006
The J. Eugene Robinson Award is presented annually to an investigator who has made outstanding contributions to hyperthermic oncology in one of the three main sub-disciplines: Medicine/Clinical, Biology/Physiology, Physics/Engineering. It is the highest and most prestigious award of the Society for Thermal Medicine (STM, formerly the North American Hyperthermia Society). The award is named for J. Eugene Robinson, whose publications from the early 1970s led the way in hyperthermia research as a cancer therapy modality and emphasized the importance of thermal dosimetry.
In 2005, the STM Award Committee unanimously selected Dr Joseph L. Roti Roti to join the prestigious company of Robinson awardees () for his many scientific contributions to hyperthermia biology over a period of more than 25 years. Dr Roti Roti was the first to show that chromatin structure modulated radiation-induced DNA damage and that heat shock caused altered binding of nuclear proteins. Dr Roti Roti was also a pioneer in thermal dose modeling and published a couple of trail-blazing papers on this topic in the early 1980s. Among his important scientific achievements are: (1) Determining that heat-induced altered binding of nuclear proteins inhibits DNA repair and replication and leads to cell death; (2) Establishing that a redox sensitive protein, PDI, is involved in DNA-nuclear matrix anchoring and that nucleophosmin plays a role in the heat-induced alteration of DNA-nuclear matrix anchoring; (3) Showing that moderate hyperthermia dissociates the DNA repair protein, Mre11, from the NBS-1-Rad50-Mre11 complex and drives it out of the nucleus under conditions that cause radiosensitization. These contributions have contributed significantly to our understanding of heat radiosensitization. Dr Roti Roti's scientific contributions are well documented in over 150 papers he has authored or co-authored thus far.
Table I. J. Eugene Robinson Award recipients.
Dr Roti Roti received a BS degree in Physics, from Michigan Technological University in 1965, and a PhD degree in Biophysics from the University of Rochester in 1972. He performed post-doctoral training in Radiation Biochemistry at the University of Florida- Gainesville from 1971–1973. His first academic appointment was in 1973 as a Research Instructor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Utah–Salt Lake City. He is currently a Professor of Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Cell Biology and Physiology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, where he is also the Director of the Radiation and Cancer Biology Division of the Radiation Oncology Department. Dr Roti Roti has served as Associate Editor for Radiation Research, Cell and Tissue Kinetics and Cancer Research journals; as Councillor for the Radiation Research Society, the North American Hyperthermia Society, the Cell Proliferation Society and the Bioelectromagnetics Society; and as President for the North American Hyperthermia Society and the Cell Proliferation Society. He is a current member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Hyperthermia. He was the President of the 9th International Congress of Hyperthermic Oncology that met in St. Louis in April 2004. Dr Roti Roti has also distinguished himself as a funded researcher. He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) on many research grants from both governmental and private agencies. Recently he was awarded a NCI Program Project Grant (P01) entitled ‘Radiosensitization by the Cellular Stress Response’ which seeks to develop new drugs to improve and mimic hyperthermia effects.
Dr Roti Roti has also received other honours and awards, among them are an AEC Health Physics Fellowship, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi and an NIH Career Development Award.
The Society of Thermal Medicine is grateful to Dr Joseph L. Roti Roti for his life-long career dedicated to outstanding hyperthermia research and service. We are confident that his many biological contributions and ongoing investigational efforts will continue to positively impact the field in decades to come.
On a more personal level, I want to sincerely thank Joe for the many years of exciting and highly productive inter-disciplinary research collaborations and for enriching the lives of his colleagues with his many interesting hobbies: from elaborately decorated basement miniature sets, garden-scale electric trains, Saturn-viewing with a backyard telescope, to photographic bird hunting. In the research enterprise success is made possible thanks to certain individuals that usually remain unnamed. For this reason I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Stephanie Pagano, Joe's wife of many years, who has been a constant source of motivation not only to Joe, but also to Joe's faculty and collaborators.