Tessa Laurie Holyoake, FRCP FRCPath FMedSci FRSE (17 March 1963 – 30 August 2017) was a Scottish haematology-oncology physician. She specialised in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), and discovered its stem cell. She was considered a world leading expert in leukaemia research.[1]
Tessa Laurie Holyoake | |
---|---|
Born | Aberdeen, Scotland | 17 March 1963
Died | 30 August 2017 Loch Tummel, Perthshire, Scotland | (aged 54)
Nationality | Scottish |
Education | University of Glasgow |
Occupation(s) | medical doctor, clinical scientist |
Years active | –2017 |
Known for | discovered stem cell of chronic myeloid leukaemia |
Medical career | |
Institutions | University of Glasgow, Terry Fox Laboratory |
Sub-specialties | oncology |
Research | chronic myeloid leukaemia |
Tessa Holyoake was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on 17 March 1963. She attended Albyn School.[2] She studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, and graduated in 1985.[3] She completed her PhD at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow.[4]
After specialising in oncology, she worked from 1992 to 1996 as a clinical research fellow at the Cancer Research Campaign's laboratories in Glasgow. From 1996 to 1998, she worked at Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver and discovered that primitive stem cells in CML existed in a quiescent state, and therefore they did not respond to cell cycle-active agents like imatinib.[5]
In 1999, she returned to Glasgow Royal Infirmary and in 2004, became Professor of Experimental Haematology, and Director of the Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre.[3] In 2005, she first presented work showing that a combination of imatinib or dasatinib with a farnesyl transferase inhibitor was better at eradicating CML stem cells, which was published in 2007.[6]
She developed a drug treatment to target the abnormal CML stem cell, to go beyond the current lifelong tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment.
Tessa Holyoake was married to Andy, a general practitioner; they had no children. She enjoyed mountain biking, hill walking, and kayaking, and fundraised for the Leukaemia Research Centre by cycling and climbing Munros.[7]
In addition to her research work, she continued a clinical practice as a consultant at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow.[11]
On 31 August 2017, she died of metastatic breast cancer near Loch Tummel, Perthshire. The disease had been diagnosed in 2016.[3]
The Rowley Prize is awarded each year by the International CML Foundation to celebrate people who have made outstanding lifetime contributions to the understanding of the biology of CML. Professor Holyoake receives the prize in recognition of her ground breaking work understanding and targeting CML stem cells.
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Most notably, she was the first to identify the existence of cancer stem cells in CML in 1999, during her research fellowship in Vancouver. Later, she demonstrated the resistance of these stem cells to CML-specific therapies such as imatinib. Holyoake made a world-leading contribution to her field by identifying key CML stem cell survival pathways that can be manipulated to develop potential new treatments.