Kurt Julius Isselbacher (September 12, 1925 – July 18, 2019) was a German-born American physician and held the position of Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
Early life
Isselbacher was born in Wirges, Germany, to Flori (Strauss), a homemaker, and Albert Isselbacher, a merchant. His family was Jewish. After suffering atrocities from the Nazis, they emigrated and took up residence in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Education
After graduating high school in Portsmouth, Isselbacher attended Harvard College and then graduated from Harvard Medical School cum laude in 1950. After completing his residency in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1953, he became a clinical and research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Career
In 1956, Isselbacher returned to MGH and Harvard and remained there for the remainder of his professional career. He also held the position of the Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973.
Academic and scholarly activities
In 1953, while still a medical resident he published work supporting the association of asbestos exposure and cancer of the lung. While at the NIH, he discovered the enzymatic defect causing the hereditary disorder of galactosemia. This work led to the development of a test for this disorder which is now being used in routine screening of newborns. In addition, he elucidated the enzymatic mechanism for the formation of glucuronide conjugates, important for the detoxification of many compounds by the liver.
After returning from the NIH in 1956, at the age of 31 he was chosen to head the Gastrointestinal Unit at the MGH. Over the subsequent 30 years, his division became one of the leading centers of training, research and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases in the United States. His research during this period included the description and elucidation of a new hereditary disorder of leucine metabolism called isovaleric acidemia, the definition of enzymatic defects in absorptive disorders, delineations of biochemical mechanism of nutrient absorption, malabsorption, and protein synthesis, derangements of metabolism and immunologic aspects of hepatic gastrointestinal diseases.
In 1987, he undertook the challenge of becoming the first director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and in a relatively short period of time that Center emerged as a "premier" cancer research institute." He became director emeritus in 2003. For almost 30 years, (1966-1995) he served as chairman of the executive committee of Harvard's Departments of Medicine and played a pivotal role in the departments' growth and quest for excellence. Dr. Isselbacher trained over 140 clinical and research fellows both in gastroenterology and oncology and many of them have become leaders in their respective fields nationally and internationally. His publications included close to 400 journal articles and book chapters.