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“HONORING DR. MINA BISSELL” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E673 on April 16, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING DR. MINA BISSELL
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HON. RONALD V. DELLUMS
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, April 16, 1997
Mr. DELLUMS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Dr. Mina Bissell of Berkeley, CA, who will be honored this month by the Department of Energy. On April 18, 1997, Dr. Bissell will receive the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for her pioneering contributions to our understanding of the extracellular matrix and microenvironment in differentiation, programmed cell death, and cancer.
Dr. Bissell's outstanding dedication as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Life Sciences Division has resulted in tremendous scientific discoveries. Among these was identifying the extracellular matrix, a network of proteins that surrounds and supports breast cancer cells as a crucial regulator of normal and malignant breast cancer cells.
Dr. Bissell was born in Iran, where she was the top high school graduate in the country and received a scholarship to study abroad. She came to the United States and studied chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, before transferring to Radcliffe College.
After earning her Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard University, she came to the University of California at Berkeley to conduct post-doctoral research. Since joining the Berkeley Lab in 1972, Dr. Bissell has worked tirelessly to increase our knowledge of cancer in the hope of someday finding a cure.
Dr. Bissell's tremendous success is largely due to the unorthodox approach she used in her research. Rather than searching for new cancerous genes, as most cancer researchers were doing, she focused on studying the changes cells go through as they develop, aiming to precisely define normal cell behavior.
This research led to many important conclusions about malignant cells that were considered heretical at the time but have since been shown to be correct. Today, thanks to Dr. Bissell's persistence and initiative, it is widely accepted that the extracellular matrix plays an important role in the spread of cancer and other abnormalities.
A driven researcher, Dr. Bissell motivates her collaborators and students with her passion for science. These traits have made her an effective leader as well as an accomplished scientist. Through her decades of dedication, Dr. Bissell has earned the respect and admiration of the cancer-research community.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to rise with me today in honoring the invaluable achievements of Dr. Mina Bissell and in wishing her continued success in her research.
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