Papers of Harvey Itano, American biochemist and pioneer in the study of sickle cell anemia hematology. The collection documents Itano's research on sickle cell anemia disease and his work in the field of molecular medicine focusing on understanding of genetic and molecular basis of blood pathologies and hereditary diseases.
Harvey Itano Papers, 1946 - 2000 (MSS 226)
Extent: 3.8 Linear feet (10 archive boxes)
Harvey Akio Itano was born on November 3, 1920, in Sacramento, California, the eldest son of Masao and Sumako (Nakahara) Itano. Itano attended University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1942 with highest honors in chemistry. Due to President Roosevelt's anti-Japanese campaign following Pearl Harbor, Itano with his family was sent to the desolate Tule Lake camp. While in the camp, Itano kept applying to medical schools throughout the country. With assistance from the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, Itano was released from the camp to attend St. Louis School of Medicine. In 1945, Itano received his M.D. and continued Ph.D. studies at the California Institute of Technology in biochemistry where he studied and worked with Linus Pauling.
Itano is known for his pioneering work with sickle cell anemia disease, the topic assigned to him as a Ph.D. thesis topic by Linus Pauling. Sickle cell anemia disease is a hereditary disease commonly found among people of African descent. Itano tried several different physical and chemical methods to distinguish normal hemoglobin from sickle cell hemoglobin and finally he was able to demonstrate the difference by using electrophoresis. At that time, electrophoresis was a new technique that allowed researchers to separate molecules according to their electrical charge and Itano found a slight difference in electrophoretic mobility between normal and sickle cell hemoglobins. That led to understanding that patients with sickle cell anemia have a different type of hemoglobin than healthy individuals and thus a cause of a disease was traced to a molecule. Later, this inspired Vernon Ingram's seminal discovery of a single amino acid difference between normal and sickle cell hemoglobin and allowed him to explain a hemoglobin abnormality by an alteration in genes. After completing the project, Itano continued to work in the field of molecular medicine and published extensively about genetic and molecular basis of other blood pathologies and hereditary diseases.
Itano was awarded Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1954) and Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Achievement Award (1972) for his pioneering work on sickle cell anemia disease. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1979), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998), American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry Society (London), Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Alpha Omega Alpha.
Itano is professor emeritus in the Department of Pathology at UCSD and resides in La Jolla, California.
The papers of Harvey Itano, an American biochemist, document his pioneering research on sickle cell anemia and his work in the field of molecular medicine focusing on understanding of genetic and molecular basis of blood pathologies and hereditary diseases. Well represented in the papers are his laboratory notebooks and reprints of his journal publications. Of special interest are notebooks documenting his electrophoresis experiments that led to the discovery of a slight difference in electrophoretic mobility between normal and sickle cell hemoglobins and allowed him to explain the cause of the disease on a molecular basis. Also included are correspondence files with his colleagues in the field of molecular medicine, especially letters from Linus Pauling dating from 1946 to 1986.
The papers are arranged in five series: 1) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) NOTEBOOKS, 4) WRITINGS BY ITANO, and 5) MATERIALS RE: LINUS PAULING.