Leonard M. Hjelmeland

Larry Hjelmeland, Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology, and former Chair of the Department of Biochemsitry and Molecular Medicine at UC Davis, was born in 1948 in Atascadero, California. He graduated from Stanford in 1971 with a degree in Mathematics and Chemistry. Remarkably, he published his first paper as an undergraduate, an article in Discrete Mathematics, entitled “Constructive graph labeling using double cosets.” He used to kid that this was the last time his name and the word “discrete” appeared on the same page.

Larry entered the PhD program in Biophysical Chemistry at Stanford in 1971. His main area of study was the quantum chemistry of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, but he continued work in math and computer science, participating in the first forays into artificial Intelligence. He received the PhD in 1976.

In 1977, Larry moved to the Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the NIH in Bethesda, where he was a Staff Fellow. At this time the field of protein electrophoresis was undergoing a renaissance but was plagued by the problem of isolating insoluble membrane proteins while retaining functionality. Larry brought his chemistry training to bear, working to develop detergents that could achieve this goal. While he published many manuscripts during this period at the NICHD, a highlight was his synthesis and patenting of a zwitterionic, non-denaturing detergent, referred to as CHAPS, which became very widely used in the community of cell biologists and biochemists. This achievement earned him the Inventor’s Award from the NIH.

In 1982 Larry moved to the National Eye Institute where he began work on growth factors and their role in a variety of ocular processes such as cell migration, differentiation, wound repair, and neovascularization, a theme which would characterize his work until his retirement.

Larry was recruited as a faculty member in the U.C. Davis Department of Ophthalmology in 1986. He went on to procure decades of funding from the National Eye Institute, as well as from private foundations. He built a laboratory which was the training ground for numerous Ph.D. students who went on to careers in academia, medicine, industry and foundations. He also mentored many ophthalmologists to careers as clinician-scientists at major academic medical centers. These included many scholars from Japan and Switzerland. Ultimately, Larry contributed 113 manuscripts to the scholarly literature, advancing our knowledge across a wide range of disciplines and establishing himself as a highly respected scientist, known internationally for his work. Through his work and his mentoring, he had a major impact in the field of vision research, advancing knowledge and training the next generation of scientists.

Notably, the publication in which he described the development of a human retinal pigmented epithelial cell line, called “ARPE 19,” remains the most cited work in the history of the journal Experimental Eye Research. This cell line enabled an enormous number of valuable advances in the study of the retinal pigment epithelium and is now being used by pharmaceutical companies for the development of therapeutic approaches to treating ocular disease and producing protein pharmacologics.

In addition to his bench research, Larry contributed at many key levels, both to the campus and to the national/international community of Vision Research. At UC Davis, Larry served as the Chair of the Dept. of Biological Chemistry, Acting Associate dean for Research in the School of Medicine, and as Special Assistant to the Provost where he chaired the Building Committee for the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility. He served on the Editorial Boards of major journals, as a consultant to industry partners, and as a member of NIH Study Sections, to name but a few on a long list of activities.  

Larry’s career success qualifies as “stellar” by any measure, but it is all the more compelling in light of the obstacles he had to overcome. As a teenager he was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes, and ultimately lost his sight to it while working at the National Eye Institute in the early 80s. To overcome this, Larry was at the leading edge of machine-human interfacing, consulting with companies that developed talking computers, and later smartphones. When Larry’s kidneys began to fail, he was kept alive by dialysis until he received a transplant from his sister. While waiting for the transplant he developed prostate cancer, which delayed the transplant and extended his time on dialysis. He dealt as well with several other serious health issues. Despite these life-threatening events, Larry maintained an admirable equanimity and an awesome sense of humor. To those of us who have known him for decades it was remarkable that we never heard him complain; it just wasn’t in his nature. That Larry succeeded in the face of such obstacles defies description. Larry managed to meet every new challenge he faced. He was a man of exceptional empathy for others, and his resilience and perseverance in the face of innumerable setbacks inspired and motivated everyone who knew him.

Larry’s amazing intellect, seemingly unlimited memory, and broad knowledge never ceased to amaze. There seemed to be no area in which was not deeply knowledgeable and well-read, from theology and philosophy to quantum mechanics, from Pink Floyd to Persian poetry.

When queried by his peers about where he found the strength to keep pushing, he attributed it to his desire to be the best husband, father and provider to his wife, Mary Kay, and daughter, Anna. In that, he achieved perhaps his greatest success.

Larry made a huge impact on all our lives, both scientific and personal, and he will be greatly missed.

Paul FitzGerald, Ph.D.
Mark Mannis, M.D.