In Memoriam
Satyabrata Nandi
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, Emeritus
UC Berkeley
1931-2017
Satyabrata Nandi, emeritus professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, passed away at his home in Berkeley on July 29, 2017, at the age of 86. Ranu, as he was called by his friends and family, served on the Berkeley faculty for more than 40 years. He was born on December 1, 1931, in North Lakhimpur, Assam, and was raised with eight other siblings.
Ranu always remained a humble person, while surmounting extraordinary challenges at key moments in his life. He moved to Kolkata, India, to carry out undergraduate studies in biology and zoology at the University of Calcutta. His family then joined him after losing their home and fleeing to India as refugees during the India-Pakistan partition of 1947. Ranu earned his bachelor of science degree with honors in 1949 and his master of science degree in zoology in 1951, also at the University of Calcutta.
After a three-month journey by sea, he began his doctoral studies in the Department of Zoology at UC Berkeley in 1954. He worked under the mentorship of Professor Howard Bern, who became one of his closest friends. This was a transformative life-changing experience for Ranu and the rest of his family. In the Bern lab he worked on the way in which hormones influence mammary tumor susceptibility in mice and on the role of mouse mammary tumor virus in mammary cancer and finished his Ph.D. degree in 1958. He stayed at Berkeley for his postdoctoral work and was then appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology in 1962, subsequently rising through the ranks and being promoted to professor in 1968. Ranu moved to the newly-established Department of Molecular and Cell Biology in 1989, and he remained on the Berkeley faculty until retiring in 2004.
Ranu’s campus service included his leadership role as the director of the Cancer Research Laboratory (CRL) at Berkeley from 1974 to 1984. As director, he expanded the scope and renewed the scientific focus of this organized research unit, transforming it into a valued cancer biology resource on campus, as well as making the CRL feel like a family for everyone associated with it. For many years Ranu served as the program director of the only cancer biology training grant and program on campus. Among a number of contributions to his profession, Ranu served on the editorial boards of leading journals in his field, was chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Association of Breast Cancer Research, and he served on the Executive Board of the International Symposium on Hormonal Carcinogenesis.
Ranu’s modesty, resiliency, and confidence nurtured a life path and mindset that permeated his scholarship at Berkeley. He dedicated more than 50 years of his life to studies on the biology of the mammary gland, and his innovative perspectives significantly contributed to our understanding of breast cancer and mammary biology, moving the field in new and important directions.
Ranu’s laboratory made a major breakthrough by developing a method to isolate viable primary epithelial cells from mammary glands and culture the cells on and in collagen gels in defined media. This method led to the identification of various molecules, including hormones, growth factors, and lipids, that are required for the proliferation and differentiation of mammary epithelial cells. These studies laid the foundation for Ranu’s later work with three-dimensional cultures of primary mammary cells that mimic critical features of mammary tissue.
His laboratory also pioneered the in vivo study of chemically-induced mammary carcinogenesis. Ranu and his colleagues showed that short term treatment of rats with pregnancy levels of estradiol and progesterone had a unique protective effect and lowered the incidence of mammary tumors following exposure to chemical carcinogens. These studies significantly advanced the understanding of how reproductive hormones control mammary tumorigenesis and suggested potential novel strategies for the treatment of breast cancer.
Detailed molecular studies by Ranu’s laboratory led to the identification of K-ras mutations in chemically-induced mammary cancers, an understanding of mammary gland development and tumorigenesis in Wnt-1 transgenic mice, and the identification of a gene, rat mammary tumor-1 (RMT-1), that is highly expressed in mammary tumors. Other studies from Ranu’s laboratory established that both estrogen and progesterone were required for the development of tumors in a strain of rats that develops a high incidence of mammary cancers.
Ranu’s most cited paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA in 1995, proposed a unifying hypothesis on the role of hormones in mammary carcinogenesis in mice, rats, and humans. This article reviewed the critical roles of hormones in regulating luminal mammary epithelial cell proliferation in these organisms, and how different compositions of two distinct ovarian hormone-responsive mammary epithelial cell populations at the time of the carcinogenic event may give rise to different proportions of hormone-dependent and hormone-independent mammary tumors.
Ranu was a talented and dedicated scholar, a bold thinker, a world leader, and an innovator in the field of reproductive cancer biology. During his tenure at Berkeley, he published around 300 papers, reviews, and book chapters, and he established a number of productive collaborations, including a long-term multidisciplinary interaction between researchers at Berkeley and groups at UC San Francisco. He was internationally recognized for his scientific contributions, and he was sought out as a speaker, giving numerous invited seminars and keynote addresses at national and international venues. Ranu was awarded the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967. And in 1979, because of his significant contributions to breast cancer and reproductive research, the Indian Ambassador to the United States recognized Ranu as one of the most outstanding Indian American Scientists in America. He also received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research, as well as a Breast Cancer Achievement Award from the North American Bengali Conference.
Ranu was a consummate professional with many endearing traits, including his ability to stay calm, humble, and resilient in the face of any difficulties. He was a kind, gracious, and generous colleague who treated everyone with respect and patience. He was an outstanding mentor to the many students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff in his laboratory due to his ability to combine kindness and individual support. Through his thoughtful guidance, Ranu cultivated an environment that allowed his students and young colleagues to excel and develop professionally, and to think critically. Many former members of his laboratory went on to highly productive careers at academic institutions and biotechnology companies.
Ranu loved Berkeley and America and was forever grateful for the chance which the university, and especially his mentor and close friend Professor Howard Bern, took on a young East Indian student from across the sea. His life of service to science, education, and family is encapsulated by the following quotation from the famous Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore: "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
Ranu was deeply devoted to his family and friends. He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Dr. Jean Nandi, whom Ranu met in graduate school and married in 1957; by their children, Rhea, Rini, and Amitava; and by his adoring extended family, who will forever be inspired by his example.
Gary L. Firestone
G. Steven Martin
2020
Ranu always remained a humble person, while surmounting extraordinary challenges at key moments in his life. He moved to Kolkata, India, to carry out undergraduate studies in biology and zoology at the University of Calcutta. His family then joined him after losing their home and fleeing to India as refugees during the India-Pakistan partition of 1947. Ranu earned his bachelor of science degree with honors in 1949 and his master of science degree in zoology in 1951, also at the University of Calcutta.
After a three-month journey by sea, he began his doctoral studies in the Department of Zoology at UC Berkeley in 1954. He worked under the mentorship of Professor Howard Bern, who became one of his closest friends. This was a transformative life-changing experience for Ranu and the rest of his family. In the Bern lab he worked on the way in which hormones influence mammary tumor susceptibility in mice and on the role of mouse mammary tumor virus in mammary cancer and finished his Ph.D. degree in 1958. He stayed at Berkeley for his postdoctoral work and was then appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology in 1962, subsequently rising through the ranks and being promoted to professor in 1968. Ranu moved to the newly-established Department of Molecular and Cell Biology in 1989, and he remained on the Berkeley faculty until retiring in 2004.
Ranu’s campus service included his leadership role as the director of the Cancer Research Laboratory (CRL) at Berkeley from 1974 to 1984. As director, he expanded the scope and renewed the scientific focus of this organized research unit, transforming it into a valued cancer biology resource on campus, as well as making the CRL feel like a family for everyone associated with it. For many years Ranu served as the program director of the only cancer biology training grant and program on campus. Among a number of contributions to his profession, Ranu served on the editorial boards of leading journals in his field, was chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Association of Breast Cancer Research, and he served on the Executive Board of the International Symposium on Hormonal Carcinogenesis.
Ranu’s modesty, resiliency, and confidence nurtured a life path and mindset that permeated his scholarship at Berkeley. He dedicated more than 50 years of his life to studies on the biology of the mammary gland, and his innovative perspectives significantly contributed to our understanding of breast cancer and mammary biology, moving the field in new and important directions.
Ranu’s laboratory made a major breakthrough by developing a method to isolate viable primary epithelial cells from mammary glands and culture the cells on and in collagen gels in defined media. This method led to the identification of various molecules, including hormones, growth factors, and lipids, that are required for the proliferation and differentiation of mammary epithelial cells. These studies laid the foundation for Ranu’s later work with three-dimensional cultures of primary mammary cells that mimic critical features of mammary tissue.
His laboratory also pioneered the in vivo study of chemically-induced mammary carcinogenesis. Ranu and his colleagues showed that short term treatment of rats with pregnancy levels of estradiol and progesterone had a unique protective effect and lowered the incidence of mammary tumors following exposure to chemical carcinogens. These studies significantly advanced the understanding of how reproductive hormones control mammary tumorigenesis and suggested potential novel strategies for the treatment of breast cancer.
Detailed molecular studies by Ranu’s laboratory led to the identification of K-ras mutations in chemically-induced mammary cancers, an understanding of mammary gland development and tumorigenesis in Wnt-1 transgenic mice, and the identification of a gene, rat mammary tumor-1 (RMT-1), that is highly expressed in mammary tumors. Other studies from Ranu’s laboratory established that both estrogen and progesterone were required for the development of tumors in a strain of rats that develops a high incidence of mammary cancers.
Ranu’s most cited paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA in 1995, proposed a unifying hypothesis on the role of hormones in mammary carcinogenesis in mice, rats, and humans. This article reviewed the critical roles of hormones in regulating luminal mammary epithelial cell proliferation in these organisms, and how different compositions of two distinct ovarian hormone-responsive mammary epithelial cell populations at the time of the carcinogenic event may give rise to different proportions of hormone-dependent and hormone-independent mammary tumors.
Ranu was a talented and dedicated scholar, a bold thinker, a world leader, and an innovator in the field of reproductive cancer biology. During his tenure at Berkeley, he published around 300 papers, reviews, and book chapters, and he established a number of productive collaborations, including a long-term multidisciplinary interaction between researchers at Berkeley and groups at UC San Francisco. He was internationally recognized for his scientific contributions, and he was sought out as a speaker, giving numerous invited seminars and keynote addresses at national and international venues. Ranu was awarded the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967. And in 1979, because of his significant contributions to breast cancer and reproductive research, the Indian Ambassador to the United States recognized Ranu as one of the most outstanding Indian American Scientists in America. He also received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research, as well as a Breast Cancer Achievement Award from the North American Bengali Conference.
Ranu was a consummate professional with many endearing traits, including his ability to stay calm, humble, and resilient in the face of any difficulties. He was a kind, gracious, and generous colleague who treated everyone with respect and patience. He was an outstanding mentor to the many students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff in his laboratory due to his ability to combine kindness and individual support. Through his thoughtful guidance, Ranu cultivated an environment that allowed his students and young colleagues to excel and develop professionally, and to think critically. Many former members of his laboratory went on to highly productive careers at academic institutions and biotechnology companies.
Ranu loved Berkeley and America and was forever grateful for the chance which the university, and especially his mentor and close friend Professor Howard Bern, took on a young East Indian student from across the sea. His life of service to science, education, and family is encapsulated by the following quotation from the famous Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore: "I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
Ranu was deeply devoted to his family and friends. He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Dr. Jean Nandi, whom Ranu met in graduate school and married in 1957; by their children, Rhea, Rini, and Amitava; and by his adoring extended family, who will forever be inspired by his example.
Gary L. Firestone
G. Steven Martin
2020
