The HVCC Chemistry Club is recognizing Harvey Akio Itano for Asian and Pacific Islander Month. According to the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington, “Harvey Akio Itano was a Japanese-American scientist whose collaboration with Linus Pauling changed the course of sickle cell anemia research and helped to establish the field of molecular medicine. Itano, who was born in Sacramento, was imprisoned with his family at the Tule Lake internment camp in California during WWII. Despite the ordeal, Itano went on to earn a medical degree from St. Louis University and a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics from CalTech. There, while studying under Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, Itano made the seminal discovery of his career. Using electrophoresis, Itano found that the hemoglobin from the red blood cells of sickle cell anemia patients differed from healthy hemoglobin, a finding that represented the first demonstration of a disease caused by an abnormality in a single molecule. For his achievements, Itano was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became the first Japanese-American to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was also inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.”
