Paola S. Timiras

Paola S. Timiras, M.D., Ph.D., (July 21, 1923 Rome, Italy - September 12, 2008 Berkeley, California, USA)

Biography

Dr. Paola S. Timiras obtained her medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1947 and her Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal in 1952. During her postdoctoral work at the University of Montreal her supervisor was the endocrinologist Hans Selye. One of Timiras's colleagues was fellow postdoc and future Nobel laureate Roger Guillemin.

Hans Selye, who had developed the first theories about the body's hormonal responses to stress. At his suggestion, Timiras applied for and won a research fellowship that allowed her to work in his lab. There, she studied how stress influences the immune system through the effects of adrenocortical hormones. Before she finished her degree, the university hired her as an assistant professor.

Very little research had scrutinized the effects of hormones on the brain, so she decided to focus on this area. In 1954, she moved to Salt Lake City to pursue that line of inquiry in the pharmacology department at the University of Utah.

In 1955, she joined the University of California, Berkeley physiology department as an assistant physiologist and was appointed to the faculty in 1958. She became a full professor in 1967, she is now Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and currently a co-director of Center for Research and Education on Aging (CREA) at UC Berkeley. She has published more than 15 books and hundreds of peer reviewed papers.

Recently at UC Berkeley, Timiras and her graduate students, in collaboration Steven A. Garan, studied the effects of caloric restriction on various hypothalamic nuclei, specifically the effects on cell density, estrogen receptor alpha immunoreactivity and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptor immunoreactivity. An Automated Imaging Microscope System (AIMS) was developed in order to generate three-dimensional maps of the mouse hypothalamus.

On Friday, September 12, 2008, a few hours after conducting a lab meeting at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with her students and research collaborators, Dr. Paola S. Timiras passed away from complications from her heart surgery which was performed in the spring 2008.

Honors and Awards

*1970: President, Iota Sigma Pi, Association of Women Chemists
*1974-1982: Vice-President and President, International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology
*1978-1982: President, International Society of Developmental Neuroscience
*1984: Silver Award from the University of Chieti Medical School, Italy, for consultation on establishing courses on aging
*1985: Gold Medal for Research Award, American Aging Association
*1987: Andres Bello Decoration from Venezuela for contributing to international biomedical advancement
*1990: Medal from University of Paris, XI, for promotion of joint Paris XI-UC Berkeley programs in biomedical sciences
*1991: Medal from University of Pau (France), for fostering France-USA cultural relations
*1996: Medal from University of Pisa (Italy), for fostering Italy-USA scientific/ biomedical relations

Published works

Recent Papers

*Saeed O, Yaghmaie F, Garan SA, Gouw AM, Voelker MA, Sternberg H, Timiras PS., Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor immunoreactive cells are selectively maintained in the paraventricular hypothalamus of calorically restricted mice., Int J Dev Neurosci. 2007 Feb;25(1):23-8. Epub 2006 Dec 27.
*Yaghmaie F, Saeed O, Garan SA, Voelker MA, Gouw AM, Freitag W, Sternberg H, Timiras PS., Age-dependent loss of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor immunoreactive cells in the supraoptic hypothalamus is reduced in calorically restricted mice., Int J Dev Neurosci. 2006 Nov;24(7):431-6. Epub 2006 Oct 10.
*Yaghmaie F, Saeed O, Garan SA, Freitag W, Timiras PS, Sternberg H., Caloric restriction reduces cell loss and maintains estrogen receptor-alpha immunoreactivity in the pre-optic hypothalamus of female B6D2F1 mice., Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2005 Jun;26(3):197-203.
*Timiras PS, Yaghmaie F, Saeed O, Thung E, Chinn G., The ageing phenome: caloric restriction and hormones promote neural cell survival, growth, and de-differentiation., Mech Ageing Dev. 2005 Jan;126(1):3-9.
*Ambegaokar SS, Wu L, Alamshahi K, Lau J, Jazayeri L, Chan S, Khanna P, Hsieh E, Timiras PS., Curcumin inhibits dose-dependently and time-dependently neuroglial cell proliferation and growth., Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2003 Dec;24(6):469-73.
*Weinert BT, Timiras PS., Invited review: Theories of aging., J Appl Physiol. 2003 Oct;95(4):1706-16. Review.
*Garan SA, Neudorf J, Tonkin J, McCook LR, Timiras PS.,Creating Three-Dimensional Neuronal Maps of the Mouse Hypothalamus Using an Automated Imaging Microscope System., Experimental Gerontology, Volume 35 numbers 9-10, December 2000, page 1421
*Shy H, Malaiyandi L, Timiras PS., Protective action of 17beta-estradiol and tamoxifen on glutamate toxicity in glial cells., Int J Dev Neurosci. 2000 Apr-Jun;18(2-3):289-97.
*Chang D, Kwan J, Timiras PS., Estrogens influence growth, maturation, and amyloid beta-peptide production in neuroblastoma cells and in a beta-APP transfected kidney 293 cell line., Adv Exp Med Biol. 1997;429:261-71.
*Goya L, Feng PT, Aliabadi S, Timiras PS., Effect of growth factors on the in vitro growth and differentiation of early and late passage C6 glioma cells., Int J Dev Neurosci. 1996 Jul;14(4):409-17.

Books

*"Physiological Basis of Aging And Geriatrics" by Paola S. Timiras, August 2007 4th edition
*"Stress, Adaptation, Longevite" by Paola S. Timiras, January 2004
*"Physiological Basis of Aging and Geriatrics", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), September 2002 3rd edition
*"Studies of Aging : Lab Manual", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Hal Sternberg (Editor), September 1999
*"Genetic Aberrancies and Neurodegenerative Disorders", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), E. Edward Bittar (Editor), Mark P. Mattson (Editor), October 1998
*"Advances in Cell Aging and Gerontology : The Aging Brain", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), E. Edward Bittar (Editor), Mark P. Mattson (Editor), James, W. Geddes (Editor), March 1998
*"Brain Plasticity : Development and Aging", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Antonia Vernadakis (Editor), Guido Filogamo (Editor), Alain M. Privat (Editor), Fulvia Gremo (Editor), December 1997
*"Advances in Cell Aging and Gerontology : Some Aspects of the Aging Process", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), E. Edward Bittar (Editor), October 1996
*"Hormones and Aging", by Paola S. Timiras, Antonia Vernadakis (Editor), Wilbur D. Quay, April 1995
*"Physiological Basis of Aging and Geriatrics", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), October 1994 2nd edition
*"Plasticity and Regeneration of the Nervous System", by Paola S. Timiras, Ezio Giacobini (Editor), Alain Privat, December 1991
*"Handbook of Human Growth and Developmental Biology : Developmental Biology of Organs and Systems Part A Muscle, Blood, and Immunity", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Esmail Meisami, January 1991
*"Handbook of Human Growth and Developmental Biology : Endocrines,Sexual Development, Growth, Nutrition, and Metabolism/Part B Growth, Nutrition, and", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Esmial Meisami, February 1990
*"Handbook of Human Growth and Developmental Biology : Endocrines, Sexual Development, Growth, Nutrition, and Metabolism/Part A Endocrines and Sexual", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Esmail Meisami, October 1989
*"Handbook of Human Growth and Developmental Biology, Part B : Sensory, Motor, and Integrative Development", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Esmail Meisami, October 198
*"Handbook of Human Growth and Development, Part A, Developmental Neurobiology", by Paola S. Timiras (Editor), Esmail Meisami ,September 1988
*"Model Systems of Development and Aging of the Nervous System", by Paola S. Timiras, Jean M. Lauder, Antonia Vernadakis, Alain Privat, Gi, August 1987,
*"A Stereotaxic Atlas of the Developing Rat Brain", by Paola S. Timiras, Nancy Sherwood, January 1970

External links

* [http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/09/17_timiras.shtml Obituary]