Hildegard Lamfrom

Lamfrom was born into a Jewish family in Augsburg, Germany, in 1922, the eldest of three sisters (Gertrude (Gert) Boyle and Eva). Her family fled Germany in 1937, when she was 15, and established themselves in Portland, Oregon. Her father, who had owned a shirt factory in Germany bought a small hat and cap company that the family grew into Columbia Sportswear. Her sister Gert Boyle would later run the company and become an entrepreneurial icon, later donating large amounts of money to cancer research in her sister's honor. Hiledgard graduated from Grant High School in Portland. She earned a BA in biology from Reed and did research on avian malaria with Ralph Macy. She then earned an MA from Oregon State University. She was accepted to Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve University)'s medical school, but decided to focus on research. She studied the renin system with pathologist Harry Goldblatt at Case Western and earned her PhD in 1949. == Career ==

Lamfrom went with her PhD advisor Harry Goldblatt to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. From 1962 to 1965 she continued research on protein synthesis at the MRC Laboratory in Cambridge, England, working with Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner. She then went to work at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris (1965-1967). She went on to collaborate with her close friend Anand Sarabhai at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Eugene, Oregon from 1967-1970. The pair then researched in UCSD's chemistry department, where they collaborated with John Abelson to study tRNA synthesis. In the 1970's Lamfrom and Sarabhai spent extended periods of time in India and established a research laboratory called Biocenter. The last two years of her career were spent at Harvard Medical School, working with Tom Benjamin studying the involvement of middle T-antigen in tumor induction. == Research ==

The beginning of Lamfrom's career was spent studying the renin-antirenin system with pathologist Harry Goldblatt. She also was one of the well as the existence of polyribosomes (aka polysomes) (multiple ribosomes translating on the same mRNA). The last two years of her career were spent at Harvard Medical School, working with Tom Benjamin studying the involvement of middle T-antigen in tumor induction. == Personal life and honors ==

Lamfrom met her life partner, Anand Sarabha, in India. OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute provides Hildegard Lamfrom Research Scholar Awards to early-stage cancer researchers, with funding from an endowment established by her nephew, Tim Boyle, CEO of Columbia Sportswear, and his wife Mary. In 2010, her sister Gert Boyle gave an anonymous $100 million donation to the school in her sister's honor. Gert, Tim and Mary Boyle, donated $2.5 million to create the Hildegard Lamfrom Endowed Chair in Basic Science at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. Hildegard is remembered as an influential mentor to young scientists, including Brian Druker. In 2014, Tim and Mary donated $10 million to the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to create a mentorship fund in her honor. == Key publications ==