People of ASP

Matthew Suffness received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Howard University in 1965, and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry from the Univ. Wisconsin in 1970. After a postdoc at Stanford University, he served on the faculty of Ohio Northern University until 1976 when he joined the NCI Natural Products Branch as head of the plant and animal products section. In 1983 he became chief of the Branch, and in 1989 was appointed Natural Products Grants Program coordinator. He played a major role in the evolution of the NCI natural products program as we know it today, and traveled widely delivering lectures on anticancer drug discovery and development, playing an important role in the development several drugs, including homoharringtonine, didemnin B, and bryostatin. His greatest contribution, however, was to the development of taxol for which he was a tireless advocate, organizing several workshops and administering many grants, mainly aimed at more efficient large-scale production of this valuable drug. His selfless devotion 85 to taxol was best illustrated by his editing and contributing to the volume, Taxol, Science and Applications, which was published just before his untimely death in 1995. As testimony to his commitment, the Matt Suffness Memorial Yew Grove was dedicated in July, 2000 on Weyerhaeuser land on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. Matt was also a strong advocate of young members of the ASP, and was largely responsible for initiating the Young Investigator’s Award, with the first Young Investigators’ Symposium being held in 1992 at the ASP meeting in Williamsburg, The name of the award was changed to the Matt Suffness Award in 2000, and the first Matt Suffness Symposium held at the ASP meeting in Seattle that year. (GMC)