Ronald Levy : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this oral history Ronald Levy, professor in the Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses growing up in Palo Alto, his education at Harvard and Stanford, and his career developing immunotherapy methods for treating lymphomas. Levy’s work with monoclonal antibodies, antibodies produced in a lab from cloned immune cells, led to the groundbreaking cancer therapy Rituximab. During Part 2 of the interview, Shoshana Levy, his wife and scientific collaborator, offers insights into their research program and life together.
- Summary
- In this oral history Ronald Levy, professor in the Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses growing up in Palo Alto, his education at Harvard and Stanford, and his career developing immunotherapy methods for treating lymphomas. Levy’s work with monoclonal antibodies, antibodies produced in a lab from cloned immune cells, led to the groundbreaking cancer therapy Rituximab. During Part 2 of the interview, Shoshana Levy, his wife and scientific collaborator, offers insights into their research program and life together. Levy begins by discussing his family and their local family business, Edwards Luggage. He talks about his undergraduate experience at Harvard University and his time at Stanford University School of Medicine. Levy explains that, in the 1960s, Stanford offered a five-year program that encouraged students to pursue multiple interests. With that flexibility, Levy chose to further his immunology research at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. He reminisces about how deeply the trip affected him. He recounts meeting his wife Shoshana, getting caught up in the Six-Day War, and learning for the first time about monoclonal antibodies from Norman Klinman. Levy describes, in detail, Klinman's technique for cultivating cloned immune cells in the tissue fragments of mice. Levy touches on other events between that visit to the Weizmann Institute and the start of his teaching career at Stanford. Some of those events include marrying Shoshana, having their three children, and working for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the Vietnam War. During the second part of the interview, Shoshana Levy joins the discussion and she and Ronald talk about how their research overlapped at Stanford and some of the projects they have collaborated on, including recent efforts to develop an antibody against the human CD81 molecule, a project that involves the use of the CRISPR gene-editing technology. Topics include producing monoclonal antibodies to target lymphoma; Philip Karr, the first patient to receive the treatment in 1981; and the founding of Idec Pharmaceuticals, which applied the technique but chose a more universal and cost-effective target called CD20 and developed the drug Rituxan®. To conclude, Levy provides additional details about the process of making monoclonal antibodies and some of the early struggles to keep the tissue cultures from dying. He also discusses other aspects of the development of Rituximab, including key collaborators and associated clinical trials. Levy closes with a discussion about his mentors, including Saul Rosenberg and Henry Kaplan, his approach to running a lab, funding and grant writing, and his twenty years of administrative service as the chief of the Division on Oncology.
Description
| Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
|---|---|
| Extent | 3 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | November 30, 2016 - 2017-11-01 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Levy, Ronald, 1941 December 6- | |
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| Creator | Levy, Ronald, 1941 December 6- | |
| Interviewer | Genovese, Jacqueline | |
| Interviewer | Marine-Street, Natalie | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Levy, Ronald, 1941 December 6- |
|---|---|
| Subject | Levy, Shoshana |
| Subject | Stanford University. School of Medicine |
| Subject | Stanford University. Department of Radiation Oncology |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile |
Dr. Ronald Levy is a professor of medicine and director of the lymphoma program at Stanford University. He obtained his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1963 and his medical degree from Stanford University in 1968. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
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| Transcript |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/kd452yz9570 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Digital recordings from this collection may be accessed freely. These files may not be reproduced or used for any purpose without permission. For permission requests, please contact Stanford University Department of Special Collections & University Archives (speccoll@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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