Umberto Saffiotti was born in Milan, Italy, on January 22, 1928. He entered the University of Milan Medical School in 1944, received the M.D. degree (cum laude) in 1951, and was trained at the Institute of Pathologic Anatomy. Dr. Saffiotti conducted Carcinogenesis research with Dr. P. Shubik at the Chicago Medical School from 1952 to 1955. He studied the pathogenesis of silicosis and occupational carcinogenesis at the University of Milan (Occupational Medicine and General Pathology) from 1955 to 1960 and received a specialty diploma in occupational medicine in 1957. He became a permanent resident of the United States in 1960 and a U. S. citizen in 1966. From 1960 to 1968, Dr. Saffiotti conducted Carcinogenesis research in the Division of Oncology at the Chicago Medical School, where he became Professor of Oncology. Since 1968 he has been on the staff of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. As Associate Scientific Director for Carcinogenesis from 1968 to 1976, he directed the expanding research program on chemical and physical carcinogenesis and contributed to establishing criteria for the evaluation of carcinogens. As Chief of the Laboratory of Experimental Pathology since 1974, he has directed an intramural research program which has developed and investigated animal and cellular models chiefly for respiratory and multifactorial carcinogenesis, mechanisms of inhibition by vitamin A, and the role of growth factors in the culture and transformation of epithelial cells. In the last decade, he has studied mechanisms of lung carcinogenesis by crystalline silica as a model for fibrosis-associated peripheral lung adenocarcinoma, and molecular mechanisms controlling the biological activity of mineral dusts. Dr. Saffiotti has authored more than 180 publications.
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