Paola S. Timiras
Encyclopedia
Paola S. Timiras, born Paola Silvestri, (July 21, 1923, Rome – September 12, 2008, Berkeley, California) was an endocrinologist
studying stress
.
, Italy
, just after Italy's takeover by Mussolini
and his Fascist movement
. Her father, a statistician
and strong anti-Fascist, fled the following year to France
, where his daughter visited often. Even as a girl, she dreamed of becoming a doctor, like her grandfather and uncle.
Silvestri obtained her medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1947. She married Romania
n diplomat Nicholas Timiras and then moved with him to Canada where she studied experimental medicine and surgery at the Université de Montréal
, gained her doctorate in 1952. During her postdoctoral work at the University of Montreal her supervisor was the endocrinologist Hans Selye
. One of Timiras's colleagues was Roger Guillemin
.
Timiras performed her doctoral research at the University of Montreal
in the lab of 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.
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.
At UC Berkeley, Timiras 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, was developed in order to generate three-dimensional maps of the mouse hypothalamus.
In the 1960s, Timiras developed a course on the physiology of aging, one of the first such courses in the United States.
In 2001 at age 78, Timiras became one of the founding members of the Center for Research and Education on Aging at the University of California, Berkeley
of which she served as the first chair.
Nicholas Timiras, her husband of nearly 50 years, who had earned a Ph.D. degree in Italian
from UC Berkeley in 1978 (at age 66), died in 1996. They had a daughter Mary Letitia Timiras, a geriatrics
physician, and a son, Paul.
her 5 most cited papers are:
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...
studying stress
Stress (biology)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
.
Background and education
Paola Silvestri was born on July 21, 1923, in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, just after Italy's takeover by Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and his Fascist movement
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
. Her father, a statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
and strong anti-Fascist, fled the following year to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where his daughter visited often. Even as a girl, she dreamed of becoming a doctor, like her grandfather and uncle.
Silvestri obtained her medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1947. She married Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n diplomat Nicholas Timiras and then moved with him to Canada where she studied experimental medicine and surgery at the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
, gained her doctorate in 1952. During her postdoctoral work at the University of Montreal her supervisor was the endocrinologist Hans Selye
Hans Selye
Hans Hugo Bruno Selye, CC was a pioneering endocrinologist. Selye did much important scientific work on the hypothetical non-specific response of an organism to stressors. While he did not recognize all of the many aspects of glucocorticoids, Selye was aware of their role in the stress response...
. One of Timiras's colleagues was Roger Guillemin
Roger Guillemin
Roger Charles Louis Guillemin received the National Medal of Science in 1976, and the Nobel prize for medicine in 1977 for his work on neurohormones, sharing the prize that year with Andrew Schally and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow.Completing his undergraduate work at the University of Burgundy, Guillemin...
.
Timiras performed her doctoral research at the University of Montreal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
in the lab of Hans Selye
Hans Selye
Hans Hugo Bruno Selye, CC was a pioneering endocrinologist. Selye did much important scientific work on the hypothetical non-specific response of an organism to stressors. While he did not recognize all of the many aspects of glucocorticoids, Selye was aware of their role in the stress response...
, 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.
Teaching career
Before she finished her degree, the University of Montreal hired her as an assistant professor.In 1954, she moved to Salt Lake City to pursue that line of inquiry in the pharmacology department at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
. In 1955, she joined the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
physiology department as an assistant physiologist and was appointed to the faculty in 1958. She became a full professor in 1967.
At UC Berkeley, Timiras studied the effects of caloric restriction on various hypothalamic nuclei, specifically the effects on cell density, estrogen receptor alpha
Estrogen receptor alpha
Estrogen receptor alpha , also known as NR3A1 , is a nuclear receptor that is activated by the sex hormone estrogen...
immunoreactivity and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1
Insulin-like growth factor 1
Insulin-like growth factor 1 also known as somatomedin C is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IGF1 gene. IGF-1 has also been referred to as a "sulfation factor" and its effects were termed "nonsuppressible insulin-like activity" in the 1970s.IGF-1 is a hormone similar in molecular...
) receptor immunoreactivity. An automated imaging microscope system, was developed in order to generate three-dimensional maps of the mouse hypothalamus.
In the 1960s, Timiras developed a course on the physiology of aging, one of the first such courses in the United States.
In 2001 at age 78, Timiras became one of the founding members of the Center for Research and Education on Aging at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
of which she served as the first chair.
Output and death
She contributed to or edited over 420 articles and 15 books before her death at the age of 85 of heart failure at on September 12, 2008, after putting in a full day’s work. Paola had recently had heart valve replacement surgery.Nicholas Timiras, her husband of nearly 50 years, who had earned a Ph.D. degree in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
from UC Berkeley in 1978 (at age 66), died in 1996. They had a daughter Mary Letitia Timiras, a geriatrics
Geriatrics
Geriatrics is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or...
physician, and a son, Paul.
Honors and awards
- 1970: President, Iota Sigma PiIota Sigma PiIota Sigma Pi is an elective US honor society for women in chemistry, first established in 1902. The organization presents several awards to women in chemistry.- Professional Awards :* Centennial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching...
, 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
Articles
According to the Web of ScienceWeb of Science
ISI Web of Knowledge is an academic citation indexing and search service, which is combined with web linking and provided by Thomson Reuters. Web of Knowledge coverage encompasses the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. It provides bibliographic content and the tools to access, analyze,...
her 5 most cited papers are:
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