People: Loretta Van Camp
CISPLATIN DISCOVERER
MSU has produced a series of television ads, 'Face to Face With Success,' focusing on alumni and their mentors (see 'The Last Word,' p. 52). One was Lansing microbiologist Loretta Van Camp, '48, who with fellow MSU scientists Barnett Rosenberg and Tom Kregis made the medical breakthrough that led to Cisplatin, the world's leading anti-cancer drug.
Van Camp, who spends the winter months in Phoenix, AZ, attended a January premiere of her video in Cowles House. She gives tremendous credit to her alma mater and mentors Rosenberg and cellular biologist Estelle McGroarty, associate dean of natural science. 'I came here because Michigan State was one of the best med tech schools in the country,' Loretta explains. 'I always wanted to do something to help people. I chose med tech when they told me that was as close to becoming a doctor as I could without going through the hassle of a woman trying to become a doctor in a man's world.'
After working a couple of years at the Michigan Dept. of Health, she joined Rosenberg's team as a microbiologist for the next two decades. 'I was the head of the lab,' she says in recounting the discovery of Cisplatin. 'In the beginning we used platinum electrodes in an enclosed system in which we were growing bacteria. We found the bateria grew to a hundred times its normal length.'
The team suspected a platinum compound was the cause and set up several painstaking experiments to test their hypothesis. 'Serendipity was involved,' she notes. 'But it takes people who know they've seen something different.' The rest is history. Their scientific research bore fruit in the development of the world's leading cancer drug.
Since then, Loretta, an MSU Benefactor and a member of the Ralph Young Fund's Inner Circle, has given back to the university. When asked why, her answer is pithy: 'Why not? MSU gave to me and to others also. We're talking about kids and kids are our future, aren't they?'
