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Dr. Roland Pattillo

Personal Life
Dr. Roland Pattillo was born November 10, 1961. but is currently still living. He grew up in the thirties, in a small segregated Louisiana town, and was the son of a blacksmith turned railroad worker. Pattillo’s father had a fair amount of schooling considering segregation at the time, he went to Tuskegee institute, eventually becoming a blacksmith then railroad worker. Roland graduated from Xavier University of New Orleans with a pre-med degree and receiving a scholarship to go on to medical school. He got through med school by working several jobs, as well as working/studying under Dr. Edward Adelbert Doisy (won the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine in 1943). Roland Pattillo was the only African American to study under Dr. George Gey at Johns Hopkins University. Gey discovered the line “HeLa cells” by growing cells from Henrietta Lacks who was being treated for cervical cancer, which later on lead to Rebecca Skloot to write the New York Times bestseller “The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks”.

Career Life
Pattillo’s career and research was driven from Henrietta Lacks’ life. Her and her family’s suffering contributed to the medical fields he focused on in efforts to in some way help them. He bought Henrietta a headstone for her unmarked grave and became very close to her family, vetting anyone that attempts to connect with them. He was the one that connected Skloot with the family and only after getting to know her intentions did he allow her to contact Henrietta’s children. Pattillo became a practicing physician and professor of gynecology for Medicial College of Wisconsin. 35 years later he moved the reproductive tract cell bank to Morehouse School of Medicine to continue the original cell work from John’s Hopkins. Dr. Pattillo served as OB/GYN interim Chair from 1996 to 1998 at Morehouse School of Medicine and began hosting a woman’s heath conference there in honor of the Lacks family (The HeLa Conference). As a physician he performed Colposcopy, Destruction or Excision of Vaginal Lesions, Endocervical Curettage, Excision, Shaving, or Destruction of Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue (incl. Mohs Micrographic Surgery), Tissue Transfer, Gynecologic Cancer Screening, Hysterectomy - Open, Laparotomy, Removal of Reproductive Organs (Hysterectomy, Oophorectomy, Salpingectomy, Salpingo-Oophorectomy, Resection of Peritoneal Malignancy), and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC). He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publication, book chapters, and a book. Pattillo began scientific and clinical studies in 1964, establishing in-vitro cell models that possessed characteristic biomarkers that were then used in multiple experimental designs for assessment of endocrine function, chemotherapy, radiation therapy sensitivity, and differentiation. The research for this was completed in 1966, the first identification of the Trophoblast Stem Cell and the first human hormone synthesizing cell system which scientists worldwide were able to use for new treatment for ovarian cancer. He recently retired from his practice as a physican after more than 56 years. He’s worked for Morehouse school of medicine for the past 20 years. At Morehouse School of Medicine, in Atlanta, GA as specialist in obstetrics and gynecology: certification in both, as well as Gynecologic oncology.

Awards
-2003: Medallion of the International Trophoblast Society -Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award -Pioneer Award from the National Institute of Health for Frontiers in Stem Cell research -2009: St. Louis University Diversity Award – Keynote Speaker -2009: St. Louis University School of Medicine Merit Award -2009: America’s Top Doctor’s List, Atlanta Magazine.