Anthony Pawson, Biologist in Cell-Protein Breakthrough, Dies at
60  Share with others:  Print Email Read Later  Anthony Pawson,
a Canadian cell biologist whose pathbreaking insights about how
cells communicate with one another resolved one of science's
oldest mysteries and helped spur the development of a class of
drugs that target cancer, diabetes and other diseases, died on
Aug. 7 in Toronto. He was 60.  Family members and colleagues
declined to disclose the cause.  In his 1990 breakthrough, Dr.
Pawson and his research team identified the specific protein
interactions involved in cell signaling, the process by which
cells tell one another what to do, when to do it and when to
stop.  Scientists had long known that cells communicated, but no
one knew the exact cellular mechanism involved until Dr.
Pawson's research pinpointed it: a protein structure on the
surface of every cell membrane. The structure, which he called
the SH2 domain, serves as a landing pad for signaling proteins,
which in turn set off a mole