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Leo Sachs

Leo Sachs was a German-born Israeli molecular biologist and cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

1924 to 2013Basis for amniocentesisDiscovering colony stimulating factorsReversing malignancy in leukemic cells

Born: 14 October 1924, Leipzig
Died: 12 December 2013
Occupation: biologist, molecular biologist, university teacher, geneticist
Education: Bangor University

Leo Sachs was born in 1924 in Leipzig

Leo Sachs was born in Leipzig in 1924. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, he moved with his family to Britain. After World War II he joined a Zionist youth movement and worked on a farm to prepare for kibbutz life.

He studied agricultural botany at the University of Wales in Bangor and became interested in genetics. He completed a PhD in genetics at Cambridge University in 1951.

In 1952 he moved to Israel and joined the Weizmann Institute. He showed that fetal cells in amniotic fluid can reveal the sex and genetic traits of a fetus, work that led to amniocentesis. In 1963 he built the first culture system to grow and clone normal blood cells, and he identified proteins later called colony stimulating factors and interleukins.

He also showed for the first time that leukemic cells can be induced to become normal mature cells. He headed the institute's genetics department from 1962 to 1989 and was dean of its biology faculty from 1974 to 1979. He died on 12 December 2013 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery.