Editha House

Heidi J. Scrable, Ph.D.

(April 10,1948 - February 13, 2013) Heidi Scrable of Rochester, Minnesota and Greenwood, Virginia was born in Manchester, Connecticut, the first child of Frank J. Scrable, an aerospace engineer, and Jeanette Florence Exley, a classically trained singer with a degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her youth was spent in New Jersey, Utah and Alabama as her Father moved with his company to -wherever the rockets were being launched.- She went to college at Florida State University in Tallahassee where she studied both piano and harpsichord earning a B.Mus Degree cum laude. She continued her studies at Florida State earning both a Masters Degree and a Ph.D. (ABD) in musicology. During that time she was the recipient of an IREX Fellowship that allowed her to spend a year in the state archives of Czechoslovakia pursuing her research on the origins of the modern orchestra.

In 1980 Heidi embarked on a new adventure. Thinking she would become a doctor, she went back to school at the University of Cincinnati to acquire the basic science necessary for admission to medical school. She also went to work as a technician in a research laboratory at the College of Medicine. Instead of going to medical school, however, she elected to pursue a Ph.D. in molecular genetics. Under the tutelage of Webster Cavenee, Ph.D., first at the University of Cincinnati and subsequently at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at McGill University, she earned a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine in 1990. She then returned to The University of Cincinnati where, with postdoctoral fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, and from the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation, she pursued her research. In 1995 she accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Virginia, and in 2002 she was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure.

In 2009 Heidi joined the Mayo Clinic as Senior Associate Consultant with her primary appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology where she served as Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She also held a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, in addition to being an integral part of and very productive member of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging. In 2010 she was promoted to Associate Professor of Biochemistry/Molecular Biology in the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic.

According to the Mayo Clinic, "Dr. Scrable had a distinguished career in cell biology and made several seminal contributions in the field of aging, stem cells and cancer leaving a large and influential body of scientific work. She was one of the top researchers in the field of p53 signaling and was instrumental in developing the idea of the dual role of p53 in aging and cancer. Her work was the starting point for a hypothesis that is now well accepted and has led to further investigation in laboratories all across the globe. Dr. Scrable authored more than 40 peer---reviewed articles and participated in more than 60 invited presentations and visiting professorships. Over the years she was an influential mentor to countless students and colleagues. Dr, Scrable was also active as an editorial advisory board member for the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, and a reviewer for more than 25 other publications and journals."

She is survived by her husband, Rufus Cole Botzow; a step son, Sebastian H. Botzow of Cincinnati, OH; her mother, Jeanette Scrable of Truth or Consequences, NM; her sister Martha Mohar of Cincinnati, OH; her brother Karl Scrable of Grand Forks, ND; her sister Natalie Peterson of Harker Heights, TX; four nieces and a nephew. In addition, as a collector of cacti, she leaves behind more than 300 rather prickly plants, mostly on a 12th story balcony overlooking Rochester and St. Mary's Hospital.

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