In Memoriam Liliane Striker, MD 1937-2004
Authors: William G. Couser, Vicki Rubin-Kelley, Sharon Adler
Journal: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (2005)

FigureLiliane Morel-Maroger Striker passed away in New York on November 18, 2004, after a long and courageous battle with ovarian cancer. Liliane was a long-time member of the American Society of Nephrology, and she served on the Editorial Board of JASN from 1994 to 1996 and accepted another invitation to serve from 2000 to 2004. For her many friends and colleagues in the nephrology community world-wide, as well as for those who knew her only by reputation as a world-class renal pathologist and as one of the first and best molecular biologists in renal research, her career encompassed an extraordinary series of achievements that epitomized the academic physician-scientist and inspired the lives and careers of many. Liliane Striker was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and attended medical school at the Universite de Paris where she was awarded the MD degree in 1963. Following graduation from medical school she trained in pathology at the Hopital Tenon in Paris. It was at Hopital Tenon that she first became involved in the new field of nephrology, then in its infancy, working closely on the interpretation of renal biopsies in the intensely exciting environment created by the pioneers in renal research that populated Tenon in the 1960s and 1970s, including Jean Hamburger, Gabrielle Richet, Rene Habib, and Jean Berger. In 1964, Liliane became attached to the INSERM in Paris where she worked initially with Dr Richet. She rose to the rank of Maitre de Recherche at INSERM in 1974 and served in that capacity until coming to the United States in 1983. In 1996, Liliane became Directure de Recherche at INSERM. Liliane's contributions to the field of clinical and experimental renal pathology during her tenure at INSERM in Paris were seminal. She not only read but also performed many of the early kidney biopsies at Hopital Tenon and wrote the initial descriptions of numerous important kidney diseases including lupus nephritis, monoclonal gammopathies, Wegener's granulomatosus, essential mixed cryoglobulinemia, and others. She was a principal figure in the development of the initial World Health Organization classification of lupus nephritis, which has been central to both clinical and pathologic understanding of this disease for over two decades. She was a pioneer in the early use of immunofluorescence microscopy in the diagnosis of renal diseases and in the development of the field of renal immunopathology in general. In 1983, Liliane met and married Gary Striker, then a Professor of Pathology and renal pathologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who had spent a sabbatical working in her laboratory in Paris. After a brief stay as Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington, Liliane moved with Gary to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, where he became Director of the Kidney, Urology, and Hematology program in the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and she founded and directed the Renal Cell Biology laboratory and section at NIDDK. Without the benefit of any further training, Liliane became a highly accomplished basic scientist and molecular biologist at NIH. Working together with Gary, she was the first to use transgenic mouse models for studies of renal disease and examined the role of a number of mediator molecules including IGF-1, matrix metalloproteinases, tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases, and advanced glycation end products. The focus of the laboratory was on glomerulosclerosis, and they were able to document the importance of multiple genetic loci in determining the glomerular response to hyperglycemia, cyclosporin, and nephron reduction. Drawing on her previous background as a clinical renal pathologist, she went on to develop the technology for microdissecting glomeruli from human biopsies and applying molecular technology to isolated glomeruli to quantify the expression of various genes believed to be pathogenic and predictive in human disease. Just as Liliane had pioneered the use of techniques in immunopathology two decades earlier in Paris, the Striker Laboratory she directed at the NIH was clearly the first to systematically apply molecular technology to the study of human kidney disease material. The many observations that emerged in the 1990s, particularly with regard to the potential for such techniques to predict the subsequent development of glomerular sclerosis, were seminal and at the very forefront of the molecular revolution that swept the field of renal research during that decade. Following the NIH era, Liliane, Gary, and the Renal Cell Biology Laboratory moved in 1996 to the University of Miami where she became Research Professor of Medicine and Scientific Director in the Division of Nephrology and the Vascular Biology Institute. There she pioneered new work on sex hormones in kidney disease, and this work continued until her illness intervened. Liliane Striker's accomplishments and contributions to the field of kidney disease, documented in over 240 scientific papers and 42 book chapters, spanned four decades of extraordinary creativity and productivity. Through her laboratories in Paris, Seattle, Bethesda, and Miami passed some 55 fellows and postgraduate students from thirteen countries, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in their own right. Her honors include a Distinguished Professorship at Cambridge, the Marcello Malpighi award from the Italian Society of Nephrology, a Special Recognition Award from the United States Public Health Service, a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Nanjing University, the Conrad Pirani Lectureship at Columbia University in New York, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Renal Pathology Society. Liliane is survived by her husband Gary, her mother, 4 children, and 7 grandchildren. With Liliane's passing the nephrology community loses one of its true pioneers, a gentle renaissance woman of enormous humility as well as creativity. Her accomplishments were fired by a true passion for research and a zest for living. With a “twinkle in her eye” she would animatedly discuss her latest scientific experiments. Her knowledge was broad and she was a voracious reader, well-versed in music, art, and politics. During her lengthy illness, her passion for research and life did not diminish, and her focus remained on her family, friends, and students and not on herself. Liliane Striker's presence in our field illuminated so many of the diseases we treat, led us always into the future, and left us with a legacy of clinical and scientific contributions that will endure forever. She will remain an inspiration for those who were privileged to be her friend, colleague, or acquaintance.