Dr. Mina J. Bissell – Iranian born biologist

Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D., is an Iranian American biologist and a world-recognized leader in the area of the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and microenvironment in regulation of tissue-specific function, with special emphasis on breast cancer.

She was born in Tehran, Iran and brought up in a well-educated and well-to-do family.She obtained a PhD in bacteriology from Harvard Medical School and was awarded an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.She joined Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory  and subsequently became a Senior Scientist.
In 1996, she received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and medal, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the United States Department of Energy. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, Bissell is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Mellon Award from the University of Pittsburgh