Susanne Gollin, professor emerita of human genetics in the School of Public Health — a pioneering geneticist who discovered and patented insights on cancer’s resistance to treatment, showing that certain genetic defects could be used both prognostically and as a guide to alternative therapeutics — died April 6, 2025 at 71.
Gollin’s first doctorial student mentee in the early 1990s — Christa Lese Martin, now chief scientific officer with the Geisinger Health System – remembered Gollin’s broad and lasting influence: “She treated her mentees like family. She called us her kids, basically, and she had hundreds of students that she mentored.
“She loved science and she loved teaching about science,” Martin recalled. “She really took care of all the students that she had,” from master’s and PhD candidates to residents and clinical fellows, as well as undergraduates and even high-school students she involved in her laboratory. “She was always willing to give people time to grow and love science, and to help people in their careers.”
Martin particularly noted Gollin’s course on writing science: “She loved that course and loved helping people think about how to clearly and concisely write about the work that they do.” But Gollin’s central work involved human cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes: “She was a wonderful teacher, patient, clear and concise and just wanted her students to excel.
“And she was not shy about using her network to help link her students to anything or anybody they needed to do their research” — or to start their careers. “And she did that for all of her students. She always went above and beyond ... to make sure we all had every opportunity that was afforded to us.”
During her memorial service, Martin noted, “one of the rabbis described her as ‘a generous genius,’ and I thought that was the perfect description of her.”
“She was a stellar researcher,” Martin added, but also a clinical laboratory director, doing work that directly impacted patient care. “She always made time for people outside of her work and her family. So she gave us a great example of how to live a well-balanced life.”
Gollin’s colleague Jeremy Berg, professor of computational and systems biology, shared his remarks from that memorial service. Meeting Gollin, he said, he “was taken by this passionate and, dare I say, hyper-enthusiastic member of the Department of Human Genetics.”
Working in her field, he said, “requires an adventurous spirit. You start off examining cells from patients with a certain type of cancer or, in some cases, other diseases, and look to see if their chromosomal composition or structure is unusual. When you find something, you map the particular changes that are responsible and often deduce the involvement of something previously unanticipated. You now have a whole lot of new biology to learn. Susanne embraced such journeys with gusto and made many important discoveries, particularly involving head and neck cancer as well as a number of rare diseases.”
For head-and-neck cancers, he said, the five-year survival rate has improved from 50 percent to 60 percent overall, “due, in part, to therapeutic approaches developed based on the work of Susanne and other researchers.” Those with such cancers now “are given more years to go to high-school graduations and to grandchildren’s birthday parties.”
He recalled Gollin’s additional work “on other aspects of public health as a long-time member of the Allegheny County Board of Health,” such as cancer prevention through smoking cessation, anti-cancer vaccines and cancer screenings.
“What I will remember most about Susanne,” Berg said, “is what a joyful experience it was to talk with Susanne about science. She would launch into an alphabet soup discussion about different molecules and pathways (‘ATR this and P53 that’) as if they were old friends and, of course, you knew them too. I sometimes had trouble keeping up and I am a biochemist. But, that was beside the point. You could not walk away without appreciating how deeply she cared and how much she took pride in making a difference in the world.”
Susanne M. Gollin was raised in Lincolnwood, Illinois. She graduated from Niles West High School (1971) and Northwestern University with a bachelor of arts degree (1974), a master of science degree (1975) and a PhD (1980), all in in biological sciences.
She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Rochester and Baylor College of Medicine and then became board certified as a clinical cytogeneticist by the American Board of Medical Genetics. An early academic appointment included membership on the faculty of the medical school of the University of Arkansas.
Gollin was a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics, the International Academy of Oral Oncology and the Indian Association of Molecular Pathologists. She was also a founding professor of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (now the Hillman Cancer Center).
She is survived by her husband, Lazar Palnick; son Jacob; and two sisters, Roberta Lottinger and Joan Gollin Gaines.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the School of Public Health (www.giveto.pitt.edu/Gollin-memorial or the Gollin/Gaines Family Fund, University of Pittsburgh Philanthropic & Alumni Engagement, PO Box 640093, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 Attention: School of Public Health).
— Marty Levine