Clark Distelhorst, a long-standing faculty member of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology, the Department of Medicine at University Hospitals and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, passed away July 3.
His wife, Lynne, shared that Distelhorst was actively working on research and manuscripts over the past month until an acute illness intervened.
“Dr. Distelhorst was recognized as the consummate academic research gentleman, careful with offering his insight, dedicated to his trainees and artful in the detail with which he addressed every pathway he considered,” said School of Medicine Dean Stan Gerson.
Distelhorst’s expertise focused on the role of steroid metabolism and the Bcl2 pathway in lymphoid malignancies, apoptosis and autophagy (in its roles to preserve cell survival). He was considered an expert in this field—his key discoveries include the role of the BH4 domain of Bcl2 and its mediation through limiting calcium signaling to block apoptosis and the potential of a therapeutic peptide from this binding site to block Bcl2 interaction with the inositol triphosphate receptor.