The founder of angiogenesis research, Judah Folkman died last night, apparently of a heart attack, according to the Boston Globe today. He was 74. He was the head of the vascular biology program at Children’s Hospital.

His work, showing that tumor growth is driven by its blood supply, touched off the development of cancer drugs that cut off tumor blood supply.

WBUR has a nice write-up of his life and achievements (correction/clarification: the write-up is from Children’s Hospital). I’ll update with links to obituaries as they come out.

I never met Dr. Folkman, but did see him give a talk once a few years ago to a very full room. If you knew him or worked with him, and if you care to, please post a comment here. What was he like?

Update (Jan 15): Stories are beginning to come out. This AP story and this blog post from the Scientist talk about how upset Folkman was when a NY Times article quoted Jim Watson saying that Folkman would ‘cure cancer’ in two years.

Update 2 (Jan. 16): The Globe today has a nice obituary of Dr. Folkman, describing him not only as a pioneering scientist who persisently pursued his his ideas about how tumor growth could be choked off by shutting down the tumor’s blood supply…even in the face of skepticism and criticism from his colleagues at the time. The article also portrays him as a loving husband and father and a mentor who trained many of today’s leading researchers.

Update 3 (January 18): The author of the 2001 book, Dr. Folkman’s War, wrote an op-ed in yesterday’s Globe, ending it by saying: “The Nobel committee at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm moved too slowly. It doesn’t give the cherished prize posthumously.”