Attallah kappas biography

Kappas was physician-in-chief of Rockefeller's hospital from 1974 to 1991 and served as a Rockefeller vice president from 1983 to 1991.
Kap, as he was called, was born in Union City, New Jersey, in 1926.
Attallah Kappas was born on November 4 1926, in Union City.

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ATTALLAH KAPPAS

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Management of Severe Newborn Jaundice: Changing the Clinical Paradigm from Treatment to Prevention

Kappas, Attallah

Jaundice is very common in newborns because their immature livers are not efficient at removing bilirubin, a yellow pigment, from the blood. In addition, bilirubin is produced in larger than normal amounts in the immediate days after birth. Severe neonatal (newborn) jaundice can produce significant and irreversible central nervous system damage. Bilirubin results from the breakdown of heme, a component of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin, in red blood cells. Studies on heme degradation to form bilirubin led Attallah Kappas (1926 - ) and colleagues to undertake the development of synthetic heme analogues that could strongly inhibit the enzyme, heme oxygenase, that controls this process. They reasoned that blocking the enzyme would slow the conversion of heme to bilirubin in newborns and prevent bilirubin concentrations from reaching toxic levels. Heme oxygenase was first isolated and purified from liver by the Kappas group in 1974. Its recognition as the e

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Attallah Kappas

Attallah Kappas, professor emeritus at The Rockefeller University and physician-in-chief emeritus at The Rockefeller University Hospital, died December 18, 2018 at the age of 92. Kappas was a leading authority in diseases related to liver function and metabolism and in the development of diagnostics and treatments for those conditions.

Among the diseases that Kappas studied was porphyrias, a group of often-hereditary disorders that result when substances called porphyrins build up in the body. One of the best-known porphyrins is heme, a component of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin. Porphyrias most commonly affect the nervous system and the skin, depending on their subtype, and can be chronic or acute.

One of Kappas’ most far-ranging and lasting contributions was in research uncovering the molecular mechanisms that instigate jaundice in newborn babies. Jaundice, which affects more than half of all babies to some degree, is caused by high levels of a bilirubin, a yellow pigment in the blood that is normally metabolized by the liver. If the condition goes