ASA Impact Award

Dr Marvin Meistrich has been on the faculty in the Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1972 in a full-time position as Professor until 2012 and in a modified-service post-retirement position since then.

Dr. Meistrich received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell in 1967. He did post-doctoral research in biophysics at Bell Telephone Laboratories and in the Medical Biophysics department of the Ontario Cancer Institute, where he applied biophysical methods of cell separation to the testis, in particular the Staput technique, to enable biochemical studies of germ cells at specific stages of spermatogenesis.

In 1972, Dr. Meistrich joined the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and further developed cell separation by centrifugal elutriation and Percoll density centrifugation and, in collaborations, elucidated a variety molecular changes in during spermatogenesis. His own laboratory focused on the dramatic replacement of histones by sperm protamines and discovered the transition nuclear proteins that were intermediaries in this replacement.

Because of the severe effects of cancer therapy on male reproductive health, Dr. Meistrich studied of the effects of radiation and chemotherapy on killing spermatogonial stem cells, which was the cause of prolonged azoospermia in the cancer patients. In animal studies and longitudinal sperm counts in patients before, during, and after cancer therapy, his laboratory not only defined the cumulative doses of gonadotoxic agents that resulted in a high probability of permanent azoospermia, but provided a service to the M.D. Anderson patients considering sperm banking before, and the need for contraception after therapy. Dr. Meistrich’s studies defined the periods of time during and shortly after gonadotoxic cancer therapies during which the sperm had an elevated risk of transmitting genetic abnormalities, but these genetic abnormalities were no observed in the sperm produced more than 1 year after the end of therapy. He co-organized a conference on “Parenthood After Cancer” at M.D. Anderson in 2005

Dr. Meistrich also contributed to fertility preservation for prepubertal patients by studies in non-human primates showing that cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissue, harvested before therapy, can be used after therapy to produce fertile sperm by either cell transplantation or tissue grafting, and thereby has produced a normal live healthy offspring from a sterilized male.

Based on Dr. Meistrich’s expertise on gonadotoxic cancer therapeutics on male fertility, he has been a consultant for a variety of male reproductive toxicants including dibromochloropropane with the California EPA, bisphenol A with the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and radiation in space with the National Council of Radiation Protection.

Dr. Meistrich has been an active member of the American Society of Andrology since 1979. He has been a member of the ASA Council, Publications Committee and Local Arrangements Committee. As Chair of the Publications and Journal Oversight Committees from 2006 to 2015, he led the merger of the Journal of Andrology with the European Academy of Andrology’s International Journal of Andrology, to form our current, Andrology. In 2013 he received the ASA President’s Merit Award for his work on creating our current journal. He also won the Andrology Award for the best research article in Andrology in 2013.