Angela Hartley Brodie

Angela Hartley Brodie (28 September 1934 – 7 June 2017) was a British biochemist who pioneered development of steroidal aromatase inhibitors in cancer research. Born in Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), Brodie studied chemical pathology to a doctoral level in Sheffield and was awarded a fellowship sponsored by National Institutes of Health. After 17 years of working in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts on oral contraceptives with Harry Brodie, whom she married, she switched her research focus to the effects of the oestrogen-producing enzyme, aromatase, on breast cancer.

Brodie managed to get an aromatase inhibitor into a limited clinical trial in breast cancer patients in London, which had such a profound effect that it led to further Novartis-sponsored trials, and in turn to the development of formestane, the first aromatase inhibitor, eventually marketed in 1994.

Brodie's work has been hailed "as among the most important contributions to cancer cure".

Early life and education Brodie was born Angela Hartley on 28 September 1934 in Oldham, Lancashire, England. Her father, Herbert Hartley, was an industrial chemist working in polyurethanes Brodie was educated at a Quaker boarding school before studying at University of Sheffield, where she earned a degree in biochemistry.

Career As a result of her doctorate, she was awarded a National Institutes of Health sponsored, 1-year post-doctoral training fellowship, at Clark University and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. She researched at Worcester Foundation between 1962

In 1979, she moved to Maryland, encouraged by Cornelia Channing to join the University of Maryland School of Medicine, first as an associate professor. and proved to be a significant improvement on tamoxifen, the standard cancer drug used to treat oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. The drug was first marketed in 1994.

In 2005, Brodie received the prestigious Kettering Prize, the first woman to receive the award,

In 2006, her son John, died from accidental drowning.

She never intended to retire, and collaborated with Vincent Njar on aromatase inhibitors in prostate cancer for the rest of her life. 2005 Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Awards 2006 Dorothy P. Landon-American Association for Cancer Research Prize for Translational Cancer Research 2006 Health Care Heroes Award sponsored by The Daily Record newspaper. 2007 University of Massachusetts Medical School presented Gregory Pincus Medal 2010 Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine 2012 Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics 2023 National Inventors Hall of Fame