Julia Levy
{{Short description|Canadian microbiologist, immunologist, educator and entrepreneur}}
{{Infobox scholar
| name = Julia Levy
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| birth_name = Julia Coppens
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1934|5|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = Singapore
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| workplaces = University of British Columbia
QLT PhotoTherapeutics
| alma_mater = University of British Columbia
University of London
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| main_interests = microbiology
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| major_works = Photofrin
| awards = Fellow Royal Society of Canada
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Julia Levy (born May 15, 1934) is a Canadian microbiologist, immunologist, educator and entrepreneur.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3XWphGl-K0C&pg=PA100 |title=Sensational Scientists: The Journeys and Discoveries of 24 Men and Women of Science |pages=100–06 |last=Shell |first=Barry |year=2006 |publisher=Raincoast Books |isbn=1551927276}}
Early life and education
The daughter of Guillaume Albert and Dorothy Frances Coppens, she was born Julia Coppens in Singapore. In 1940, her father sent her mother and his two daughters from their home in Indonesia to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he joined them at the end of World War II after he was released from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Her early education was in Canada. She studied immunology and bacteriology at the University of British Columbia, earning a BA in 1955. Levy received a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of London in 1958. In 1959, she returned to the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor, later becoming full professor.
Career
Her research led her and her colleagues to participate in the development of photodynamic therapy (PDT) initially for treating cancer but more significantly as the first medical treatment of one of the leading causes of blindness among the elderly, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In 1984, she joined the four founding members at biopharmaceutical company Quadra Logic Technologies (later QLT Inc.). The PDT drug Photofrin was approved by the Canadian government for treatment of bladder cancer in 1993. Subsequently, it has been approved in the United States and elsewhere for the treatment of several other types of cancer.
In the mid-1980s she and colleagues discovered the PDT agent, verteporfin, which QLT and its partner CIBA Vision (now Novartis Ophthalmalics) developed as Visudyne, a treatment for AMD. Visudyne was approved by the US FDA in 2000 and throughout the world thereafter. For ophthalmologists, this therapy added "a technique to their treatment armamentarium for some lesions for which there has been no other proven treatment."Bressler, Neil M., and Susan B. Bressler. "Photodynamic therapy with verteporfin (Visudyne): impact on ophthalmology and visual sciences."Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 41.3 (2000): 624-628
Initially Levy was Chief Scientific Officer of QLT, but from 1995 to 2001 she served as Chief Executive Officer and President of QLT. As a result of the success of Visudyne, QLT became one of the 21% of biotechnology companies that were profitable in the year 2000.{{cite journal|last1=Lähteenmäki|first1=Riku|title=Public biotech 200 -- the numbers|journal=Nature Biotechnology|date=2001|volume=19|issue=5|pages=407–12|doi=10.1038/88054|pmid=11329000|s2cid=82784262}}
She has expanded her methodology to treat HIV/AIDS, arthritis and age-related macular degeneration.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPRB-OED1bcC&pg=PA450 |title=Encyclopedia of World Scientists |pages=450–51 |last=Oakes |first=Elizabeth H |year=2007 |publisher=Infobase |isbn=978-1438118826}}
Honours and awards
Levy was named a fellow in the Royal Society of Canada in 1980, Pacific Canada Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2001. She has received the Future of Vision Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Helen Keller Award for Contributions to Vision and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Columbia Biotechnology Association. She has also received a number of honorary doctorates from Canadian universities.
The Chemical Institute of Canada awards the Julia Levy Award for successful commercialization of innovation in the field of biomedical science and engineering.{{cite web|url=http://www.cheminst.ca/awards/sci-canada-awards/julia-levy-award|title=Julia Levy Award|publisher=Chemical Institute of Canada}}
Personal life
References
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Category:Canadian immunologists
Category:Canadian microbiologists
Category:Businesspeople from Vancouver
Category:Canadian women in business
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Category:Scientists from Vancouver
Category:Singaporean emigrants to Canada
Category:Academic staff of the University of British Columbia