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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
DISCUSSION, REVIEW,
SHORT COMMUNICATION, ...
A Jubilee Year for Two Famous Scientists and
Distinguished ESPCR Members
By Jan Borovanský
This year two legends of the ESPCR have reached important anniversaries. They both
originated from families with medical connections and graduated as M.D. They both were born in a
different country from that where they permanently live nowadays. One of them started his career as a
dermatologist to become top scientist in the field of pigment cell research and cell pathology, the other
at first was a biochemist interested in
melanogenesis and melanogens to
become first class dermatologist and
photobiologist. They share both a
common interest in the toxicity of
melanin precursors and a great hobby
in performing music. As students they
both played in the collegiate jazz
bands as a clarinet and alto saxophone
and clarinet players, respectively.
They share a common weakness for
the piano and both of them are my
best friends. I introduced them to each
other on December 5, 1984.
Professor Patrick Anthony Riley, M.B., B.S., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.I. Biol., F.R.C. Pathol. Was born on
22nd March 1935 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His father Bertrand Hurrell Riley belonged to founders
of the World Health Organization and spent many years in Geneva. Patrick Riley visited him regularly
during holidays because he studied at a boarding school in the U.K. From childhood he has had a deep
fascination for the way things work which can be illustrated e.g. by a set of magnets and one-penny
coins he developed much later in his adulthood for a commercial purpose to teach children the
phenomenon of magnetism in a playful way. He has always been interested in and fascinated by
mechanisms of biological phenomena and his preoccupation in living cells was deepened and
„saturated“ by many prominent teachers, scientists and friends, especially at the University College
London, which was a powerhouse of biological learning. During medical studies he met his charming
wife and life-long supporter, Christine. After graduation from University College Hospital Medical
School (UCHMS) in 1960 he spent a half year as a house-physician in the Department of
Dermatology and later, having obtained a Rockefeller scholarship, he joined Dr. Arthur Jarrett in the
Department of Dermatological Histopathology at UCHMS where he started his research activities by
studying various enzyme activities in dendritic epidermal cells. He was awarded a Medical Research
Council Junior Clinical Research Fellowship and pursued studies of epidermal depigmentation and the
relationship between melanocytes and Langerhans cells. In 1965 he obtained his Ph.D. having
defended a thesis entitled Studies of Melanocyte Function and co-authored a textbook of dermatology.
In 1966 he was awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship and moved to the Department of Pathological
Chemistry where he shared an office with Trevor Slater, a brilliant and enthusiastic biochemist and
advocate of free radical reactions. I suppose that this famous pioneer of free radical research ignited in
Patrick Riley his permanent fascination for free radical reactions for in the same year the seminal
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