Albert B. Deisseroth, MD, PhD
Albert B. Deisseroth, MD, PhD, of Potomac, Maryland, passed away November 6, 2025, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
Albert B. Deisseroth was born in 1941 in Middletown, New York. He attended the University of Rochester in New York where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. He stayed in Rochester where he pursued and earned his PhD and MD degrees at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. It was also in Rochester that he met and married his wife, Louise, with whom he shared three children, nine grandchildren, and a long happy marriage.
Dr. Deisseroth had a long and distinguished career as a physician and cancer research scientist. He worked ceaselessly to improve the lives of others through his love of scientific inquiry. He was known for the development of new directions in the treatment of leukemias and solid tumors, using molecular targeting and gene therapy, and for mapping the human hemoglobin genes.
An Accomplished Career
Dr. Deisseroth started his medical training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and later Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he completed his oncology fellowship. In 1972, he joined the Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a Clinical Associate on the ward service of Donald Friederickson, MD, who in 1975 became the 11th Director of the National Institutes of Health. In that same year, Dr. Deisseroth became Chief of the Experimental Hematology Section at NCI/NIH. He moved to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and in 1981 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Hematology/Oncology Service in the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
In 1987, Dr. Deisseroth was named the Anderson Professor of Cancer Treatment and Research and Chairman of the Department of Hematology at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In 1995, he was appointed the Ensign Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Medical Oncology Section in the Department of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, and Associate Director for Clinical Research of the Yale Cancer Center. In 2001, he returned to California as President and CEO of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, San Diego. At the Kimmel Center, he focused his research on the use of adenoviral vectors for the immunotherapeutic targeting therapy of cancer and tumor vascular targeting therapy. He left the Kimmel Center and returned to his public health roots in the federal government at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, holding several leadership positions before retiring in 2022 as a Deputy Division Director for the Division of Nonmalignant Hematology in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
A Mentor With A Love of Life and Family
Dr. Deisseroth loved to teach others, and he mentored many young researchers and clinicians throughout his career. He was the recipient of numerous awards and distinguished lectureships, authored many publications, and received multiple national and international grants. In addition to his dedication to his work, he had a lifelong passion for music, running, gardening, travel, his dogs, and, most of all, for his family.
Dr. Deisseroth is preceded in death by his father Walter Deisseroth, Sr, his mother Ruth Ballman Deisseroth, and his brother Walter Deisseroth, Jr. He is survived by his loving wife, Louise Lundberg Deisseroth; his three loving children Kate Deisseroth, Karl Deisseroth (Michelle Monje-Deisseroth), and Karen Deisseroth Cichon (James Cichon); and his nine beloved grandchildren: Cole Deisseroth, Mia Cichon, Alexander Deisseroth, Amy Cichon, Hudson Deisseroth, Henry Deisseroth, Andrew Deisseroth, Emma Deisseroth, and Sophie Deisseroth.
