Biography:Mitzy Canessa

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Short description: Chilean physiologist (1930–1997)
Mitzy Canessa
Born(1930-07-15)15 July 1930
Antofagasta, Chile
Died1 February 1997(1997-02-01) (aged 66)
OccupationPhysiologist
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1959, 1961)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Chile
Academic work
Institutions

Mitzy Canessa Ossandón[1] (15 July 1930 – 1 February 1997) was a Chilean renal physiologist. She worked as a professor at the University of Chile and, as an exile from the Pinochet dictatorship, worked at Harvard Medical School in the United States. She was a two-time Guggenheim Fellow.

Biography

Canessa was born on 15 July 1930 in Antofagasta, a port city in northern Chile.[2] She studied at the University of Chile, where she obtained her degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1952.[3] In 1959,[4] she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study renal physiology.[2] She was awarded a second one in 1961.[4] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[3][5]

Canessa remained at the University of Chile as a professor; originally working at the School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor,[2] she later moved to their Faculty of Medicine.[3] She became a full professor at the University of Chile's Faculty of Sciences since its inception in the 1960s, something Cecilia Hidalgo Tapia considered her instrumental in.[3] She also did research at the Cell Physiology Laboratory in Montemar,[3] as well as at the Hospital del Salvador's renal function laboratory.[2] She served as director of the University of Chile Graduate School in 1974.[1]

In 1974, Canessa began working at Harvard Medical School,[3] as one of several scientists exiled from the country due to the 1973 Chilean coup d'état.[6] During her time at Harvard, she did research on hypertension.[3] She was also part of Massachusetts General Hospital's Laboratory of Renal Biophysics,[7][8] as well as Brigham and Women's Hospital Endocrine-Hypertension Division.[9] In the 1990s, she returned from the United States and rejoined the University of Chile.[3]

Canessa died on 1 February 1997.[9]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Escuela de Postgrado" (in es). https://ciencias.uchile.cl/facultad/escuelas-y-direcciones/escuela-de-postgrado. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Reports of the President and of the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1959. pp. 115. https://books.google.com/books?id=M4_WAAAAMAAJ. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Hidalgo Tapia, María Cecilia (2015-09-21). "Mujeres y ciencia" (in es). Anales de la Universidad de Chile 0 (8): 34-35. doi:10.5354/0717-8883.2015.37306. ISSN 0717-8883. http://www.anales.uchile.cl/index.php/ANUC/article/view/37306. Retrieved 24 July 2025. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Mitzy Canessa". https://www.gf.org/fellows/mitzy-canessa/. 
  5. Latorre, Ramón, ed (2013). Ionic Channels in Cells and Model Systems. Plenum Press. p. xii. https://books.google.com/books?id=QZjlBwAAQBAJ. 
  6. Gutiérrez, Claudio (2023). "Ciencias, golpe de Estado y dictadura en Chile". Anales de la Universidad de Chile 21: 305. https://anales.uchile.cl/index.php/ANUC/article/download/73233/75105/277827. 
  7. Huidobro-Toro, J. Pablo; Canessa, Mitzy; Fischer, Sigmund (1976-06-04). "Interaction of morphine with cholesterol monolayers". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes 436 (1): 237–241. doi:10.1016/0005-2736(76)90234-0. ISSN 0005-2736. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0005273676902340. 
  8. Labarca, Pedro; Canessa, Mitzy; Leaf, Alexander (1977-12-01). "Metabolic cost of sodium transport in toad urinary bladder" (in en). The Journal of Membrane Biology 32 (1): 383–401. doi:10.1007/BF01905229. ISSN 1432-1424. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01905229. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 Romero, José R.; Fabry, Mary E.; Suzuka, Sandra M.; Costantini, Frank; Nagel, Ronald L.; Canessa, Mitzy (1997). "K:CI cotransport in red cells of transgenic mice expressing high levels of human hemoglobin S". American Journal of Hematology 55 (2): 112–114. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-8652(199706)55:2<112::AID-AJH11>3.0.CO;2-G. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8652(199706)55:23.0.CO;2-G.