Giants in History: Barry Paw (29 August 1962 – 28 December 2017) was a biologist and oncologist born in Myanmar who discovered several novel genes and their functions in red blood cells.
Paw dedicated his research career to studying the development of red blood cells. His team was the first to use zebrafish as a model to identify mutations that cause anaemia, thus pioneering the use of zebrafish for analysing genes responsible for diseases in humans. Paw’s research led to new discoveries about blood disorders in humans. When he was a child, Paw immigrated to the U.S. from Myanmar as a refugee. He is remembered as an outstanding mentor who cared deeply about the professional development of his trainees.
