Dr. Timothy O’Brien

Dr. Timothy John O’Brien, 81, professor, researcher, director, entrepreneur, husband, father and friend, was born August 15, 1940 in Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland.  He passed away August 19, 2021 in Little Rock. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Barbara Marie O’Brien; his children, Katie S. O’Brien, Bridget B. Brewer and T. McDara O’Brien; and seven grandchildren. He was a member of the Irish Cultural Society and a devoted Catholic.

Dr. O’Brien was a 1958 graduate of Presentation High School, received his BSC in 1961 at University College Dublin, earned his M.S. in Biology in 1964 at the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1967 at the University of Illinois. He received Fellowships for further study at Purdue University (1967-1969) and the University of Southern California (1969-1970).

Dr. O’Brien began studying women’s cancers in the 1960s and began focusing on ovarian cancer in the 1970s at the University of Southern California.  In 1984 O’Brien joined UAMS and in 1997 founded UAMS Arkansas Bio Ventures, a biotechnology business accelerator that converts UAMS research into jobs for Arkansas.

One of O’Brien’s most notable accomplishments is his discovery that a gene known as CA125 can identify the presence of ovarian cancer cells.  His work was patented – the first patent ever for UAMS – and was licensed to a Pennsylvania biotechnology company.  The company marketed a CA125 diagnostic kit, which is now the most commonly used test for ovarian cancer around the world. In 2004, he was given the Abbott Award for lifetime contributions to advances in ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.

During his career, he was a member of the Rice Scientific Advisory Committee (2009), President of the Arkansas Biotechnology Association (1993), Executive Director and founder of Arkansas Bio Ventures (1997) and Associate editor of Tumor Biology (1998). He was also a Board Member of Safe Foods, Inc. (2000), Board Member of the International Society of Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine (ISOBM) (2003), Advisory Board Member of CanAg Diagnostics, AB, Gothenburg, Sweden (2003), Founder and CEO of Stage I Diagnostics (2004), Board Member of the Swedish American Chambers of Commerce Board of Directors (2005), Head of the Task Force Metropolitan Little Rock Biotech Infrastructure (2005), member of the Steering Committee for Accelerate Arkansas (2006) and Board Member of DCV Technologies.

Dr. O’Brien was a named inventor on 54 USA patents and 28 International Patents and published in 97 Peer Review Journal Publications.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church on Saturday, August 28 at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society ( https://donate3.cancer.org ) or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ( https://www.stjude.org/donate ).