Joan W. Goodman, 81; Pioneer in Stem Cell Research on Animals

Joan Wright Goodman, 81, a pioneering stem cell researcher, died Monday of respiratory failure at a hospital in Oakland.

She demonstrated that stem cells from bone marrow circulated in the peripheral blood of animals.

The work has been cited repeatedly in scientific journals and remains basic to stem cell research, according to a former colleague.

Goodman and associates at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee also were distinguished for their research contributions to the study of bone marrow transplantation as a means of combating the effects of radiation damage. She also contributed to early studies of the immune response in animals and human cells, and the role of the thymus gland in the formation of red blood cells.

She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, entered Barnard College in New York on scholarship at 16, and later earned a doctorate from the University of Rochester.

In 1985, Goodman retired from UC’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, went to law school and passed the bar. Instead of practicing law, she became a devoted patron of San Francisco’s arts.