The Professor, the Institute, and DNA: Oswald T. Avery, His Life and Scientific Achievements

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_The Professor, the Institute, and DNA_ recounts the life and scientific achievements of Oswald T. Avery, who was a monumental force in the development of medical research in the United States. "Oswald Theodore Avery is little known outside of the scientific community. Yet, this extraordinary man, here brought vividly to life by a perceptive friend and sophisticated scientific colleague, was a monumental force in the development of medical research in the United States. Even among scientists, Avery is known chiefly as the senior author of a paper published in 1944 that identified DNA as the purveyor of genetic information. Two things make this highly personalized biography a landmark volume. First, its technical chapters clarify the philosophical concepts that lie behind today's understanding of the immunology of bacterial infection. Second, not a single existing textbook has ever described the laborious methods by which the men in Avery's laboratory discovered the genetic import of DNA. This is the story of a man and a place that were uniquely suited to each other—O.T. Avery and The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. It is also the story of a charming, forceful, and enigmatic personality—a man whose character imposed a lasting influence on his associates and on the direction of scientific investigation throughout the world. And, like any good narrative, the story has its heroes and its villains, its disappointments and its triumphs. Only a person with the expertise, insight, and sensitivity of a René Dubos could have combined the science, the times, and the man with such penetration." "This is a remarkable and historically important book by Rene Dubos, who deserved the Nobel Prize for his pioneering of the discovery of antibiotics from soil-based organisms. Tragically, it was almost certainly his reaction to the untimely death of his first wife, Marie Louise Bonnet, from tuberculosis when Dubos was at the height of his research at the Rockefeller that caused him to abandon his work in despair. Dubos was subsequently awarded two Pulitzers for his writing and contribution to ecological and environmental awareness." "René J. Dubos: During his lifetime, René Dubos held more than 35 honorary degrees (including three honorary MDs) from universities in this country, Canada, and abroad. As a microbiologist and experimental pathologist, he first demonstrated—some 40 years ago—that germ-fighting drugs can be extracted from microbes. Also an award-winning author, his lectures and books have alerted an international audience to the physico-chemical, biological, and social effects that environmental forces exert on all forms of life. This interest in the effects of the total environment placed Dr. Dubos in the forefront of ecological studies on both the sociomedical problems of underprivileged communities and the results of affluence in industrialized countries. His more than 20 books have been translated into many languages. So Human an Animal won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969; Beast or Angel: Choices that Make Us Human was published in 1974 to wide acclaim."

Author(s): René J. Dubos
Publisher: The Rockefeller University Press
Year: 1976

Language: English
Commentary: https://books.rupress.org/catalog/book/professor-institute-and-dna
Pages: 272
Tags: genetics, Rockefeller Institute, Oswald T. Avery, biology, bacteria, immunology, DNA

- Introduction

1. Chapter One: The Professor and the Institute
- A dynamic institution
- Workshops of science
- The Professor and the _genius loci_
2. Chapter Two: From the Bedside to the Laboratory
- The rise of scientific medicine in the United States
- The Rockefeller Institute for Medicial Research
- The Rockefeller Institute Hospital
- From research institute to university
3. Chapter Three: Chemistry in Medical Research
- Chemistry at the birth of the Rockefeller Institute
- Chemistry as a research tool
- The chemical view of life
- Interdisciplinary thinking
4. Chapter Four: Avery's Personal Life
- Private life and professional life
- Familial background
- The Colgate years
- Medical education
- The Rockefeller Institute years
- The Nashville years
5. Chapter Five: Avery's Life in the Laboratory
- The inwardness of research
- Picking other people's brains
- The protocol experiment
- The written word
- The Red Seal Records
6. Chapter Six: The Multifaceted Specialist
7. Chapter Seven: The Lure of Antiblastic Immunity and the Chemistry of the Host
- Antiblastic immunity
- Bacterial metabolism and the phenomena of infection
- The chemistry of the host
- Host-parasite relationships
8. Chapter Eight: The Chemical Basis of Biological Specificity
- Serum for pneumonia
- The specific soluble substances
- Immunity from sawdust and egg white
- Biological specificity
9. Chapter Nine: The Complexities of Virulence
- Virulence in nature and in experimental models
- The bacterial capsule and virulence
- The bacterial body and virulence
10. Chapter Ten: Bacterial Variability
- Polymorphism vs. monomorphism
- Phenotypic adaptations and hereditary changes
- The many facets of bacterial variability
- Transformation of types in pneumococci
11. Chapter Eleven: Heredity and DNA
- The transforming substance and DNA
- Scientific puritanism
- A premature discovery?
12. Chapter Twelve: As I Remember Him
- Gentle mannered and tough minded
- Avery's consecutive persona
- An unspoken scientific philosophy
- Originality and creativity
- Experimental science as an art form

- _Envoi_
- References
- Chronologies
- Appendixes
- Index2