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Event |
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JB Murphy, 'Studies on tissue specificity', Journal of Experimental Medicine, 19 (1914), 181-86.1914-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1914 | | Experiments by James B Murphy demonstrate that lymphocytes help animals reject grafted tumoursMurphy | Rockefeller Intitute | Immunology, Cancer immunotherapy, Oncology |
The experiments involved increasing the number of lymphocytes in the blood of mice by treating them with low doses of X-rays. JB Murphy, JJ Morton, 'The effects of X-rays on the resistance to cancer in mice', Science, 42 (1915), 842. 1915-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1915 | | James B Murphy puts forward hypothesis that the nonspecific stimulation of lymphocytes could provide a cure for cancer based on experiments he and John J Morton carried out on miceMurphy, Morton | Rockefeller Institute | Immunology, Cancer immunotherapy, Oncology |
The trials were carried out by James B Murphy and colleagues at the Rockefeller Institute. 1916-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1916 - 1922 | | Disappointing results reported from clinical trials treating breast cancer patients with low doses of X-ray radiation following tumour removal, discrediting the theory that stimulation of lymphocytes could help cure cancer. Murphy | Rockefeller Institute | Immunology, Cancer immunotherapy, Oncology |
de Duve was a cytologist and biochemist. The son of Belgian refugees who fled to England during World War I, de Duve is associated with the discovery of peroxisome and lysosome in the 1950s and 1960s. They are two specialised subunits found within the cell and are vital to the function of the cell. His work paved the way to unravelling the biology of several genetic diseases. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1974 on the back of his 'discoveries concerning the structural and functional organisation of the cell.'
de Duve helped determine the structure and function of parts of the cell. 1917-10-02T00:00:00+0000| 2 Oct 1917 | | Christian R de Duve was born in Thames Ditton, United Kingdomde Duve | Rockefeller University | Cell |
A geneticist by training, Sager enjoyed two careers. She first made her mark in the 1950s and 1950s when she discovered the transmission of genetic traits through chloroplast DNA. This was the first example of genetics not involving the cell nucleus. Later on, in the early 1970s, she became a major pioneer in cancer genetics. She was one of the first to propose and investigate the function of tumour suppressor genes. 1918-02-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Feb 1918 | | Ruth Sager was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, USASager | Rockefeller University | Genetics, Oncology |
Merrifield was a biochemist and organic chemist. In 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for inventing a process known as solid phase peptide synthesis. He developed the technique in 1965. It provided a methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix. By the mid-1960s he and his team had proved the method could be used to synthesise bradykinin, angiotensin, desamino-oxytocin and insulin. In 1969 they managed to synthesise the enzyme, ribonuclease A. This was the first proof of the chemical nature of enzymes. Merrifield's method is now a rountine method for automatically synthesising large proteins, novel nucleotides, or short fragments of DNA.1921-07-15T00:00:00+0000| 15 Jul 1921 | | Robert Bruce Merrifield born in Fort Worth, Texas, USAMerrifield | Rockefeller Institute | Biochemistry |
Known as the Carrel or T flask, this vessel was developed by Alexis Carrel. The flask had an angled neck to prevent airborne particles from falling into the flask when it was open. The neck could also be sterilised with a flame both before and after adding or removing nutrient broth. 1923-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1923 | | First specifically designed cell culture vessel Carrel | Rockefeller University | Cell culture |
Loeb was a German-American physiologist and biologist who demonstrated the possibility of reproduction without male fertilisation, parthenogenesis, in sea urchin eggs. He found it was possible to stimulate embryonic development in the eggs of sea urchins without sperm by making slight chemical changes to the water where the eggs were kept. This he discovered while conducting experiments at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His results were published in 'Activation of the unfertilized egg by ultra-violet rays', Science, 40/1036 (1914), 680-1. While Loeb was nominated for the Nobel Prize many times he never won.
1924-02-11T00:00:00+0000| 11 Feb 1924 | | Jacques Loeb diedLoeb | Rockefeller University | Reproduction |
Greengard is a neurobiologist who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his discovery of how the neurotransmitter, dopamine, functions in the nervous system. Beginning this work in the late 1960s, Greengaard showed that dopamine binds to receptors on the outer membrane of a neuron. This stimulates a second messenger, cyclic AMP, which in itself activates an enzyme that adds phosphate molecules to other proteins in the neuron. Greengard's work has paved the way to greater understanding of certain neurological and psychiatric disorders and development of new treatments. 1925-12-11T00:00:00+0000| 11 Dec 1925 | | Paul Greengard was born in New York, USAGreengard | Rockefeller University | Neuroscience |
The vaccine was developed by Alexis Carel with Tom Rivers. It was made from vaccinia, or cowpox virus, collected from calf lymph fluid. The vaccine did not prove successful as it did not provide sufficient protection against smallpox, but it showed a way of developing safer vaccines by growing the virus in tissue culture. The technique was published in A Carrel, TM Rivers, 'La Fabrication du vaccin in vitro', Comptes Rendus Soc Biol, 96 (1927), 848. One of the advantages with the new method was that the vaccine had fewer side effects and did not leave a scar after vaccination. 1927-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1927 | | First viral vaccine developedCarrel, Rivers | Rockefeller University | Cell culture, Vaccine |
Noguchi was a Japanese bacteriologist. He is best remembered for his identification, in 1913, of the causative agent of syphilis (the bacteria Treponema pallidum), and identification of the pathogen responsible for Carrion's disease (a Leishmania parasite). Unable to get a medical position in Japan because of his hand deformity which potential employers feared would put off potential patients, Noguchi spent his life doing laboratory work in the United States. While valued in his lifetime, his reputation took a battering after his death because researchers struggled to reproduce some of his claims, including having discovered the cause of yellow fever, polio and rabies. 1928-05-21T00:00:00+0000| 21 May 1928 | | Hideyo Noguchi diedNoguchi | Rockefeller Institute | Bacteriology |
Zinder was a biologist who discovered how hereditary information is transferred from one organism to another. The process is known as genetic transduction. Carrying out experiments with the bacteria species Salmonella, Zinder discovered that bacteriophages, a type of virus, carry genes from one bacterium to another. He did the work with Joshua Lederberg, his doctoral supervisor. 1928-11-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Nov 1928 | | Norton D Zinder was born New York City, USAZinder | Rockefeller University | Genetics |
Edelman was a biologist renowned for his research on antibodies. His research helped determine the chemical structure of antibodies in the early 1960s. It showed that antibodies were made up of two light and heavy chains linked together by disulfide bonds. The breakthrough immediately galvanised feverish activity in all fields of immunological science, paving the way to the development of antibodies for both diagnostics and therapy. Edelman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1972 for his work.1929-07-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Jul 1929 | | Gerald M Edelman was born in New York NY, USAEdelman | Rockefeller University | Antibodies, Immunology |
The term was coined by Warren Weaver to convey the idea of the physical and chemical explanations of life. 1938-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1938 | | First use of the term 'molecular biology'Weaver | Rockefeller University | |
A Russian-American biochemist, Levene discovered nucleic acids came in two forms: DNA and RNA. He also identified the components of DNA: adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine, deoxyribose and a phosphate group and showed that these components were linked together by nucleotides, phosphate-sugar base units. Born to Lithuanian Jewish parents, Levene emigrated to the US in 1893 as a result of anti-semitic progroms. He was appointed the head of the biochemical laboratory at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in 1905 where he spent the rest of his career. 1940-09-06T00:00:00+0000| 6 Sep 1940 | | Phoebus Levene diedLevene | Rockefeller University | DNA |
Avery made the point in a letter to his brother Roy Avery. 1943-05-15T00:00:00+0000| 15 May 1943 | | Oswald claimed DNA to be the 'transforming factor' and the material of genesAvery | Rockefeller University | DNA, genetics |
Landsteiner was an Austrian-American immunologist and pathologist who has been called the founder of transfusion medicine. In 1930 he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his discovery of the main human blood types (A, B and O), published in 1901, and for his development of the ABO system of blood typing which enabled blood transfusion to become a safe medical procedure. In 1909 he also helped discover the microorganism responsible for poliovirus which provided the foundation for the development of the polio vaccine. He also discovered the Rh factor in 1940. This is an inherited protein found on the surface of red blood cells. This can cause problems in pregnancy for women with the Rh-negative blood group whose foetus has the Rh-positive blood group.1943-06-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Jun 1943 | | Karl Landsteiner diedLandsteiner | Rockefeller Institute | Immunology |
The physician-geneticists Oswald Avery, Canadian-born, Colin MacLeod, Canadian-born, and Maclyn McCarty, American-born, published an experiment demonstrating that a harmless bacteria, Streptococcus pneumoniae, can be made virulent by using DNA isolated from a virulent strain. The experiment involved injecting into mice two sets of bacteria, one smooth (virulent) and the other rough (nonvirulent), associated with pneumonia. In the first instance the collaborators injected the virulent bacteria into the mouse, which went on to die. Next they injected the non-virulent bacteria into a mouse, which survived. They then heated the virulent bacteria to kill it and injected it into a mouse, which survived. Following this they injected a mixture of heat-killed bacteria with the virulent bacteria into the mouse, which died. Finally they injected a mixture of harmless bacteria with DNA extracted from the heated lethal bacteria in a mouse which died. The experiment showed that the harmless bacteria became lethal when mixed with DNA from the virulent bacteria. The experiment was published in 'Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing the transformation of pneumococcal types', Journal of Experimental Medicine, 79/2 (1944), 137-58. 1944-02-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Feb 1944 | | DNA identified as a hereditary agentAvery, MacLeod, McCarty | Rockefeller University | DNA |
Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist. Inspired by lessons he took from from an embroideress, he developed new techniques for suturing blood vessels that minimised damage to the vascular wall. He was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize for Medicine in recognition of 'his work on vascular structure and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs'. During World War I he helped develop a new method for treating wounds based on chlorine, which was a major advance in the care of traumatic wounds. In the 1930s he helped create a glass perfusion pump, a forerunner to the artificial heart. His reputation later became marred in controversy because of his strong support for Eugenic policies of sterilisation for those with families with hereditary diseases and a criminal history as well euthanasia for the mentally defective. In 1944 he was singled out for collaboration with the Nazis under the Vichy government, but he died before going on trial.1944-11-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Nov 1944 | | Alexis Carrel diedCarrel | Rockefeller University | Transplantation |
R.D. Hotchkiss, 'The quantative separation of purines, pyrimidines, and nucleosides by paper chromatography', J Biol Chem, 175/1 (1948), 315-32. 1948-03-10T00:00:00+0000| Mar 1948 | | Hotchkiss discovered the first naturally modifed DNA nucleotide, cytosine, in a chromatography of calf thymus DNAHotchkiss | Rockefeller Institute | Epigenetics |
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