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Early life and education

Oswald Avery was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on October 21, 1877 to Francis Joseph Avery, a Baptist minister, and his wife Elizabeth Crowdy.[1] The couple had immigrated from Britain in 1873. Oswald Avery was born and grew up in a small wooden row house on Moran Street in the North End of Halifax, now a designated heritage building.

When Oswald was 10, his family moved to the Lower East Side of New York City. Oswald Avery began participating in church activities at a young age.[2] He and his older brother Ernest learned how to play the cornet from a German musician who played at church.[2] Soon, both were playing at church themselves.[2] The brothers played on the steps of Mariners’ Temple to attract worshippers.[3] Both earned a scholarship to the National Conservatory of Music.[2] Ernest became sick and did not continue, but Oswald pushed onward.[4] He became talented enough to play with the National Academy of Music in Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 5, From the New World, under direction of Walter Damrosch.[4]

Oswald Avery began at Colgate University in 1896.[4] Avery played his cornet during college, and he headed the college band.[5] Even though Colgate was a Baptist school, there were signs of rebellion against orthodoxy during Avery's time at the the university.[4] In Avery's senior year, he and a few of his classmates asked their philosophy professor to create a metaphysics class that would allow them to explore the credibility of the Christian faith.[6] Avery’s senior year was entirely electives, but he did not choose to take a single science elective, even though many were offered.[7] Avery made exceptional grades throughout his years at Colgate.[7] He received 8.5 out of 10 or above in all courses his freshman year and 9 out of 10 or above his sophomore through senior year.[7] Avery’s top grades were in his public speaking courses, in which he never received lower than a 9.5.[7] He even tied for first with his friend Emerson in an oratorical contest.[7] He earned his undergraduate degree in humanities at Colgate University and was a member of the Class of 1900.[7]

Oswald Avery began medical studies at The College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York later in the year of 1900.[7] At the college, he made good grades in all of his courses, except bacteriology and pathology. [8] He graduated with a medical degree in 1904, and then he began to practice general medicine.[9]Avery did not like dealing with patients who have chronic diseases that he was unable to fix.[9] He practiced medicine until 1907 when he began working as an associate director to Benjamin White in Hoagland Laboratory.[10]

Hoagland Laboratory

At Hoagland Laboratory, he began by studying the bacteriology of yogurt and other fermented milk products and their effects on gut bacteria.[11] He recorded his findings in “Observations on Certain Lactic Acid Bacteria of the Bulgaricus Type”.[12] During the years 1909 through 1913, he performed medical research with bacteriological, immunological, and chemical approaches.[12]

For a period of time, White came down with tuberculosis.[12] Avery went with him to Trudea Sanatorium for a cure.[12] Afterwards, Avery went back to take vacations at the sanatorium.[12] He became interested in tuberculosis and began doing research in the Trudea Laboratory, where he looked at the clinical and experimental aspects of tuberculosis.[12] Here he carried out 100 consecutive blood cultures of tuberculosis patients in the active phase of the disease.[12] He never found evidence of secondary infection.[12] However, these findings were critical for the understanding of tuberculosis.[12] His careful clinical investigation caught the eye of Dr. Rufus Cole at Rockefeller Institute.[12]

At Hoagland, Avery performed a chemical and toxicological study of a product derived from tubercle bacilli.[13]With White as a colleague, he extracted the product with alkaline ethanol.[13] The research was published in 1912.[13] This further showed his systematic effort to observe and analyze bacterial activity using their chemical structure.[13] In 1911, Avery instructed staff of H. K. Mulford Company in bacteriological techniques, and they taught him the industrial methods for production of antitoxins and vaccines.[13]

Throughout his time at Hoagland, Avery published nine papers, one of which was a chapter on “Opsonins and Vaccine Therapy”.[13] He collaborated with Dr. N. B. Potter for this chapter, which was put in Hare’s Modern Treatment - a popular medical magazine at the time.[13] Avery also taught a course to student nurses at Hoagland.[13] During the course, he conveyed the dangers of pathogens spread through sneezing.[13] During his teaching, he was given the nicknames “The Professor” and “Fess”.[13] While working at Hoagland, Avery was mailed two written offers from Rockefeller Institute, and he denied them both. [14]Avery did not accept the offer until Rufus Cole from Rockefeller came to offer the position to him in person.[14]

Rockefeller Institute

Oswald Avery entered Rockefeller Institute as Assistant in 1913, and in 1915, he became an Associate.[14] In 1919, Avery was promoted to an associate member.[14] He was granted full membership in 1923.[14] At the institute, Cole, Avery and Alphonse Dochez developed the first effective immune serum against a strain of pneumococcus, a bacterium causing pneumonia. The serum was produced from the blood of infected horses.

Research showed that various pneumonia cultures isolated from different patients had different immunological properties.[15] This made it difficult to develop a serum effective against all of the different strains.[15] Four main groups of pneumococcus had been discovered - type I, type II, type III, and type IV.[16] Avery studied distribution of different types in healthy patients versus patients displaying symptoms of pneumonia.[17] Avery found different subgroups of type II pneumococcus.[16] These groups were similar to the type strain in certain aspects.[16] However, the subgroups of type II had similarities amongst each other that they did not share with the other main groups of pneumococcus.[16] Avery wrote a paper in 1915 called “Varieties of Pneumococcus and Their Relation to Lobar Pneumonia”, which examines this link.[17] In the paper, he argued, “If the strains present in normal mouths should show constant differences from the types found during actual disease, and if the latter types should be absent from the normal mouth flora, the likelihood would become great that infection in pneumonia takes place either by contact with healthy individuals or apparently healthy carriers.”[17] In this paper, Avery also suggested that when deciding which serum to administer, it was important to determine the type of strain of pnuemococcus by agglutination of the pneumococci.[17] He linked virulence to severity of symptoms caused by the different strains.[17] A serum effective against type II pneumonia was developed.[18] Avery was placed in charge of testing the serum in horses.[18] [17] He also had to process the serum and measure its antipneumococcal activity.[18][17] He improved the serum by concentrating it so that a minimal amount of foreign protein was used in the serum.[17] Avery was the senior author of the monograph Acute Lobar Pneumonia: Prevention and Serum Treatment that was published by The Institute in response to this research.[18] Avery also helped Dochez in his research on specific soluble substances found in the blood and urine of pneumonia patients. [19] The presence of specific soluble substances in a urine sample allowed him to rapidly test the type of pneumonia without having to wait for a culture to grow. [20] Avery and Heidelberger realized that the capsules of different strains of pneumonia had different polysaccharide structures and concluded that polysaccharides play a role in immunological specificity.[21] Work with SSS demonstrated that chemical composition of an organism was important in developing effective anti-serums.[17] Avery’s work with SSS showed that chemical composition of the organism was important in developing specific anti-serums, and it led to the synthesis of artificial antigens.[22] Avery published papers on these findings between 1923 and 1929, along with an additional paper he published with Goebel in 1933.[23] He worked with Goebel until 1934, and Gavel continued their work after.[24] Later, the observation that the active protein was the same for all of the pneumococcal strains, but the active protein was different from that of other types of bacteria, led Avery to conclude that a protein determines the specificity of Diplococcus pneumoniae. [25]

Avery became an emeritus member of The Institute when he retired in 1943.[14] However, he continued to work in the lab until 1948.[14]

Retirement and later years

While working at Rockefeller Institute, Avery contracted Grave’s disease.[26] Avery experienced mood swings of depression and irritability due to the disease.[26] After undergoing a thyroidectomy, Avery once again became more lively.[26] He began sailing and fell in love with the sport.[26] Shortly after, he retired in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived close to his brother and his brother’s family, where he was regarded not as a scientist, but as a pleasant family man and a kind country gentleman.[27] While in the southern United States, Avery took a particular interest in the local flora and would act as a gardener would, learning about and appreciating the flowers and trees.[27] Avery's enthusiasm toward researching nucleic acids continued into his retirement, and he would continue his work with Dr. Hugh Morgan, chairman of the department of medicine at Vanderbilt Medical School.[27] Dr. Morgan was given a research grant from the Department of Defense to study immunity to streptococcal infection, and he convinced Avery to help him in his research.[27] Avery worked on this research with Dr. Bertram E. Sprofkin.[27] The two wrote a joint report on “Studies on the bacteriolytic property of Streptomyces albus and its action on hemolytic streptococci”.[27] During his later years, Avery became terminally ill with extensive hepatoma, or liver cancer.[27] He died at age 78 on February 20, 1955 and was buried in Mount Olivet cemetery in Nashville.[27]

Family

Oswald Avery’s grandfather was Joseph Henry Avery.[28] He was a papermaker, and he was in charge of the papermaking at Oxford University.[28] He discovered a way to make thin paper that could be printed on both sides.[28] This paper was used to make Oxford Bibles.[28]

Avery's father, Joseph Francis Avery, born in 1846 in Norwich, Norfolk, became a Baptist minister after coming under the influence of C. H. Spurgeon, a Baptist Evangelist.[28] He married his wife, Elizabeth Crowdy, in 1870, and spent three years in England, where he would continue his pastoral service as a Baptist.[28] After this, he would move to Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife, against the wishes of his friends, believing it to be the Will of God.[28] He remained as a pastor for 14 years in Halifax before traveling to the Mariner's Temple in New York City, where he would preach to a rowdy and poverty-stricken crowd.[29] While here, he would publish an edifying pamphlet entitled "The Voyage of Life", edited the church publication Buds and Blossoms, and patented and attempted to sell a preparation known as "Avery's Auraline", though it would gain little success.[30] When their home burned to the ground in December of 1890, the Baptist community of New York banded together to help pay for the expenses, including one John D. Rockefeller.[30] He would die in 1892, leaving his wife Elizabeth Avery a widow.[31]

Avery's mother, Elizabeth Crowdy, was the beating heart and soul that made her husband's church the community center it was.[32] After Joseph Francis Avery's death, she would continue editing the publication Buds and Blossoms.[32] She would also continue to work with the Baptist City Mission Society, where she would come into association with a number of wealthy people, including the Sloans, the Vanderbilts, and the Rockefellers.[32]

Oswald had two siblings - an older brother Ernest and a younger brother Roy.[32] Ernest was a gifted child, but became ill at a young age.[32] Roy followed his brother Oswald in the field of bacteriology.[2] He eventually taught at Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee.[2]

DNA as the basis for genes

For many years, genetic information was thought to be contained in cell protein. Continuing the research done by Frederick Griffith, Avery worked with Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty on the mystery of inheritance. He had received emeritus status from the Rockefeller Institute in 1943, but continued working for five years, though by that time he was in his late sixties. In 1944 at the Rockefeller Institute's Hospital for medical research, Oswald Avery, along with Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, isolated S-strain bacteria from dead mice and killed them with heat.[33][34] They used available techniques to remove various macromolecules - proteins, RNA, and DNA - from the bacteria.[33][34] Then, the killed S-strain bacteria, with various substances removed, were placed with live R-strain bacteria.[33][34] Avery hypothesized that if the live R-strain bacteria did not transform into S-strain bacteria, then the missing substance contained genetic information and was the "transforming principle".[33][34] Proteins were removed with protease enzymes and upon transfer of S-strain bacteria into R-strain, the R-strain transformed into S-strain.[33][34] Therefore, proteins were not the "transforming principle".[33][34] Next, the S-strain bacteria were treated with ribonucleases to degrade their RNA, and the remainder of the S-strain was placed with the live R-strain bacteria.[33][34] The R-strain still transformed into S-strain, suggesting that RNA was not the transforming substance.[33][34] Finally, the S-strain bacteria were treated with a deoxyribonuclease enzymes, which removed the DNA, and the S-strain bacteria were placed with the live R-strain bacteria.[33][34] After this treatment, the R-strain bacteria did not transform into S-strain bacteria.[33][34] The lack of transformation suggested that DNA was the substance that transformed R-strain into S-strain bacteria and indicated that it was the carrier of genetic information in cells.[33][34]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 47. ISBN 0874700221.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0874700221.
  3. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 0874700221.
  4. ^ a b c d Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0874700221.
  5. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 56. ISBN 0874700221.
  6. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 0874700221.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0874700221.
  8. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 58. ISBN 0874700221.
  9. ^ a b Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0874700221.
  10. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0874700221.
  11. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0874700221.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0874700221.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 62. ISBN 0874700221.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 63. ISBN 0874700221.
  15. ^ a b Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 101. ISBN 0874700221.
  16. ^ a b c d Avery, Oswald T.; MacLeod, Colin M.; McCarty, Maclyn (1944-02-01). "STUDIES ON THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF THE SUBSTANCE INDUCING TRANSFORMATION OF PNEUMOCOCCAL TYPES". The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 79 (2): 137–158. doi:10.1084/jem.79.2.137. ISSN 0022-1007. PMC 2135445. PMID 19871359.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i Amsterdamska, Olga (1993). "Between Medicine and Science: The Research Career of Oswald T. Avery". In Löwy, Ilana (ed.). Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation. John Libbey Eurotext. p. 186. ISBN 2742000100. Cite error: The named reference ":16" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  18. ^ a b c d Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 102. ISBN 0874700221.
  19. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 103. ISBN 0874700221.
  20. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 104. ISBN 0874700221.
  21. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0874700221.
  22. ^ Amsterdamska, Olga (1993). "Between Medicine and Science: The Research Career of Oswald T. Avery". In Löwy, Ilana (ed.). Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation. John Libbey Eurotext. pp. 191–192. ISBN 2742000100.
  23. ^ Amsterdamska, Olga (1993). "Between Medicine and Science: The Research Career of Oswald T. Avery". In Löwy, Ilana (ed.). Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation. John Libbey Eurotext. p. 192. ISBN 2742000100.
  24. ^ Amsterdamska, Olga (1993). "Between Medicine and Science: The Research Career of Oswald T. Avery". In Löwy, Ilana (ed.). Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation. John Libbey Eurotext. p. 192. ISBN 2742000100.
  25. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 111. ISBN 0874700221.
  26. ^ a b c d Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 63–67. ISBN 0874700221.
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0874700221.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0874700221.
  29. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0874700221.
  30. ^ a b Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0874700221.
  31. ^ Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 52. ISBN 0874700221.
  32. ^ a b c d e Dubos, René J. (1976). The Professor, the Institute, and DNA. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0874700221.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Parker, Nina (2021). "Biochemistry of the Genome". Microbiology. Mark Schneegurt, Anh-Hue Thi Tu, Brian M. Forster, Philip Lister, OpenStax, American Society for Microbiology. Houston, Texas: ASM Press. ISBN 978-1-938168-14-7. OCLC 1339103997.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Animation 17: A gene is made of DNA. :: CSHL DNA Learning Center". dnalc.cshl.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
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