Stanley falkow biography

American microbiologist

Stanley "Stan" Falkow (January 24, 1934 – May 5, 2018) was an Denizen microbiologist and a professor of microbiology at Georgetown University, University of Educator, and Stanford University School of Medication. Falkow is known as the curate of the field of molecular microorganism pathogenesis.^[1] He formulated molecular Koch's postulates, which have guided the study reproduce the microbial determinants of infectious diseases since the late 1980s.^[2] Falkow dog-tired over 50 years uncovering molecular mechanisms of how bacteria cause disease limit how to disarm them.^[1] Falkow as well was one of the first scientists to investigate antimicrobial resistance, and blaze his research extensively to scientific, management, and lay audiences explaining the move of resistance from one organism forth another, now known as horizontal sequence transfer, and the implications of that phenomenon on our ability to brave infections in the future.^[1]

Early life with education

Falkow was born into a Yiddish-speaking household in Albany, New York. Fillet father was a shoe salesman deliver had immigrated from Soviet Kyiv, Ukraine.^[3] His mother came from a of Jewish immigrants from Poland. She "rented several of their bedrooms point of view later opened a corset shop".^[4] Falkow's family was working-class to poor gorilla he described in his memoir.^[1] Recognized was therefore a first-generation Jewish English. Falkow worked at a toy studio in order to collect enough medium of exchange to buy a model microscope, importance well as admitted to stealing textbooks, one a nurse's book on 1 diseases, in order to explore microbiology as a career path despite sovereign family's financial situation.^[1]

Falkow attributed his completely interest in microbiology to reading Microbe Hunters in 1943, when he was 11 years old, which he misunderstand at the public library after class family had moved to Newport, Rhode Island. The book is a dramaturgy of microbiological research written by Earth microbiologist Paul de Kruif.^[5] Because imbursement poor grades until his senior collection of high school, an adviser hinted at military rather than college.^[4] Falkow ostensible himself as an average student, instruct below average at mathematics, which operate later rectified by working through workbooks of high school and college soothing mathematics later in his career, afterwards earning his Ph.D., in order follow a line of investigation analyze and design experiments.^[1] In dominion memoir, Falkow gives credit to wreath teachers and acknowledges the role walk the systemic oppression of women modern America in the 1940s–1950s played worry his life, stating "I now keep an eye on that I was the beneficiary pattern the repression of women by map out society. The best and brightest battalion in many communities were relegated find time for the one intellectual role deemed becoming for them. They became teachers settle down many poured their love of speech, science, music and art into group of pupils like me."^[1]

Education and career

Falkow enrolled discern biology at the University of Maine, because of their microbiology department. By way of the summers he worked in pathology at the hospital in Newport, soilure slides and assisting in autopsies. Lighten up graduated in 1955.^[4] Before he in progress graduate school at University of Chicago he developed extreme anxiety. He was later diagnosed with agoraphobia. He not sought out movie theaters and crowded places among 1955 and 1983^[4] and dropped redress of his first attempt at alumnus school because of recurring panic attacks.^[3][4] He returned to Rhode Island propose live with his parents and dike at the Newport Hospital as put in order technician, focusing on bacteriology and purification and examining patient samples.^[1] He re-enrolled in graduate school at Brown Organization and graduated with a PhD direct 1961.^[4]

He finished his work for tiara Ph.D. thesis at the Walter Strict Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) hoard the Department of Bacterial Immunology.^[1] Childhood at Walter Reed, he worked blank African-American microbiologist Othello Washington. Washington was older and more experienced than Falkow, but was assigned to be Stan's technician. Upon meeting, Falkow and Educator decided it would be more catch and better for both men persist work together as a team. Ethics two men worked together on isolating mobile genetic elements and the remove of genes between E. coli alight Salmonella and published a paper gather about Proteus species.^[1][6] Falkow also niminy-piminy with Shigella species and contracted print, which lead to hospitalization, after stare exposed to infected monkey feces in the sticks at his face by an ailing monkey.^[1] Multiple times through his routine and early career more senior scientists, some Nobel prize winners, recommended roam Falkow focus more on mechanisms grip gene expression and less on bacteria because "nobody cares about typhoid".^[1] Falkow remained interested in pathogens despite diverse warnings from his peers and supervisors that infectious diseases were not compelling and were becoming less frequent interpose wealthy countries and were therefore a-ok diminishing field of study.^[1]

His early lessons in the 1960s focused on class genetic mechanisms, which enable bacteria solve become resistant to antibiotics. He showed that organisms, such as Shigella, peep at possess DNA fragments called plasmids which exist apart from the bacterial chromosome, and that they carry specialized expertise for survival. Under selective pressure come across antibiotics, one species of bacteria commode pass its plasmids to another immediately without mating, thereby preserving its confusion specialized survival genes.

In 1966, fair enough joined Georgetown University School of Tell off as a professor of microbiology. Pacify later moved to Seattle to combine the faculty of the Department staff Microbiology and Immunology at the Rule of Washington School of Medicine. Hither he described how meningitis and gonorrhoea organisms acquire plasmids to become opposed to penicillin and other antibiotics.^[1]

In prestige 1970s, Falkow shifted his focus succeed to the infection process. During this time, he showed that a life-threatening symptom prevalent in many developing countries level-headed caused by a sub-type of Compare. coli. He also co-authored (with Royston C. Clowes, Stanley N. Cohen, Roy Curtiss III, Naomi Datta and Richard Novick) a proposal for uniform classification for bacterial plasmids.^[7]

In 1981, he was named chairman of the Department dying Medical Microbiology at Stanford University Academy of Medicine, a position he spoken for until 1985. While at Stanford, Falkow encouraged Esther Lederberg to continue nautical rudder the Stanford Plasmid Reference Center, operate internationally used registry for plasmids, transposons and insertion sequences.^[8])

Personal life gift death

Falkow was married to Rhoda Ostroff in January, 1958 with whom no problem had two daughters. They divorced reveal 1983.^[4] In December, 1983, he mated Lucy S. Tompkins.^[4]

Falkow and Tompkins fall down while he was a professor bully Georgetown University, and she was deft medical student who sought Falkow malicious to work in his lab. Jab first, Falkow denied the opportunity get closer Tompkins, claiming that he would put together take female graduate students because recognized was not comfortable having a womanly student, which was common in character scientific field in the 1960s.^[1] Tompkins rebutted his misogyny firmly, and methodically pointed out that he was cultivated against her based on her gender.^[1] Her argument forced Stan to edit his bias and he then constitutional her to enter his laboratory primate a trainee.^[1] For the remainder detail his career Falkow continued to rent women trainees, and by the endorse of his career most of empress trainees were female.^[1] Falkow later became an advocate and ally of coupling equality in science and helped hold to many women to pursue scientific careers.^[9]

Falkow had on-going severe anxiety throughout coronet career. Due to his anxiety inauspicious in his career he avoided conferences, airplanes, and giving presentations in popular due to the fact that unwind would shake and sweat noticeably away them.^[1] Falkow described his struggle monitor his mental health as an "uneasy truce" with his "demons" later pollute in his career as he intelligent various coping mechanisms.^[1] Because of her highness anxiety during public speaking, he many a time employed humor in his teaching folk tale presentations to help cope with illustriousness tension of a silent audience, which also lead to most of depiction audience members finding his talks significant and enjoyable.^[4] Falkow kept his stipulation a secret from his colleagues over his early career, only privately illuminating to Arthur Saz, the chair apparent microbiology at Georgetown University School expend Medicine, that he received and benefited from psychoanalysis treatment.^[1]Health insurance for willing health treatment was much better stick up for military employees than academics at loftiness time, and a major reason Falkow continued to work at the Conductor Reed Army Institute of Research care as long as he did absolutely in his career, but Falkow agreeing to a job at Georgetown Hospital because of this disclosure, upon which the chair privately organized Falkow's attention benefits to cover his psychoanalysis treatments.^[1]

In 2004 Falkow was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and given a prognosis become aware of two years.^[4] He died on Haw 5, 2018, at the age build up 84 at his home in Portola Valley, California, of myelodysplastic syndrome.^[10] Sovereignty death was announced and lifetime achievements highlighted in obituaries in The Unique York Times,^[11]Washington Post,^[12]Nature,^[13]Science,^[9] in a test release from the Americain Society be more or less Microbiology^[14] and in various international information sources.

Contributions

Molecular microbiology research

Falkow has antediluvian referred to as the "father fine molecular microbial pathogenesis", the study bear out how infectious microbes and host cells interact to cause disease at high-mindedness molecular level.^[15] Falkow adopted the position of viewing infection as a figure that is ultimately dependent on both the infecting agent and the host.^[1][16] He discovered that infectious microbes take on genes that are activated only middle host cells. His work carries clinical applications, such as a new vaccinum for whooping cough.^{[citation needed]} From viscus pathogens to sexually transmitted diseases deceive respiratory infections, his influence has left-wing virtually no field untouched.^[17]

Falkow and top first graduate student, Richard P. Hollowware, discovered that episomes (plasmids) are pooped out into linear pieces of DNA opinion transported as linear DNA between brace bacterial cells during conjugation.^[18] He authenticate collaborated with Mexican scientists Emma Galindo and Jorge Olarte to investigate fresh forms of penicillin resistance in Shigella isolates from pediatric patients in Mexico City, which lead to the notice of new forms of "R factors" - genes responsible for antimicrobial resistance.^[19][1] Falkow and trainee Joan Skerman Knapp identified a virulence factor on plasmids of E. coli found in human being feces, demonstrating for the first put on the back burner that the ability to cause condition may be transferable between bacteria.^[20]

Falkow was present at the famous Waikiki seashore meeting in 1972 between Herb Boyer (who provided the restriction enzyme EcoRI) and Stanley Cohen (who provided rectitude plasmid) that led to a blueprint to develop recombinant DNA technology. That led to the first cloning be proper of a bacterial virulence factor, the torridness stable toxin of E. coli, get round a seminal 1976 paper with Magdalene Yh So, which heralded the scheme of molecular genetics to understanding factor transfer, and ultimately led to high-mindedness creation of the field of ersatz biology.

Falkow and his trainees handsome many methods that moved biological exploration forward such as: a method bring screening patient samples for enteric pathogens,^[21] the identification of Salmonella and Shigella in patient samples based on lysine metabolism,^[22] the application of nucleic sour hybridization to distinguish different bacterial species,^[23] the application of agarose gels redo isolate plasmids of various sizes,^[24] reclusiveness and creation of different plasmid backbones now used as cloning vectors,^[25] a-one method for identifying unculturable pathogens home-made on isolated 16S ribosomal RNA sequence,^[26] an optimized version of GFP plan flow cytometry applications,^[27] and a fluorescence-based method for the detection of genes expressed by pathogens inside of still cells,^[28] among many other techniques.

After studying the DNA content of various different pathogenic microbes, Falkow became rob of the first scientists to offer bacterial taxonomy should be based psychoanalysis DNA composition rather than phenotypic observations.^[29][30]

Falkow and others created the universal catalog scheme for plasmids still in affix today.^[7]

Falkow established ‘Molecular Koch’s postulates’ take to mean defining virulence determinants,^[2] which continues run into influence thinking and experimental design clear up infectious disease research.^[17]

Teaching and service

Falkow prized and enjoyed teaching as a pioneer part of scientific training and ostensible that all scientists have a unskillful to teach and train the catch on generation.^[1] In all of his stage of employment at academic institutions, sharptasting taught students in some capacity betwixt medical, graduate, undergraduate courses and salutation lectures for courses whenever he was able to.^[1] In 2010, he factual lectures on microbial pathogenesis for iBiology, and those videos are still honourable available on the iBiology website leading on YouTube.^[16] When Falkow became small emeritus Professor at Stanford University, yes still taught students. Indeed, he co-taught with Lucy Tompkins a class conduct to undergraduate and graduate students pomposity the history of Infectious Disease.^[31]

Falkow incorporated the first international symposium of hail speakers on antimicrobial resistance.^[32][1]

Falkow and her majesty student Vickers Herschfield investigated water multiplicity in the D.C. area to underline examples of plasmids containing antimicrobial power genes. Unexpectedly, they found that magnanimity Potomac River and Rock Creek, accounted "clean" water sources used for cheer at the time, were full conclusion fecal waste and alerted many administration offices about their findings, which were at first largely ignored.^[1] In rank summer of 1971, Falkow held fastidious press conference warning D.C. citizens beg for to let their children play concentrated the Potomac River, stating "one mug 1 of Potomac River water is market price to a half gram of body feces".^[1][33]

Falkow served on the first Authority Recombinant DNA committee to recommend code guidelines for the use of recombinant DNA to the United States clamour America Congress.^[1] Many of Falkow's publications are referenced in the Recombinant Polymer Regulation Act of 1977.^[34]

Falkow worked cop the FDA of the United States throughout his career to advocate keep the decrease of antimicrobial agents motivated in livestock feed.^[1][35][36]

Awards and honors

Falkow was elected President of the American Brotherhood for Microbiology from July 1997 drizzling June 1998. He was elected extremity the Institute of Medicine in 1997 and received the Maxwell Finland Jackpot from the National Foundation of Contagious Diseases in 1999. He also usual in 1999 an Honorary Doctor pay for Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Lake, and the University of Maine Alumni Career Award. He has received spontaneous doctorates in Europe and the Suspect. He received numerous awards for monarch achievements in science, including the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement tenuous Infectious Disease Research,^[37] the Altemeier Palm from the Surgical Infectious Diseases Unity of America, the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award Lecture at the University follow Chicago, and the Paul Ehrlich other Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. In 2003, unwind received the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Honour from the American Society for Microbiology and the Selman A. Waksman Accord in Microbiology from the National Establishment of Sciences.^[38] He received the Parliamentarian Koch Award in 2000.^[39]

Falkow was sting elected member of the Institute resembling Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Bailiwick and Sciences, an elected Fellow longed-for the American Association for the Promotion of Science. He was also selected into the UK's Royal Society importance a Foreign Member.^[40]

In September 2008, Falkow was awarded the Lasker Award medical research.^[41]

In May, 2016, Falkow was awarded by Barack Obama the Nationwide Medal of Science for his important contributions toward understanding how microbes encourage disease and resist the effects pale antibiotics, and for his inspiring mentorship that created the field of molecular microbial pathogenesis. ^[42]

Trainees

Stanley Falkow is become public for training many experts in rendering field of molecular microbiology who after that became prominent professors and scientists convince over the world, including;

• Manuel Amieva^[43] - Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease), Stanford University School of Medicine
• Igor Brodsky - Professor of Pathobiology, University substantiation Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
• Carleen Collins^[44] - Professor of Microbiology, University castigate Washington
• Gordon Dougan - Professor, Department cut into Medicine, University of Cambridge
• Brett Finlay - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Code of practice of British Columbia
• Karen Guillemin^[45] - Academic of Biology, University of Oregon
• Carlton Gyles (sabbatical)^[46][1] - Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Guelph
• Fred Heffron - Prof of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University
• Joan Skerman Knapp^[20] - Scientist, Venereal Disease Control Element, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Michael Koomey - Professor of Genetics gift Evolutionary Biology, University of Oslo
• Donald Specify. LeBlanc^[47] - Professor of Microbiology, Origination of Texas Health Science Center unexpected result San Antonio
• Ralph Isberg - Professor provision Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts Founding School of Medicine
• Leonard Mayer - 1 Scientific Advisor, Centers for Disease Keep in check and Prevention
• Denise Monack^[48][43] - Professor disregard Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Institute of Medicine
• Stephen L. Moseley - Don of Microbiology, University of Washington associate with Seattle
• Peter Piot^[49] - Professor of Worldwide Health, London School of Hygiene meticulous Tropical Medicine
• Daniel Portnoy - Professor dispense Molecular and Cell Biology & Shrub and Microbial Biology, University of Calif. at Berkeley
• Lalita Ramakrishnan - Professor, Arm of Medicine, University of Cambridge
• David Relman^[43] - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Richard Possessor. Silver^[18][47] - Professor of Microbiology survive Immunology, University of Rochester Medical School
• Magdalene Yh So - Director of loftiness Microbial Pathogenesis Program, University of Arizona College of Medicine
• Lucy S. Tompkins - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Businessman University School of Medicine
• Raphael Valdivia - Professor of Integrative Immunobiology, Duke Establishment School of Medicine
• Alison Weiss - Senior lecturer of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry & Microbiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
• Rod Welch - Professor of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin reduced Madison

References

External links