Howard Lloyd Bachrach (May 21, 1920 – June 26, 2008) was an American scientist who made research contributions to the understanding of viruses such asfoot-and-mouth disease andpolio. Bachrach's work led to the first vaccination developed throughgenetic engineering techniques. He worked for theUnited States Department of Agriculture and was chief scientist at thePlum Island Animal Disease Center. Bachrach was a recipient of theNational Medal of Science and was a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.

Born inFaribault, Minnesota to a Jewish family, Bachrach had two brothers. His family owned a men's clothing store that remained in Faribault until 2006. Bachrach graduated from Faribault High School in 1938.^[1] He attended theUniversity of Minnesota, where he completed achemistry degree.^[2] DuringWorld War II, Bachrach was affiliated with theCarnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, where he studied chemical explosives as part of theManhattan Project.^[3]

Bachrach later researched measures to prevent bread from becoming stale, then returned to Minnesota and studiedclassical swine fever (also known as hog cholera). Bachrach found that the disease could be transmitted by a protein produced by the virus, even in the absence of the virus itself. After Bachrach earned a Ph.D. inbiochemistry, theUnited States Department of Agriculture sent him to Europe to study foot-and-mouth disease. The disease, previously thought to be under control, had reemerged in Mexico and the U.S. government felt that it posed a significant threat to U.S. cattle. Bachrach was able to purify the virus responsible for foot-and-mouth disease.^[2]

In 1950, having spent a year in Europe, Bachrach secured a position in the laboratory ofWendell Meredith Stanley at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. Working with biochemistCarleton Schwerdt, and using the principles he learned from foot-and-mouth disease, Bachrach purified laboratory samples of type II (Lansing type)poliovirus. Bachrach was able to produce lab specimens which contained 10% virus. The other 90% of the specimen was "gunk" from the cells involved in the process of growing the virus, but no previous researcher had been able to produce a sample purified beyond one percent.^[2] The purification techniques of Bachrach and Schwerdt made it feasible to develop and test polio vaccines.^[4]

Beginning in 1953, Bachrach was associated with theAgricultural Research Service (ARS) at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.^[5] He was named chief scientist at the center in 1961.^[2] At Plum Island, Bachrach and associatesspliced a foot-and-mouth disease protein, VP3, into a bacterium. In turn, the bacterium produced a large amount of VP3, and the Bachrach team felt that this could lead to a vaccine against the disease. In 1979, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee issued a recommendation to theNational Institutes of Health that the team be allowed to work withGenentech on the production of a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine that would not contain the actual virus.^[6]

The development of the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine, which was only effective against a single strain of the illness, taught scientists that immunological principles might not hold true from one subtype of the disease to the next.^[4] This vaccine was the first one developed using genetic engineering.^[7]

Bachrach retired in 1981.^[8] In 1982, he was elected to membership in theNational Academy of Sciences and he received the Kenneth A. Spencer Award from theAmerican Chemical Society.^[9][10] He received theNational Medal of Science the next year.^[11] He died of heart disease in 2008 atJFK Medical Center inAtlantis, Florida.^[8] When he died, he had been married to the former Shirley Lichterman for 65 years. They had two children and one grandchild.^[12]

• List of National Medal of Science laureates

• George F. Vande Woude, "Howard L. Bachrach", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)

• 1920 births
• 2008 deaths
• American virologists
• Jewish American scientists
• People from Faribault, Minnesota
• National Medal of Science laureates
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• 20th-century American Jews
• 21st-century American Jews

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