Joshua Lederberg ForMemRS | |
|---|---|
 Lederberg in 1997 | |
| 5th President ofRockefeller University | |
| In office 1978–1990 | |
| Preceded by | Frederick Seitz |
| Succeeded by | David Baltimore |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1925-05-23)May 23, 1925 |
| Died | February 2, 2008(2008-02-02) (aged 82) |
| Spouse(s) | Esther Miriam Zimmer (1946–1966; divorced) Marguerite Stein Kirsch (1968–2008; 1 child, 1 stepchild) |
| Education | Columbia University Yale University |
| Scientific career | |
| Known for | Neurospora crassa Bacterial conjugation Dendral Astrobiology Transduction |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1958) National Medal of Science (1989) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2006) |
| Fields | Microbiologist |
| Thesis | Genetic recombination in Escherichia coli (1947) |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward Tatum |
| Doctoral students | Norton Zinder |
Joshua LederbergForMemRS[1] (May 23, 1925 – February 2, 2008)[2] was an Americanmolecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics,artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was 33 years old when he won the 1958Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering thatbacteria can mate and exchange genes (bacterial conjugation).[3] He shared the prize withEdward Tatum andGeorge Beadle, who won for their work with genetics.
In addition to his contributions tobiology, Lederberg did extensive research inartificial intelligence. This included work in theNASA experimental programs seekinglife on Mars and thechemistryexpert systemDendral.
Lederberg was born inMontclair, New Jersey, to aJewish family, son of Esther Goldenbaum Schulman Lederberg andRabbi Zvi Hirsch Lederberg, in 1925, and moved toWashington Heights, Manhattan as an infant.[4] He had two younger brothers. Lederberg graduated fromStuyvesant High School inNew York City at the age of 15 in 1941.[5] After graduation, he was allowed lab space as part of the American Institute Science Laboratory, a forerunner of theWestinghouse Science Talent Search. He enrolled inColumbia University in 1941, majoring in zoology. Under the mentorship ofFrancis J. Ryan, he conducted biochemical and genetic studies on the bread moldNeurospora crassa. Intending to receive his MD and fulfill his military service obligations, Lederberg worked as a hospital corpsman during 1943 in the clinical pathology laboratory at St. Albans Naval Hospital, where he examined sailors' blood and stool samples formalaria. He went on to receive his undergraduate degree in 1944.
Joshua Lederberg began medical studies at Columbia'sCollege of Physicians and Surgeons while continuing to perform experiments. Inspired byOswald Avery'sdiscovery of the importance ofDNA, Lederberg began to investigate his hypothesis that, contrary to prevailing opinion, bacteria did not simply pass down exact copies of genetic information, making all cells in a lineage essentiallyclones. After making little progress at Columbia, Lederberg wrote toEdward Tatum, Ryan's post-doctoral mentor, proposing a collaboration. In 1946 and 1947, Lederberg took a leave of absence to study under the mentorship of Tatum atYale University. Lederberg and Tatum showed that thebacteriumEscherichia coli entered a sexual phase during which it could share genetic information throughbacterial conjugation.[7][8] With this discovery and some mapping of theE. colichromosome, Lederberg was able to receive his Ph.D. fromYale University in 1947.[9] Joshua married Esther Miriam Zimmer (herself a student of Edward Tatum) on December 13, 1946.
Instead of returning to Columbia to finish his medical degree, Lederberg chose to accept an offer of an assistant professorship in genetics at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. His wifeEsther Lederberg went with him to Wisconsin. She received her doctorate there in 1950.
Joshua Lederberg andNorton Zinder showed in 1951 that genetic material could be transferred from one strain of the bacteriumSalmonella typhimurium to another using viral material as an intermediary step.[10] This process is calledtransduction. In 1956,M. Laurance Morse, Esther Lederberg and Joshua Lederberg also discovered specializedtransduction.[11][12] The research in specialized transduction focused upon lambda phage infection ofE. coli. Transduction and specialized transduction explained how bacteria of different species could gain resistance to the sameantibiotic very quickly.
During her time in Joshua Lederberg's laboratory,Esther Lederberg also discovered fertility factor F, later publishing with Joshua Lederberg andLuigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza. In 1956, the Society of Illinois Bacteriologists simultaneously awarded Joshua Lederberg and Esther Lederberg the Pasteur Medal, for "their outstanding contributions to the fields of microbiology and genetics".
In 1957, Joshua Lederberg founded the Department of Medical Genetics at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. He has held visiting professorship in Bacteriology at theUniversity of California, Berkeley in summer 1950[13] andUniversity of Melbourne (1957). Also in 1957, he was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.[5]
Sir Gustav Nossal views Lederberg as his mentor, describing him as "lightning fast" and "loving a robust debate."[14]
In 1958, Joshua Lederberg received the Nobel Prize and moved toStanford University, where he was the founder and chairman of the Department of Genetics. He collaborated withFrank Macfarlane Burnet to study viral antibodies.[15]
With the launching ofSputnik in 1957, Lederberg became concerned about the biological impact of space exploration. In a letter to theNational Academies of Sciences, he outlined his concerns that extraterrestrial microbes might gain entry to Earth onboard spacecraft, causing catastrophic diseases. He also argued that, conversely, microbial contamination of manmade satellites and probes may obscure the search for extraterrestrial life. He advised quarantine for returning astronauts and equipment and sterilization of equipment prior to launch. Teaming up withCarl Sagan, his public advocacy for what he termedexobiology helped expand the role of biology in NASA.[16]
Lederberg was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959 and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1960.[17][18]
In the 1960s, he collaborated withEdward Feigenbaum in Stanford's computer science department to developDENDRAL.[15]
In 1978, he became the president ofRockefeller University, until he stepped down in 1990 and became professor-emeritus ofmolecular genetics and informatics at Rockefeller University, reflecting his extensive research and publications in these disciplines.[19][20]
Throughout his career, Lederberg was active as a scientific advisor to the U.S. government. Starting in 1950, he was a member of various panels of the Presidential Science Advisory Committee. In 1979, he became a member of the U.S.Defense Science Board and the chairman of PresidentJimmy Carter's President's Cancer Panel. In 1989, he receivedNational Medal of Science for his contributions to the scientific world. In 1994, he headed the Department of Defense's Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects, which investigatedGulf War Syndrome.
During a 1986 fact finding mission of the 1979Soviet Union epidemic ofanthrax bacteria thatkilled 66 people in the city of Sverdlovsk (nowYekaterinburg, Russia),[21] Lederberg sided with Soviets that the anthraxoutbreak was from animal to human transmission stating, "Wild rumors do spread around every epidemic." "The current Soviet account is very likely to be true."[22]After the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent US investigations in the early 1990s, a team of scientists confirmed the outbreak was caused by a release of an aerosol of anthrax pathogen from a nearby military facility, the lab leak is one of the deadliest ever documented.[23][24]
Euphenics, which literally means "good appearance" or "normal appearing", is the science of makingphenotypic improvements to humans after birth, generally to affect a problematicgenetic condition. Lederberg coined the term in the 1960s to differentiate this practice fromeugenics, which was both widely unpopular at the time and he had seen as having been "perverted to justify unthinkable inhumanity".[25][26][27] (Some commentators nonetheless consider this to be a form of eugenics.)[28]He emphasized that the genetic manipulation he described was intended to work on phenotype rather than genotype; he felt it was more feasible to positively change an individual's phenotype through gene therapies or enzyme replacement rather than attempt to change the course of evolution as eugenics proposed.[29]Theodosius Dobzhansky, an outspoken proponent of euphenics, argued that by improving genetic conditions so that people could live normal, healthy lives, people could lessen the impact of genetic conditions, thus lowering future interest in eugenics or other kinds of genetic manipulation.[30]
In the 1970s, considerable effort was put towards the developing field of euphenics since it was seen as a positive form of genetic engineering.[31] One of the first publicized applications of euphenics was the use of vitamins containingfolic acid during pregnancy to combat neural-tube deficiencies such asspina bifida in the 1970s.[32] However, medical science had been using euphenic strategies years before the term itself was coined.[33] Euphenics is used today in the medical community to more generally refer to methods of affecting a genetic condition in a positive manner through diet, lifestyle or environment, such as the use of insulin to control diabetes or installation of a pacemaker to offset a heart defect.[34]
Lederberg married fellow scientistEsther Miriam Zimmer in 1946; they divorced in 1966. He married psychiatrist Marguerite Stein Kirsch in 1968. He was survived by Marguerite, their daughter, Anne Lederberg, and his stepson, David Kirsch.
