On the trail of Dr. Fifer.

A gift from a patient drew Hope, BC, family physician Gerd Asche irrevocably into the local medical history of the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush. Because of his interest in Dr. Max William Fifer, Asche undertook research missions in British Columbia, England and the US, converted his computer room to a research and writing centre, and wrote a biography of his predecessor and colleague. He recounts his experience and the growing satisfaction provided by his interest in medical history.     

Dr. Max King: the sad life and early death of Mackenzie King's physician brother

While researching her best-selling biography, Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King, CMAJ contributing editor Charlotte Gray discovered a wealth of information about Dr. Dougal Macdougall (Max) King. Although he never became as famous as his older brother Mackenzie, Gray presents a convincing argument that Dr. Max King''s life and early death speak volumes about medicine and the medical profession at the turn of the century. She also argues that Mackenzie King''s own life would have been much different had his brother not died at the too young age of 42. Gray''s book was nominated for the Viacom Award, which honours the best nonfiction book published annually in Canada.     

Therapeutic antibody engineering

It is an important event in any knowledge area when an authority in the field decides that it is time to share all accumulated knowledge and learnings by writing a text book. This does not occur often in the biopharmaceutical industry, likely due to both the highly dynamic environment with tight timelines and policies and procedures at many pharmaceutical companies that hamper knowledge sharing. To take on a task like this successfully, a strong drive combined with a desire and talent to teach, but also an accommodating and stimulating environment is required. Luckily for those interested in therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, Dr. William R. Strohl decided about two years ago that the time was right to write a book about the past, present and future of these fascinating molecules. Dr. Strohl’s great expertise and passion for biotechnology is evident from his life story and his strong academic and industry track record. Dr. Strohl pioneered natural product biotechnology, first in academia as a full professor of microbiology and biochemistry at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and later in industry while at Merck. Despite his notable advances in recombinant natural products, industry interest in this area waned and in 2001 Dr. Strohl sought new opportunities by entering the field of antibody therapeutics. He initiated antibody discovery through phage display at Merck, and then moved to Centocor Research and Development Inc. (now Janssen Biotech, Inc.) in 2008 to head Biologics Research, where he now directs the discovery of innovative therapeutic antibody candidates.     

Biochemistry of the Infarcted Heart

I am honored by the invitation to contribute to a volume in Neuroscience, dedicated to Professor Galoyan, whose accomplishments in the field of neuroscience and circulation have been unique. In his book, Dr. Galoyan has summarized the results of his discovery of cardioactive neurohormones. His discovery of biosynthesis of cytokines in the neurosecretory cells of the hypothalamus have opened a new page in immunology.     

Optimism regarding the use of RNA/DNA hybrids to repair genes at high efficiency

R. Michael Blaese obtained his MD degree from the University of Minnesota in 1964. In 1966 he moved to Bethesda, for what eventually became 32 years at the National Institutes of Health where he developed his career long interest in the investigation and treatment of patients with primary immunodeficiency disease. In 1990, he was the Principal Investigator of the initial human gene therapy trial which used retroviral vectors to transfer a normal ADA cDNA into the peripheral blood T cells of two girls with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). His laboratory has developed gene therapies for AIDS and cancer including the first clinical trial testing the strategy of inserting the herpes thymidine kinase (HSV‒tk) ‘suicide gene’ into recurrent brain tumors. In 1998, Dr. Blaese was appointed Chief Scientific Officer of Kimeragen, where he is pursuing his work on the correction of genetic disorders using a gene repair system based on the use of chimeric DNA/RNA oligonucleotides. In his own words he has been ‘totally seduced by this technology’. Dr. Blaese talked to The Journal of Gene Medicine, about the early results achieved using this approach and its prospects for the future. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mr. Job van Meekeren (1611-1666) and surgery of the hand

Job van Meekeren of Amsterdam was a surgeon, respected by outstanding contemporary medical doctors for his knowledge of medical literature and his skills, who made a definite link between anatomy and surgery. He showed a great interest in hand surgery, and interesting is a demonstration of flexor tendon repairs on corpses by one of his pupils. It is still a great joy to read his book today, which also gives a good representation of the state of the art of surgery in the seventeenth century in Amsterdam (Fig. 11). Names and addresses of patients are fully mentioned, so even today we know exactly where they lived and where the events took place. On the other hand, we also know quite well what the surgeons and doctors looked like through the efforts of many excellent painters who depicted anatomy lessons. In Amsterdam, barber-surgeons' guilds were very eager to sit for group paintings, centered around the teaching medical doctor (Table I). The painter Aert Pietersz in 1603 painted Dr. Sebastiaan Egberts surrounded by 29 surgeons, and in 1619, Dr. Egberts was painted once more, this time with five learning surgeons, by Thomas de Keyzer. Nicolaes Eliasz, named Pickenoy, painted Dr. Johan Fonteyn in 1625, and Rembrandt is well known for the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632) and Dr. Deyman (1656). It is peculiar that a portrait of van Meekeren could not be traced.     

The Graphic Art of Bykhovskii

Vygotsky's preface to A. Bykhovskii,'s book Graphika is among the prefaces he wrote in various domains of art during his career before entered psychology. He offers readers the key (taken from Hans Christiansen) to looking at and understanding the special character of Bykhovskii's creativity. Vygotsky emphasizes Bykhovskii's style of using lines in a dualistic way thus creating an original style. Vygotsky analyzes this characteristic using paintings from Bykhovskii's career.     

The life and times of Ferruccio Ritossa

Ferruccio Ritossa wrote these lines only a few months before he died, as a preface to a book he wanted to write and that, unfortunately, we will never be able to read. It was to be the story of his life, an amazing story indeed. With this article, we want to take a picture of Ferruccio’s life, a mosaic of events, facts, ideas, hopes, and memories linked in a way that they will not go away, even after “a stroll in our brain.”     

On the nature and origin of cellular complexity: The combinatorial–eukaryogenetic scenario

The ideas on the nature and origin of the cell nucleus published by K.S. Merezhkowsky in his book The Theory of Two Plasms as the Basis of Symbiogenesis, a New Study on the Origins of Organisms (1909) are still relevant. In this book, Merezhkowsky (1909, p. 86) wrote, “Part of my theory related to the nucleus, its nature and origin will be the subject of a separate paper, which will present facts serving as the basis for the ideas, which are here only touched upon briefly.” For various reasons, he was not able to publish the paper intended. Therefore, I here attempt to interpret Merezhkowsky’s original concepts on the nature and origin of the cell nucleus in a modern context.     

Requests approaching 50,000 annually for emergency drug release program.

Health Canada''s Emergency Drug Release Program, which allows physicians to acquire nonmarketed drugs to treat people with HIV infection, AIDS and other illnesses, handles about 44 000 requests annually. The executive director of the Drugs Directorate says the program''s name is a misnomer, since few of the requests involve medical emergencies. Dr. Philip Berger, who uses the program for his AIDS patients, complains that the amount of paperwork required is oppressive. A government spokesperson says changes may be made to make the program less labour intensive.     

Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle and the case of congenital syphilis

In 1894, Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Third Generation," a short story involving the transmission of congenital syphilis from generation to generation. Analysts of his writings have interpreted the pathogenetic mechanism involved in modern terms: infection of mother by father and then transplacental infection of the fetus. However, a review of the contemporary literature and the history of the concepts of congenital and "hereditary" syphilis demonstrates that the late 19th-century understanding of the process involved a Lamarckian transmission of paternal infection, via the sperm at the moment of conception. It was undoubtedly this concept that Doyle learned in medical school in the late 1870s and that provided the background to his story.     

Paulus Aegineta, a seventh century encyclopedist and surgeon: his role in the history of plastic surgery.

Paulus Aegineta (625-690 ad), born on the island of Aegina, practiced medicine at Alexandria. The last of the eclectic Greek compilers in the Byzantine period, he wrote an Epitome of medicine in seven books. The sixth book, which is considered the best section of his work, is devoted mainly to surgery. The first edition, "editio princeps," of his Epitome was published in Greek by the Aldine press in Venice in 1528 and later translated into English for the Sydenham Society by Francis Adams of Banchory (1844-1847). Paulus was not only a compiler but also a competent and skillful surgeon. In addition to his achievements in general surgical progress, Paulus Aegineta, especially in the book on surgery, made valuable contributions in the history of plastic surgery. He may be considered as one of the originators of plastic surgery as it is known today. He described procedures varying from the treatment of nasal and jaw fractures to operations for gynecomastia, ganglion, and hypospadias. This Grecian master influenced not only his own but also the subsequent ages. Rhazes, Haly Abbas, Albucasis, Avicenna, and Fabricius ab Aquapendente were the greatest physicians influenced by Paulus Aegineta. Because the work of Paulus Aegineta was the only source for many of the surgical treatises of Arabian authors, his Epitome bridged Western and Eastern medicine and conveyed surgical experience and knowledge, including several plastic surgery procedures, to the subsequent ages.     

Experimental oral polio vaccines and acquired immune deficiency syndrome

The simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) of the common chimpanzee is widely acknowledged as the direct ancestor of HIV-1. There is increasing historical evidence that during the late 1950s, kidneys were routinely excised from central African chimpanzees by scientists who were collaborating with the polio vaccine research of Dr Hilary Koprowski, and sent - inter alia - to vaccine-making laboratories in the USA and Africa, and to unspecified destinations in Belgium. While there is no direct evidence that cells from these kidneys were used as a substrate for growing Dr Koprowski's oral polio vaccines, there is a startling coincidence between places in Africa where his CHAT vaccine was fed, and the first appearances in the world of HIV-1 group M and group-M-related AIDS. Because of the enormous implications of the hypothesis that AIDS may be an unintended iatrogenic (physician-caused) disease, it is almost inevitable that this theory will engender heated opposition from many of those in the scientific establishment, and those with vested interests.     

A conversation with John Sulston

Sir John Sulston was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2002. He won the prize for his discoveries concerning "genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death," along with his colleagues sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz. Dr. Sulston was founding director of the Sanger Centre, Cambridge, England, which he headed from 1992 to 2000. From 1993 to 2000, he led the British arm of the international team selected to work on the Human Genome Project. He is co-author of the book The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics, and the Human Genome, published by Joseph Henry Press in 2002.This interview was conducted on December 20, 2002, shortly after Dr. Sulston was awarded his Nobel Prize and was originally broadcast on that date on radio station WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The interview was conducted by Valerie Richardson, the Managing Editor of The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.Dr. Sulston has been an outspoken advocate against letting the data from the Human Genome Project become property of commercial interests that would charge the world's scientific community for its use. Since leaving the Sanger Institute, he has worked with OxFam, the Oxford Campaign for Famine Relief.     

Blame it on Southern,but it's a western blot

Edwin M. Southern is a professor emeritus at the University of Oxford. He is perhaps best known for development of the “Southern blot” (Dr. Southern was at the University of Edinburgh when he wrote his landmark paper). The Southern blot provided a scientific breakthrough by allowing scientists to detect a particular DNA sequence without first purifying it from the rest of the genome; the basic method involves the transfer of the DNA to a membrane, followed by detection with a specific probe. Although few people perform Southern blots as originally carried out by Southern, due in part to the more recent technique of the polymerase chain reaction, the basic concept continues to play an important role in molecular biology.     

'An adept in medicine': the Reverend Dr William Laing, nervous complaints and the commodification of spa water

This essay addresses mineral water as a medical, experimental and economic material. It focuses on the career of the Reverend Dr William Laing (1742-1812), a physician and cleric who wrote two pamphlets about the water of provincial spa located in Peterhead, a town on the north-east coast of Scotland. I begin by outlining his education and I then reconstruct the medical theory that guided his efforts to identify tonics in the well's water. Next, I explain why Laing and several other local inhabitants thought themselves to be authorities on the palliative power of the water and I close by showing how such effects were commodified by local entrepreneurs. Although I concentrate primarily upon Peterhead Spa, this study touches upon several issues relevant to the types of medical theory and chemical experimentation that were being used in provincial Scotland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.     

His own private hospital

Dr. Brian Day had a simple solution when it became increasingly difficult to book operating room time in Vancouver. He built his own hospital. The Cambie Surgical Centre, which treats patients from BC and around the world, has 2 main operating rooms, 10 recovery beds and 5 private rooms for extended stays. "What I''ve done," says Day, "is say that if there are no operating rooms at UBC, I''ll build my own."     

‘A river that is cutting its own bed’: the serology of syphilis between laboratory,society and the law

This paper focuses on the role of regulation in the shaping new scientific facts. Fleck chose to study the origins of a diagnostic test for a disease seen as a major public health problem, that is, a ‘scientific fact’ that had a direct and immediate influence outside the closed universe of fundamental scientific research. In 1935, when Fleck wrote his book, Genesis and development of a scientific fact, he believed that the tumultuous early history of the Wassermann reaction had come to an end, and that this reaction was successfully stabilized through the standardization of laboratory practices and thanks to the rise of a specific professional segment—the serologists. He could not have predicted that in the 15 years that followed the publication of his book, regulatory measures—barely metioned in his historical narrative—would play a key role in the destabilization of the original meaning of this reaction. The introduction of mass screening for syphilis—mainly via legislation that introduced obligatory premarital tests and promoted the testing of pregnant women—weakened in fine the link between Wassermann serology and infection by the etiological agent of syphilis, the bacterium Treponema pallidum. Fleck elected to study the Wassermann reaction because of its novelty, its complexity, and because it became the focus of a controversy regarding its origins. However, the Wassermann reaction was also one the first examples of a medical technology regulated by the state and incorporated into legal dispositions. It may therefore be seen as an exemplary case of the close intertwining of scientific investigations, their practical applications and regulatory practices.