Ephestia: the experimental design of Alfred Kühn''s physiological developmental genetics

Much of the early history of developmental and physiological genetics in Germany remains to be written. Together with Carl Correns and Richard Goldschmidt, Alfred Kühn occupies a special place in this history. Trained as a zoologist in Freiburg im Breisgau, he set out to integrate physiology, development and genetics in a particular experimental system based on the flour moth Ephestia kühniella Zeller. This paper is meant to reconstruct the crucial steps in the experimental pathway that led Kühn and his collaborators at the University of Göttingen, and later at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes of Biology and Biochemistry in Berlin, to formulate, in their specific way, what later became known as the “one gene – one enzyme hypothesis.” Special attention will be given to the interaction of the different parts of Kühn's Ephestia-based project, which were rooted in different research traditions. The paper retraces how, roughly between 1925 and 1945, these elements came to form a mixed experimental set-up composed of genetic, embryological, physiological and, finally, biochemical constituents. Accordingly, emphasis is laid on the development of the terminology in which the results were cast, and how it reflected the hybrid state of an experimental system successively acquiring new epistemic layers.     

Archives and human genetics: saving the past for the future

Developments in the history of human genetics are of interest to those who participated in them and also to historians of medicine and science. Individuals in these fields are increasingly concerned that the record of this history is being discarded. Based on a talk by two archivists which was presented at the Second International Workshop on Genetics, Medicine and History, this paper discusses the problems of selection and preservation and suggests methodologies and actions currently available which offer some practical solutions. Only by acting now in a co-ordinated approach of our disciplines will a history of human genetics survive.     

James Cossar Ewart and the Origins of the Animal Breeding Research Department in Edinburgh, 1895–1920

In 1919 the Animal Breeding Research Department was established in Edinburgh. This Department, later renamed the Institute of Animal Genetics, forged an international reputation, eventually becoming the centrepiece of a cluster of new genetics research units and institutions in Edinburgh after the Second World War. Yet despite its significance for institutionalising animal genetics research in the UK, the origins and development of the Department have not received as much scholarly attention as its importance warrants. This paper sheds new light on Edinburgh’s place in early British genetics by drawing upon recently catalogued archival sources including the papers of James Cossar Ewart, Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh between 1882 and 1927. Although presently a marginal figure in genetics historiography, Ewart established two sites for experimental animal breeding work between 1895 and 1911 and played a central role in the founding of Britain’s first genetics lectureship, also in 1911. These early efforts helped to secure government funding in 1913. However, a combination of the First World War, bureaucratic problems and Ewart’s personal ambitions delayed the creation of the Department and the appointment of its director by another six years. This paper charts the institutionalisation of animal breeding and genetics research in Edinburgh within the wider contexts of British genetics and agriculture in the early twentieth century.     

From proteases to proteomics

This personal and professional autobiography covers the 50-yr period of 1950-2000 and includes the following topics: History of the University of Washington School of Medicine and its Department of Biochemistry (Mount Rainier and the University of Washington, recruiting faculty, biology, research programs); scientific editing (publication, Biochemistry, Protein Science, electronic publication); Europe revisited (Heidelberg, approaching retirement, the German Research Center, reunion in Vienna); and 50 yr of research on proteolytic enzymes (trypsin, carboxypeptidases, mast cell proteases, future developments).     

The Global Crisis of Malaria: Report on a Yale Conference

An international conference, “The Global Crisis of Malaria: Lessons of the Past and Future Prospects,” met at Yale University, November 7-9, 2008. The symposium was organized by Professor Frank Snowden and sponsored by the Provost’s office, the MacMillan Center, the Program in the History of Science and History of Medicine, and the Section of the History of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. It brought together experts on malaria from a variety of disciplines, countries, and experiences — physicians, research scientists, historians of medicine, public health officials, and representatives of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs). An underlying theme was that much could be gained from a big-picture examination across disciplinary frontiers of the contemporary public health problem caused by malaria. Particular features of the conference were its intense scrutiny of historical successes and failures in malaria control and its demonstration of the relevance of history to policy discussions in the field.     

Ernst Rüdin: Hitler’s Racial Hygiene Mastermind

Ernst Rüdin (1874–1952) was the founder of psychiatric genetics and was also a founder of the German racial hygiene movement. Throughout his long career he played a major role in promoting eugenic ideas and policies in Germany, including helping formulate the 1933 Nazi eugenic sterilization law and other governmental policies directed against the alleged carriers of genetic defects. In the 1940s Rüdin supported the killing of children and mental patients under a Nazi program euphemistically called “Euthanasia.” The authors document these crimes and discuss their implications, and also present translations of two publications Rüdin co-authored in 1938 showing his strong support for Hitler and his policies. The authors also document what they see as revisionist historical accounts by leading psychiatric genetic authors. They outline three categories of contemporary psychiatric genetic accounts of Rüdin and his work: (A) those who write about German psychiatric genetics in the Nazi period, but either fail to mention Rüdin at all, or cast him in a favorable light; (B) those who acknowledge that Rüdin helped promote eugenic sterilization and/or may have worked with the Nazis, but generally paint a positive picture of Rüdin’s research and fail to mention his participation in the “euthanasia” killing program; and (C) those who have written that Rüdin committed and supported unspeakable atrocities. The authors conclude by calling on the leaders of psychiatric genetics to produce a detailed and complete account of their field’s history, including all of the documented crimes committed by Rüdin and his associates.     

Genome science: a video tour of the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center for high school and undergraduate students

Sequencing of the human genome has ushered in a new era of biology. The technologies developed to facilitate the sequencing of the human genome are now being applied to the sequencing of other genomes. In 2004, a partnership was formed between Washington University School of Medicine Genome Sequencing Center's Outreach Program and Washington University Department of Biology Science Outreach to create a video tour depicting the processes involved in large-scale sequencing. "Sequencing a Genome: Inside the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center" is a tour of the laboratory that follows the steps in the sequencing pipeline, interspersed with animated explanations of the scientific procedures used at the facility. Accompanying interviews with the staff illustrate different entry levels for a career in genome science. This video project serves as an example of how research and academic institutions can provide teachers and students with access and exposure to innovative technologies at the forefront of biomedical research. Initial feedback on the video from undergraduate students, high school teachers, and high school students provides suggestions for use of this video in a classroom setting to supplement present curricula.     

The blood from Auschwitz and the silence of the scholars

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics in Berlin-Dahlem was the centre of scientific racism in Nazi Germany. Its bad history culminated in a research project to analyse the molecular basis of racial differences in the susceptibility to various infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Josef Mengele, a former postdoc of the director of the institute, Otmar von Verschuer, collected blood samples and other material in Auschwitz from families and twins of Jews and Gypsies. The blood samples were analysed by Günther Hillmann in the Berlin laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Adolf Butenandt. Butenandt had just moved to Tübingen. The project was paid for by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Butenandt, Hillmann and von Verschuer made scientific careers in the Federal Republic. To the present day this past has not been acknowledged by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft as part of its history.     

Defining health activism: from MADD to mad activists: health activism in the 20th century

Health Activism in the 20th Century: A History of Medicine Symposium at Yale University School of Medicine in October 2010 highlighted a variety of issues concerning the social history of medicine, including race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. A watershed moment in a burgeoning interdisciplinary field, this symposium could pave the way for extensive future discourse.     

基于蓝墨云班课的混合式教学模式在组织学与胚胎学教学中的应用

为明确基于蓝墨云班课的混合式教学模式在组织学与胚胎学课程中的应用效果,在2017级临床医学本科生中应用蓝墨云班课辅助课程教学,分课前、课堂、课后三阶段制定不同的方案辅助教学,通过相应考核方式评价教学效果。结果显示,基于蓝墨云班课平台的混合式教学加强了教师对于学生学习督导同时提升了学生学习的实际成效,其在组织学与胚胎学课程教学中的应用值得推广。     

History of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, 1813-2010

The Department of Cell Biology at the Yale University School of Medicine was established in 1983. It was preceded by the Section of Cell Biology, which was formed in 1973 when George E. Palade and collaborators came to Yale from the Rockefeller University. Cell Biology at Yale had its origins in the Department of Anatomy that existed from the beginning of classes at the Medical Institution of Yale College in 1813. This article reviews the history of the Department of Anatomy at Yale and its evolution into Cell Biology that began with the introduction of histology into the curriculum in the 1860s. The formation and development of the Section and Department of Cell Biology in the second half of the 20th century to the present time are described. Biographies and research activities of the chairs and key faculty in anatomy and cell biology are provided.     

采样参数设置对小鼠心电图波形的影响

目的探讨采样参数设置对小鼠心电图波形的影响。方法选用C57小鼠,戊巴比妥钠麻醉,四肢皮下插针式电极,连接RM6240BD型多道生理信号采集处理系统,选择不同的采样参数设置,对心电图进行采样、记录和分析。结果采样速率、低通滤波、时间常数和陷波滤波等采样参数设置均对心电图波形有影响,部分参数会导致心电图不同形式的变形和失真。结论小鼠的心电图实验中应选择合适的采样参数设置,通过操作技术的改进来提高心电图的稳定性,尽量避免或减少滤波的使用,以获得准确的心电图实验结果。     

Important laboratory animal resources: selection criteria and funding mechanisms for their preservation

Members of the committee were Dorothea Bennett (Chairman), Department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin (deceased); Linda C. Cork, Division of Comparative Medicine, Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Thomas J. Gill III, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Jon W. Gordon, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York; Andrew G. Hendrickx, California Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California; Larry E. Mobraaten, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine; and John L. VandeBerg, Department of Genetics, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas.     

洪堡大学Virchow后期临床教学医院和Robert—Rssle医院的外科和肿瘤外科系的研究概况

简要介绍了位于柏林的洪堡大学Ｖｉｒｃｈｏｗ后期临床教学医院的Ｒｏｂｅｒｔ—Ｒｏｓｓｌｅ医院的外科和肿瘤外科系的概况和与激光有关的研究项目。     

Book reviews

Bowden, C. (1986): Blue Desert. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 180 pp. cloth. $ 16.95.

ZWINGER, A. (1983): A Desert Country Near the Sea. A Natural History of the Cape Region of Baja California. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 399 pp. with many black‐and‐white photos and figures, paperback. $ 12.95.

SCOTT, J.A. (1986): The Butterflies of North America. A Natural History and Field Guide. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA. 584 pp, 64 color plates, many distribution maps and line drawings in the text. Cloth $ 49.50 net.

JACKSON, M.H. (1985): Galapagos ‐ A Natural History Guide. The University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 283 pp. including over 100 black‐and‐white photos and illustrations and 16 pp full color insert. Paperback $ 17.50 net.

MOONEY, H.A. & J.A. DRAKE (eds.) (1986): Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii. Ecological Studies vol. 58. Springer Verlag, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg. 321 pp. with many figs, tables. Cloth DM 148.00.

ZEIL, W. (1986): Südamerika. Geologie der Erde, Band 1. Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart. 160 pp. with 54 figs, 4 colour plates and 3 tables, paperback. DM 24.80.

REGÖS, J. (1987): Die grüne Hölle ‐ ein bedrohtes Paradies. Verlag P. Parey, Hamburg und Berlin, W. Germany. 130 pp. many colour photos, cloth, DM 39.80.     

Life on top-working@ the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics: Scotland Yard for DNA detectives

The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG) was established in 1994 to undertake research into the genetic basis of common diseases. Since June 1999 the centre has been located in the Henry Wellcome Building of Genomic Medicine, University of Oxford. The scientific objective of the centre is to explore all aspects of the genetic susceptibility of disease including the localisation of genes involved in common diseases, characterization of the variants responsible for susceptibility, the understanding of how these DNA variants may contribute to risk of disease in the population and finally, the understanding of how such genetic factors contribute biologically to a disease process. The centre houses multidisciplinary research teams in human genetics, functional genomics, bioinformatics, statistical genetics and structural biology.     

Determinants of time allocation across the lifespan

This paper lays the groundwork for a theory of time allocation across the life course, based on the idea that strength and skill vary as a function of age, and that return rates for different activities vary as a function of the combination of strength and skills involved in performing those tasks. We apply the model to traditional human subsistence patterns. The model predicts that young children engage most heavily in low-strength/low-skill activities, middle-aged adults in high-strength/high-skill activities, and older adults in low-strength/high-skill activities. Tests among Machiguenga and Piro forager-horticulturalists of southeastern Peru show that males and females focus on low-strength/low-skill tasks early in life (domestic tasks and several forms of fishing), switch to higher-strength/higher-skill activities in their twenties and thirties (hunting, fishing, and gardening for males; fishing and gardening for females), and shift focus to high-skill activities late in life (manufacture/repair, food processing). Michael Gurven is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 2000. He has conducted fieldwork in Paraguay and Bolivia with Ache and Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. His research interests include intragroup cooperation and problems of collective action, and the application of life history theory to explaining human longevity, cognitive development, delayed maturation, and sociality. Since 2002, Gurven and Kaplan have co-directed the Tsimane Health and Life History Initiative, a five-year project to develop theory and test implications of different models of human life history evolution. Hillard Kaplan is a professor of anthropology at University of New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1983. He has conducted fieldwork in Paraguay, Brazil, Botswana, and Bolivia. His research interests include evolutionary perspectives on life course development and senescence, and brain evolution. He has launched theoretical and empirical investigations into each of these areas, uniting evolutionary and economic approaches. He has applied human capital theory toward explaining human life history evolution, and the proximate physiological and psychological mechanisms governing fertility and parental investment in both traditional, high-fertility, subsistence economies and modern, low-fertility, industrial societies.     

香椿子正丁醇提取物通过激活Nrf2改善高糖引起的肾小球内皮细胞氧化应激

目的探讨香椿子正丁醇提取物(n-butyl alcohol extract of toona sinensis,NBAE)对高糖引起的肾小球内皮细胞氧化应激的影响及机制。方法分别以高糖(high glucose,HG)、HG+NBAE刺激人肾小球内皮细胞,采用DCFDA法检测细胞内活性氧(reactive oxygenspecies,ROS)生成情况,Nitrate/Nitrite Colorimetric法检测细胞内NO的含量,Western blot检测Nrf2、NQO1及HO-1的蛋白表达,免疫荧光方法检测Nrf2、P47phox在细胞内的定位及表达。结果高糖刺激肾小球内皮细胞后出现氧化应激损伤,ROS升高,NO减少,p47phox表达量增高,Nrf2及下游蛋白NQO1、HO-1表达减少;NBAE可明显提高Nrf2的表达,并增加下游蛋白NQO1和HO-1的表达,从而抑制高糖导致的ROS升高,抑制p47phox的表达,并稳定NO的含量。结论NBAE通过激活Nrf2及其下游靶蛋白来改善高糖对肾小球内皮细胞造成的氧化应激损伤。     

Introduction: Public understanding of genetic engineering

From the 1980s to the late 1990s, Germany was among the forerunners for the critical debate on biotechnology and genetic engineering. In 1995, co-ordinated by the Centre of Technology in Baden-Württemberg, a joint venture research project was established. The project followed an interdisciplinary perspective and included research on attitudes, the social and cognitive embedding of attitudes, and argumentation patterns as well as studies on the communication of genetic engineering in the media. The structure and rationale of this joint research project is described in the first article.