Profiles in Science

The Christian B. Anfinsen Papers

Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Jr. (1916-1995), was an American biochemist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize for work that helped explain the structure and composition of proteins in living cells.

The Virginia Apgar Papers

Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) was an American physician who is best known for the Apgar Score, a simple, rapid method for assessing newborn viability. Developed in the early 1950s and quickly adopted by obstetric teams, the method reduced infant mortality and laid the foundations of neonatology. Apgar scoring has been a standard obstetric practice for over fifty years. While best known for this achievement, Apgar was also a leader in the emerging field of anesthesiology during the 1940s and in the new field of teratology (the study of birth defects) after 1960.

The Oswald T. Avery Papers

Oswald Theodore Avery (1877-1955) was a distinguished Canadian-born bacteriologist and research physician and one of the founders of immunochemistry. He is best known for his discovery that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) serves as genetic material. The work of Avery and the members of his team at the Rockefeller Institute, observes Nobel laureate Dr. Joshua Lederberg, was "the historical platform of modern DNA research" and "betokened the molecular revolution in genetics and biomedical science generally."

The Julius Axelrod Papers

Julius Axelrod (1912-2004) was an American pharmacologist and neuroscientist who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the actions of neurotransmitters in regulating the metabolism of the nervous system.

The Paul Berg Papers

American biochemist Paul Berg (1926-2023) has been making outstanding contributions to biochemistry and molecular biology for over fifty years.

The Francis Crick Papers

The name of British Nobel laureate Francis Crick (1916-2004) is inextricably tied to the discovery of the double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, considered the most significant advance in the understanding of biology since Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Michael E. DeBakey Papers

Michael E. DeBakey (1908-2008) was a legendary American surgeon, educator, and medical statesman. During a career spanning 75 years, his work transformed cardiovascular surgery, raised medical education standards, and informed national health care policy. He pioneered dozens of operative procedures such as aneurysm repair, coronary bypass, and endarterectomy, which routinely save thousands of lives each year, and performed some of the first heart transplants. His inventions included the roller pump (a key component of heart-lung machines) as well as artificial hearts and ventricular assist pumps. He was a driving force in building Houston's Baylor University College of Medicine into a premier medical center, where he trained several generations of top surgeons from all over the world.

The Clarence Dennis Papers

American surgeon Clarence Dennis (1909-2005) invented one of the first heart-lung bypass machines, and in 1951 was the first to use it to perform open-heart surgery. Heart-lung bypass technology--perfected by Dennis, John Gibbon, and others--eliminated the major barriers to surgical treatment of cardiovascular conditions. During his 60-year career, Dennis's surgical research produced a wide range of surgical techniques and tools, and important contributions to vascular physiology. He was also an outstanding medical educator, first at the University of Minnesota, then at SUNY Downstate Medical Center (where he chaired the department of surgery for 20 years), and finally at SUNY Stony Brook.

The Charles R. Drew Papers

African American surgeon Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950) has been called "the father of the blood bank," for his outstanding role in conceiving, organizing, and directing America's first large-scale blood banking program during the early years of World War II. While best known for the blood bank work, Drew devoted much of his career to raising the standards of African American medical education at Howard University, where he trained a generation of outstanding surgeons, and worked to break through the barriers that segregation imposed on Black physicians. His premature death in a car accident generated enduring stories that he was a victim of medical segregation, though this was repeatedly proved false.

The John E. Fogarty Papers

John Edward Fogarty (1913-1967) was an American legislator who became known as "Mr. Public Health" for his outstanding advocacy of federal funding for medical research, health education, and health care services. As Democratic representative for Rhode Island, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1941 to 1967, and chaired the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare from 1949. During his congressional tenure Fogarty championed a vast expansion of the National Institutes of Health, as well as aid to medical schools, libraries, and programs for blind, deaf, and developmentally challenged children. He sponsored or contributed to virtually every piece of health-related legislation introduced during these years.

The Rosalind Franklin Papers

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958) was a British chemist and crystallographer who is best known for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA. It was her x-ray diffraction photos of DNA and her analysis of that data--provided to Francis Crick and James Watson without her knowledge--that gave them clues crucial to building their correct theoretical model of the molecule in 1953. While best known for this work, Franklin also did important research into the micro-structure and properties of coals and other carbons, and spent the last five years of her career elucidating the structure of plant viruses, notably tobacco mosaic virus.

The Donald S. Fredrickson Papers

Donald Fredrickson (1924-2002) was an American physiologist and biomedical research leader who made significant contributions to medicine over the course of four decades. Fredrickson's system of classification of abnormalities in fat transport was adopted by the World Health Organization as an international standard for identifying increased risks of coronary artery disease linked to the consumption of fats and cholesterol. He also discovered two genetic diseases caused by disorders in lipid metabolism. As director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fredrickson mediated between scientists and the federal government during debates over the direction of medical research policy, funding, and the dangers of genetic engineering during the second half of the 1970s.

The Edward D. Freis Papers

Edward David Freis (1912-2005) was an American cardiologist who made key contributions to clinical and scientific understanding of cardiovascular disease. He is best known as the father of the first double-blind, multi-institutional controlled clinical trial of cardiovascular drugs, the Veterans Administration Cooperative Study on Antihypertensive Agents. This landmark study demonstrated that treating high blood pressure--hypertension--with medication could dramatically reduce disability and death from stroke, congestive heart failure, and other cardiovascular diseases. Freis received a Lasker Award in 1971 in recognition of this work. The study provided the impetus for the establishment of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 1972, and launched an era of preventive cardiology.

The Mike Gorman Papers

Thomas Francis Xavier (Mike) Gorman (1913-1989) was a well-known journalist, author, publicist, and crusader for health policy reform. He won a Lasker Award in 1948 for his newspaper exposés of state mental hospital conditions in Oklahoma, and from 1953 to 1989 directed the National Committee Against Mental Illness, a lobbying and advocacy group. In the 1970s and 1980s he also headed several other advocacy groups, including Citizens for the Treatment of High Blood Pressure and the National Initiative for Glaucoma Control.

The Alan Gregg Papers

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Rockefeller Foundation officer Alan Gregg (1890-1957) became one of the most influential men in the world of medical education and research. From 1919 to 1922, he worked as a field officer in the foundation's International Health Board, later becoming Associate Director of the Medical Education Division. He then served for twenty years as Director of the Medical Sciences Division before finishing his career as the foundation's Vice President. During that time he oversaw the expenditure of millions of dollars to physicians, scientists, universities, and institutes engaged in medical training and research. In the process, he helped create the model of medical research funding that predominates in the United States today. His many achievements were honored by a special Lasker Award in 1956.

The Michael Heidelberger Papers

Michael Heidelberger (1888-1991) was one of the fathers of modern immunology and the founder of immunochemistry, the branch of biochemistry that examines the mammalian immune system on a molecular level. His seminal discovery with Oswald T. Avery in 1923 that powerful antigens of pneumococcus bacteria are polysaccharides opened up an expansive new area in the study of microorganisms, and laid a path for a new understanding of infectious diseases, their treatment, and their prevention.

The Adrian Kantrowitz Papers

Adrian Kantrowitz (1918-2008) is best known for performing the first human heart transplant in the United States, three days after South Africa's Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first such operation in December 1967. For most of his career however, Kantrowitz was one of America's most prolific surgeon-inventors, whose innovations included cardiac pacemakers, mechanical left heart devices, and the intraaortic balloon pump, which is still used in thousands of cardiac patients each year. His pioneering research consistently explored and elucidated the potentials as well as the limitations of bioelectronic technology.

Lawrence Kolb Papers

Psychiatrist Lawrence Kolb (1881-1972) was a career medical officer and administrator in the U.S. Public Health Service, best known for his innovative diagnostic framework for drug addiction and its treatment, and his insistence that drug addiction was a medical problem, not a criminal one. The most influential addiction specialist of the era, he served as first superintendent of the PHS Narcotic Hospital at Lexington, KY. During his early PHS career, Kolb also made important contributions to intelligence testing of immigrants and the treatment of what was then known as shell shock, a type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As Assistant Surgeon General, 1938-1945, he advocated for an expansion of mental health services, and drafted a plan for a national neuropsychiatric research institute that became the blueprint for the National Institute of Mental Health.

The C. Everett Koop Papers

C. Everett Koop (1916-2013) was an American pediatric surgeon who during a forty-year medical career pioneered important improvements in the surgical treatment of children. As U.S. Surgeon General from 1981 to 1989, he turned the office into an authoritative platform from which to educate the nation on major public health concerns including smoking, violence, and, most urgently, AIDS.

The Arthur Kornberg Papers

Arthur Kornberg (1918-2007) was an American biochemist who made outstanding contributions to molecular biology through his research on enzymes. He was the first to isolate DNA polymerase, the enzyme that assembles DNA from its components, and the first to synthesize DNA in a test tube, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 1959. He later became the first to replicate an infective virus DNA in vitro. Kornberg was also the first chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at the Stanford University School of Medicine, which under his guidance became a preeminent center for DNA research, including recombinant DNA research.

The Mary Lasker Papers

In the decades after World War II, Mary Lasker (1900-1994) acted as a catalyst for the growth of the world's largest and most successful biomedical research enterprise, with the National Institutes of Health as its centerpiece. She was a well-connected fundraiser and astute lobbyist who through charm and skillful use of the media persuaded congressmen and presidents to provide greatly increased funds for biomedical research. Driven by an unshakeable belief that the nation's wealth could be mobilized to unravel the mysteries of disease and find new cures, she developed a compelling political rationale for federal sponsorship of medical research, built a powerful lobby that won large appropriations for NIH, and pushed the agency into new scientific directions, at times in opposition to the scientific establishment.

The Joshua Lederberg Papers

Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008) was an American geneticist and microbiologist who received the Nobel prize in 1958 for his work in bacterial genetics.

The Salvador E. Luria Papers

Salvador Edward Luria (1912-1991) was an Italian-born bacteriologist whose pioneering work on bacterial viruses (bacteriophage) with Max Delbrück demonstrated that bacterial resistance to phage infection occurred through genetic mutation, and that bacteria were suitable subjects for genetics research. He was a founding member of the informal "phage group" of early molecular biologists working on problems of gene structure and function. His subsequent work included discovering the phenomenon of bacterial restriction and modification of phage DNA by means of enzymes, and elucidating the mechanisms by which certain proteins operate within bacterial cell membranes. Later, Luria was the first director of the MIT Center for Cancer Research. He was also well-known for his political activism, especially in protesting the Vietnam War. Luria shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey, for their "discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses."

The Barbara McClintock Papers

Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) was an American geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of genetic transposition, or the ability of genes to change position on the chromosome.

The Victor A. McKusick Papers

Victor McKusick (1921-2008) is widely considered to be the founding father of medical genetics. An innovative clinician, medical educator, and researcher, he established the first medical genetics program and clinic at Johns Hopkins in 1957, conceived and compiled Mendelian Inheritance in Man, an annually updated catalog of human phenotypes (first published in 1966 and now published online), and conducted landmark studies of hereditary disorders in the Amish. He was an early advocate of mapping the human genome, and was closely involved in the early years of the Human Genome Project, and served as founding president of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO). In 1997 in recognition of his lifelong contributions he received the Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science.

The Daniel Nathans Papers

Daniel Nathans (1928-1999) was an American molecular biologist whose pioneering work with restriction enzymes provided one of the cornerstones of "the new genetics." His early research advanced scientific understanding of protein synthesis in bacterial viruses. Later, working with tumor viruses, he was the first to demonstrate how recently-discovered restriction enzymes--which recognized specific DNA sequences and cut DNA at those points--could be used to analyze and map a viral genome. Restriction enzymes rapidly became essential tools of molecular biology, enabling much faster gene sequencing and mapping, as well as recombinant DNA technology. Nathans received the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work.

The National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (NCAIDS) was an independent body created by Congress on November 14, 1988. Its mission was to "create a broad public agreement on the magnitude, scope and urgency of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, inspire leadership at all levels of both the public and private sector, and put in place effective, cooperative, and non-discriminatory systems and resources required for preventive education, comprehensive care, and the research effort necessary to halt the epidemic." Chaired by June Osborn, MD, the fifteen-member commission operated from August 3, 1989 to September 3, 1993, conducted dozens of site visits and hearings, and issued thirteen interim and three annual reports.

The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers

Marshall W. Nirenberg (1927-2010) was an American biochemist who shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on deciphering the genetic code.

The William Osler Papers

Sir William Osler (1849-1919) was a Canadian physician often called "the father of modern medicine" for the central role he played in revolutionizing medical education via the internship and residency system at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where medicine was taught "at the bedside." He was equally renowned as a superb diagnostician, a prolific author of medical and historical works (including his landmark textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine), an avid rare book collector, and an advocate for medical libraries.

The Linus Pauling Papers

Linus Pauling (1901-1994) was an American chemist who won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances." He also won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize, making him the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes.

The Regional Medical Programs Collection

The Regional Medical Programs (RMP) were conceived as a "Great Society" project of the Lyndon Johnson administration (1963-1969). Their goal was simple: bring high-quality medical care to the American people by linking health research with community health needs on the regional level. The founding legislation directed that centers of excellence be created, encompassing medical schools, research institutions, and the best hospitals. Cooperative arrangements, continuing education, and referrals were to ensure the most appropriate delivery of care, as well as the best application of resources.

The Reports of the Surgeon General contains official reports, conference and workshop reports, and proceedings from the Office of the Surgeon General.

The Martin Rodbell Papers

Martin Rodbell (1925-1998) was an American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist who shared the Nobel Prize in 1994 in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of G-proteins and the principles of signal transduction in cellular communication.

The Florence R. Sabin Papers

Florence Rena Sabin (1871-1953) was an American anatomist and medical researcher. Her excellent and innovative work on the origins of the lymphatic system, blood cells, and immune system cells, and on the pathology of tuberculosis was well-recognized during her lifetime. She was also a trailblazer for women in science: the first woman to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to head a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In her retirement years, she pursued a second career as a public health activist in Colorado, and in 1951 received a Lasker Award for this work.

The Wilbur A. Sawyer Papers

Wilbur Augustus Sawyer (1879-1951) was a key figure in preventive medicine and international public health during the first part of the twentieth century. As a public health administrator, he helped expand public health departments and integrate laboratory science into public health work, both in the U.S. and abroad. During his long career with the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division (IHD), he served as director of the Rockefeller Foundation public health laboratory service, director of the Rockefeller Foundation Yellow Fever Laboratory (where he developed the first effective yellow fever vaccine), and director of the IHD from 1935 to 1944. Later, as Director of Health for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, he supervised public health work during and after World War II, and was one of the architects of the World Health Organization.

The Maxine Singer Papers

Maxine Singer (b. 1931) is a leading molecular biologist and science advocate. She has made important contributions to the deciphering of the genetic code and to our understanding of RNA and DNA, the chemical elements of heredity. She helped organize the landmark Asilomar Conference in February 1975, at which scientists agreed to impose restrictions on the new and controversial science of recombinant DNA, and to develop a framework for removing these restrictions as knowledge of the science advanced. From 1988 to 2002, Singer was president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a position in which she not only reinvigorated the Institution's scientific programs, but served as an effective champion of women in science, of improvements in science education, and of scientists who engage in public policy debates.

The Louis Sokoloff Papers

Louis Sokoloff (1921-2015) was an American physician and neuroscientist whose innovative research methods and tools transformed the study of brain structure and function. His experimental methods combined techniques and mathematical descriptions from biochemistry, enzyme kinetics, and physiological studies to accurately measure cerebral blood flow and metabolism. Using radioactive 2-deoxyglucose tracers, he was able to make real-time images of living animal brains under various physiological conditions, showing which brain regions were most active at a given moment. This work, which definitively linked regional metabolic activity to particular brain functions, constituted a quantum leap for brain-mapping research. It was also rapidly adapted to positron emission tomography (PET) scanning technology, which soon became essential for studying and diagnosing brain disorders and many types of cancer. He received a Lasker Award in 1981 for this work. Sokoloff also carried out important research into the role of thyroid hormone in protein synthesis.

The Fred L. Soper Papers

Fred L. Soper (1893-1977) was an American epidemiologist and public health administrator who won a Lasker Award in 1946 for organizing successful campaigns to eradicate yellow fever and malaria between 1927 and 1945. He also made key contributions to the control of typhus fever during World War II, and served as director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, (executive agency of the Pan American Health Organization) from 1947 to 1959. Throughout his career, he set new standards for disease control worldwide.

The Sol Spiegelman Papers

Sol Spiegelman (1914-1983) was an American molecular biologist whose pioneering discoveries accelerated the study of gene mechanisms and laid the foundations of recombinant DNA technology. His early work on enzymatic induction in yeasts demonstrated a new way to investigate how genes work. Later he developed RNA-DNA hybridization, one of the most important techniques of molecular biology, and in 1965 became the first to synthesize biologically competent and infective virus RNA in test tubes. He received a Lasker Award in 1974 for this work. From 1969 to 1983, he did innovative work on viruses that cause various cancers, developing new analytical techniques and increasing scientific understanding of retroviruses.

The Henry Swan Papers

American surgeon Henry Swan II (1913-1996) pioneered the use of hypothermia--cooling patients to a very low body temperature--to make possible the first open-heart surgeries. Between 1953 and 1963, while heart-lung bypass technology was still being perfected, Swan performed hundreds of successful cardiac repairs using hypothermia to temporarily stop the heart. His clinical work built on his extensive surgical lab research, which made major contributions to medical understanding of the physiological and metabolic processes of hypothermia, shock, and hemorrhage. These studies ultimately led him to explore the mechanisms of hibernation and other dormant states during his later career. Swan was also an outstanding medical educator; as the first full-time chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado, he transformed it into a first-class surgical program.

The Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Papers

Albert Imre Szent-Gyorgyi (1893-1986), a Hungarian-born biochemist, was the first to isolate vitamin C, and his research on biological oxidation provided the basis for Krebs' citric acid cycle. His discoveries about the biochemical nature of muscular contraction revolutionized the field of muscle research. His later career was devoted to research in "submolecular" biology, applying quantum physics to biological processes. He was especially interested in cancer, and was one of the first to explore the connections between free radicals and cancer. Szent-Gyorgyi won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in biological oxidation and vitamin C, and the Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research in 1954, for contributions to understanding cardiovascular disease through basic muscle research.

The Harold Varmus Papers

For nearly four decades, Harold Eliot Varmus (b. 1939) has advanced fundamental scientific knowledge at the intersection of virology, oncology, and genetics, both as a researcher and as Director of NIH and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. With his long-time collaborator J. Michael Bishop, Varmus developed a new theory of the origin of cancer, which holds that the disease arises from mutations in certain of our own normal genes. These mutations are triggered by environmental carcinogens or by naturally occurring errors in the course of cell division and DNA replication. As an expert on retroviruses he chaired the scientific advisory committee that in 1986 proposed the name human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for the etiologic agent of AIDS. In 1993 he became the first Nobel laureate to head NIH.

Visual Culture and Health Posters

Public health has a long and distinguished visual record. From seventeenth-century engravings to the latest digital images, visual representations have played a critical role in educating the public about modern health crises. But what purposes do these images serve beyond their immediate role in disease prevention and health education? What do they tell us about the history of health care, or attitudes toward our bodies, or the world that we live in?