Biographical Memoirs Volume 90 (2009) / Chapter Skim
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IGOR TAMM
IGOR TAMM
Pages 396-411
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From page 397... ...
As a young boy Tamm had lived under both the German and Soviet occupations of Estonia. In 1943, after the word went out that Estonian teenagers were to be taken into the German army and sent to the Russian front, he and a fellow medical student escaped in a small boat, which they sailed late at night through the German blockade to Finland.
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From page 398... ...
with honors in 1947. After two years of house-staff training in internal medicine at the YaleNew Haven Hospital, he moved in 1949 to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, later to become Rockefeller University, which remained his beloved scientific home until his death, and which he graced by his presence for four and a half decades.
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From page 399... ...
Because of its virus receptor activity, the mucoprotein was a competitive inhibitor of virus adsorption, the first step in virus infection, as well as a substrate for the influenza virus receptor-destroying enzyme, neuraminidase. The work with the mucoprotein was the start of a long career in the study of the inhibition of viral multiplication by both natural products and chemicals, particularly benzimidazole derivatives and guanidine.
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From page 400... ...
In a 1960 paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine titled "On the Role of Ribonucleic Acid in Animal Virus Synthesis," he showed that 5,6-dichloro-lβ-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB) , which he had previously found to inhibit RNA virus synthesis, inhibited adenovirus replication.
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From page 401... ...
One of these strains, RI/5, became one of the most widely used for studies of H2N2 influenza virus. With graduate student Frederick Wheelock, studies were done on mitosis and cell division in cells infected with Newcastle disease virus, a paramyxovirus, and there were many other significant studies done with students, postdoctoral fellows, and collaborators, including Nicholas H
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From page 402... ...
This work on the effects of interferon on cells helped lay the groundwork for the therapeutic use of interferon not only for viral diseases such as hepatitis but also diseases such as multiple sclerosis. His last work was focused on the role of interleukin-6 on normal and cancer cells and showed that this cytokine decreases the cell-to-cell adhesion of human ductal breast carcinoma cells.
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From page 403... ...
Igor Tamm's great accomplishments in research were matched by his skills as a mentor and adviser to a very large number of young scientists who spent time in the laboratory that he headed. His students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members have gone on to highly productive research careers: professorships in universities and senior positions in research institutes around the world, working in a wide variety of departments (e.g., microbiology, virology, cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, medicine, and neurology)
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From page 404... ...
I had left Rockefeller University in 1985 to join the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, but we had kept in close touch. As always he was deeply interested in what I, my wife, Joan, and our daughter were doing both professionally and personally.
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From page 405... ...
Other young scientists there who shared in that privilege included Alick Bearn, Henry Kunkel, and Harold Ginsberg, all of whom were later elected to the National Academy of Sciences. I have been told that they wished to play on the side with Rivers as he somehow usually won.
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From page 406... ...
After achieving professor emeritus status at Rockefeller University, and with the relentless progress of disease, shortness of breath, and dependence on oxygen, Igor and Olive moved to their home in Watch Hill, where they not only spent precious time with their family but also continued to warmly welcome friends. Through it all Igor continued his scientific work, no longer with his own hands but through daily contact by phone and mail with Toyoko Kikuchi and James Murphy.
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From page 407... ...
Mitosis and division in HeLa cells infected with influenza or Newcastle disease virus. Virology 8:532-536.
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From page 408... ...
Genetic variants of influenza virus which differ in reactivity with receptors and antibodies. In Ciba Foundation Sym posium on Cellular Biology of Myxovirus Infections, eds.
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From page 409... ...
II. Inhibition of interferon messenger RNA synthesis by 5,6-dichloro-1-β-ribofuranosyl-benzimidazole.
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From page 410... ...
Cell adhesion-disrupt ing action of interleukin-6 in human ductal breast carcinoma cells.
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