Biographical Memoirs Volume 91 (2009) / Chapter Skim
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THEODORE THOMAS PUCK
THEODORE THOMAS PUCK
Pages 258-283
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From page 259... ...
He devised the first practical method to accomplish single-cell plating of mammalian cells with a high (indistinguishable from 100 percent in some cases) plating efficiency (1955)
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From page 260... ...
Shortly after devising the single-cell plating technique, Ted and his colleagues determined the mean lethal dose of X irradiation required to kill mammalian cells (1956,2)
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From page 261... ...
. He also devised what may be the most sensitive assay for mutation using mammalian cells in existence (1997, 2002)
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From page 262... ...
, urged the demonstration of the atom bomb at an uninhabited site rather than its use against Japan and predicted the arms race that later occurred. Since this was a classified report, it is not likely that Ted knew about it until later, but one cannot help but speculate that Ted's relationship with Franck helped shape his lifelong interest in the role of science in human society.
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From page 263... ...
He continued his work on bacteriophage until 1954, publishing 14 papers, many of which made important contributions to understanding of phage-host interactions. At that point his career shifted into mammalian cell tissue culture and somatic cell genetics.
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From page 264... ...
Ted's way of thinking about somatic cell genetics, his enthusiasm for science, and his optimism about the role of science in human society were incredibly impressive. David Gillespie strongly urged me to write to Ted about the possibility of joining his laboratory as a postdoctoral colleague, which I did.
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From page 265... ...
. Meanwhile, Ted and his colleagues Louie Kao, Larry Chasin, Bob Johnson, and others were developing crucial genetic methods of somatic cell genetics, most notably the use of various mutagens to induce mutations, somatic cell hybridization for complementation analysis of mutants defective in the same biochemical pathway, and mapping genes to human chromosomes (1969,2; Kao and Puck, 1971)
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From page 266... ...
Ted's action allowed me to establish my scientific independence, an especially difficult task since Ted offered me a position at the University of Colorado, which I accepted. Ted saw that my interests were becoming biochemical and introduced me to some of his colleagues in that area, including Seymour Cohen and Ernest Borek, both of whom had distinguished careers studying aspects of purine metabolism.
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From page 267... ...
Scientifically, these lectures led to another major change in my career. As part of my studies on purine synthesis, I undertook to map each of the genes encoding enzymes of the pathway to human chromosomes using somatic cell hybridization.
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From page 268... ...
This became one of the premier seminar series at the medical school, largely because most of the speakers were Ted's friends and included many of the luminaries in molecular biology and biomedical research, including Max Perutz, Fred Sanger, Francis Crick, Marshall Nirenberg, Paul Berg, Ruth Sager, Lou Siminovitch, Phil Marcus, and others of that stature. Ted insisted that I act as their host, so I had many private interactions with them, much to my benefit and inspiration.
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From page 269... ...
It is interesting that at that time Ted was most likely working on the experiments resulting in his publication with Philip Marcus of the true lethal dose of X rays. Many of Ted's early publications had dealt with aerosols, the spread of infections through the air and in dust, and ways to prevent these.
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From page 270... ...
He was fond of pointing out that sanitation was more important in reducing infectious disease deaths than the use of antibiotics. Ted, as founder and chair of the Department of Biophysics at the University of Colorado Medical Center, instituted as one of the requirements of the Ph.D.
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From page 271... ...
. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Ted spearheaded the formation of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research.
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From page 272... ...
So by 1974 because of Ted's encouragement and advice, I had my own wellfunded laboratory at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Department of Biophysics and Genetics at the University of Colorado Medical School. Funding was not always so abundant.
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From page 273... ...
Later he described to me a lunch with Ted at Hoover's restaurant, then across the street from the lab, at which Ted explained to Bob how to derive kill curves of cultured cells based on the Poisson distribution. Bob remembers Ted saying, "You know what that is, don't you?
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From page 274... ...
It was fascinating to learn from Ted about scientific administration, leadership, and fund raising, until one day in 1978 Ted asked me to assume the responsibility of the associate directorship of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. I was somewhat shocked at this, having had absolutely no formal training as an administrator or fund raiser; nevertheless, I accepted, feeling that it would be an honor and privilege to work with Ted in this capacity.
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From page 275... ...
Ted loved the outdoors and the mountains of Colorado, and often spent many weeks during the summer in Aspen, where he played an active role in the Aspen Institute, originally known as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. Ted helped establish the Given Institute, originally the Given Institute for Pathobiology, a conference center in Aspen,
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From page 276... ...
Only a few days before his death Ted, Sharon Graw, and I began a new collaboration based on his method to detect extremely low doses of environmental agents that can cause mutations leading to cancer. This project is completely consistent with his early, successful efforts to find the true lethal dose of radiation and to warn of its harmful effects.
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From page 277... ...
1971. Genetics of somatic mammalian cells.
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From page 278... ...
1964. A procedure for sex-chromatin determination in newborns by means of amnion biopsies.
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From page 279... ...
Clonal growth of mammalian cells in vitro. Growth characteristics of colonies from single HeLa cells with and without a "feeder" layer.
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From page 280... ...
Kao. Genetics of somatic mammalian cells.
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From page 281... ...
Kao. Genetics of somatic mammalian cells: Biochemical genetics of Chinese hamster cell mutants with deviant purine metabolism.
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From page 282... ...
Cytoskeletal involvement in cAMP induced sensitization of chromatin to nuclease digestion in transformed Chinese hamster ovary K1 cells.
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