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In 1936 he published a paper showing that the photosynthetic flagellate [[Euglena]] had a nutritional requirement for a substance extracted from animal tissue. At that time this was considered to be improbable and the paper was rejected by several American journals before eventually being published in Europe <ref name=H36>Hutner, S.H. 1936. The nutritional requirements of two species of Euglena. Arch. Protistenkunde 88, 93-106.</ref>. Years later it was discovered that the required factor was [[vitamin B12]], or cyanocobalamin. He developed a nutritional assay method for vitamin B12 using Euglena that was used for many years in hospitals to test for B12 levels in blood, eventually being replaced by other methods <ref name=H49>Hutner, S.H. Provasoli, L., Stokstad, E.L., Haffman, C.E., Bell, M., Franklin, A.L., Jukes, T.H. 1949. Assay of anti-pernicious anemia factor with Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 70, 118-120.</ref>
In 1936 he published a paper showing that the photosynthetic flagellate [[Euglena]] had a nutritional requirement for a substance extracted from animal tissue. At that time this was considered to be improbable and the paper was rejected by several American journals before eventually being published in Europe <ref name=H36>Hutner, S.H. 1936. The nutritional requirements of two species of Euglena. Arch. Protistenkunde 88, 93-106.</ref>. Years later it was discovered that the required factor was [[vitamin B12]], or cyanocobalamin. He developed a nutritional assay method for vitamin B12 using Euglena that was used for many years in hospitals to test for B12 levels in blood, eventually being replaced by other methods <ref name=H49>Hutner, S.H. Provasoli, L., Stokstad, E.L., Haffman, C.E., Bell, M., Franklin, A.L., Jukes, T.H. 1949. Assay of anti-pernicious anemia factor with Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 70, 118-120.</ref>


After graduating from Cornell, he joined an independent research laboratory, the [[Haskins Laboratories]] founded by the physicist [[Franklin Cooper]] and the entomologist and geneticist [[Caryl Haskins]]. Initially this was based in Massachusetts, near M.I.T., but then it moved to a building on East 43rd Street in New York City, where Hutner was joined by a newly arrived Italian scientist, [[Luigi Provasoli]], who had spent time in the laboratory of [[Andre Lwoff]] in Paris. In New York, during the 1940's through the 1960’s, Haskins Labs became known for studies of protistan nutrition and the development of culture media and culture assay methods. Hutner was one of the first to appreciate the importance of organic complexing agents in trace metal nutrition of cells . This had significant implications for the development of culture media and also in the understanding of microbial ecology. <ref=H50>Hutner, S.H., Provasoli, L. Schatz, A. Haskins C.P. 1950 Some approaches to the study of the role of metals in the metabolism of microorganisms. Proc. Am. Phil Soc. 94, 152-170</ref>. With his colleague Luigi Provasoli he showed that photosynthetic organisms could be ‘bleached’ by the antibiotic [[streptomycin]] – an early clue of the [[Endosymbiotic theory|endosymbiotic hypothesis]] about the origin of [[chloroplast]]s from a prokaryotic ancestor <ref=P48>Provasoli, L., Hutner, S.H., Schatz, A. 1948. Streptomycin-induced chlorophyll-less races of Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 69, 279-282</ref>.
After graduating from Cornell, he joined an independent research laboratory, the [[Haskins Laboratories]] founded by the physicist [[Franklin Cooper]] and the entomologist and geneticist [[Caryl Haskins]]. Initially this was based in Massachusetts, near M.I.T., but then it moved to a building on East 43rd Street in New York City, where Hutner was joined by a newly arrived Italian scientist, [[Luigi Provasoli]], who had spent time in the laboratory of [[Andre Lwoff]] in Paris. In New York, during the 1940's through the 1960’s, Haskins Labs became known for studies of protistan nutrition and the development of culture media and culture assay methods. Hutner was one of the first to appreciate the importance of organic complexing agents in trace metal nutrition of cells . This had significant implications for the development of culture media and also in the understanding of microbial ecology. <ref name=H50>Hutner, S.H., Provasoli, L. Schatz, A. Haskins C.P. 1950 Some approaches to the study of the role of metals in the metabolism of microorganisms. Proc. Am. Phil Soc. 94, 152-170</ref>. With his colleague Luigi Provasoli he showed that photosynthetic organisms could be ‘bleached’ by the antibiotic [[streptomycin]] – an early clue of the [[Endosymbiotic theory|endosymbiotic hypothesis]] about the origin of [[chloroplast]]s from a prokaryotic ancestor <ref name=P48>Provasoli, L., Hutner, S.H., Schatz, A. 1948. Streptomycin-induced chlorophyll-less races of Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 69, 279-282</ref>.


At 43rd St., Hutner became known for nurturing young students at a time when this was not a typical pattern, and the lab served as an incubator for many talented high school and undergraduate students, without regard to race or gender. Some of these went on to become productive scientists, including 2 Nobel laureates, [[Joshua Lederberg]] and [[David Baltimore]]. While full time at the lab, Hutner also spent several years on the faculties of Columbia and Fordham Universities in this period. He also edited, with Andre Lwoff (and later in a second edition with Michael Levandowsky), a multivolume compendium, the ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', that was for many years a standard reference <ref name=L51>Lwoff, A. (Ed.) 1951. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 1. Academic Press, N.Y.</ref>; <HL55>Hutner,S.H., Lwoff, A. (Eds.) 1955. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 2. Academic Press, NY</ref>; <ref=H1964 Hutner, S.H. (Ed). Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa 1st Ed., Vol. 3, Academic Press, N.Y.</ref>, <ref=LH79> Levandowsky, M., Hutner, S.H. (Eds.) 1979-1981. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 2nd Ed., Vols. 1-4. Academic Press, N.Y. </ref> .
At 43rd St., Hutner became known for nurturing young students at a time when this was not a typical pattern, and the lab served as an incubator for many talented high school and undergraduate students, without regard to race or gender. Some of these went on to become productive scientists, including 2 Nobel laureates, [[Joshua Lederberg]] and [[David Baltimore]]. While full time at the lab, Hutner also spent several years on the faculties of Columbia and Fordham Universities in this period. He also edited, with Andre Lwoff (and later in a second edition with Michael Levandowsky), a multivolume compendium, the ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', that was for many years a standard reference <ref name=L51>Lwoff, A. (Ed.) 1951. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 1. Academic Press, N.Y.</ref>; < ref name="HL55" />Hutner,S.H., Lwoff, A. (Eds.) 1955. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 2. Academic Press, NY</ref>; <ref=H1964 Hutner, S.H. (Ed). Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa 1st Ed., Vol. 3, Academic Press, N.Y.</ref>, <ref=LH79> Levandowsky, M., Hutner, S.H. (Eds.) 1979-1981. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 2nd Ed., Vols. 1-4. Academic Press, N.Y. </ref> .


In 1970 the lab was required to leave its quarters at 43rd St. Franklin Cooper and Luigi Provasoli went to Yale University, but Hutner preferred to remain in New York and moved his part of the lab to [[Pace University]] in Lower Manhattan, where he became a professor. At Yale, Franklin Cooper developed an institute for the study of speech and linguistics which remains today under the name of Haskins Laboratory. In New York, Hutner's component, focussed on microbiological research, has become a department of Pace University and is named Haskins Laboratories, but the two similarly named laboratories no longer have formal ties. At Pace the lab became a center for metabolic studies of protistan parasites, as well as studies of behavioral ecology and sensory physiology of free-living protists. Under the leadership of Hutner's student, Cyrus Bacchi, the former led to development of the antiparasitic drug [[efflornithine]] (alpha-difluoromethylornithine) <ref=B80>Bacchi, C.J., Nathan, H.C., Hutner, S.H., McCann, P.P., Sjoerdsma, A. 1980. Polyamine metabolism: a potential chemotherapeutic target in trypanosomes. ''Science'' 210, 323-334</ref>, widely used today against [[African sleeping sickness]] (trypanosomiasis). Work on antiparasitic drugs continues today under the direction of Nigel Yarlett.
In 1970 the lab was required to leave its quarters at 43rd St. Franklin Cooper and Luigi Provasoli went to Yale University, but Hutner preferred to remain in New York and moved his part of the lab to [[Pace University]] in Lower Manhattan, where he became a professor. At Yale, Franklin Cooper developed an institute for the study of speech and linguistics which remains today under the name of Haskins Laboratory. In New York, Hutner's component, focussed on microbiological research, has become a department of Pace University and is named Haskins Laboratories, but the two similarly named laboratories no longer have formal ties. At Pace the lab became a center for metabolic studies of protistan parasites, as well as studies of behavioral ecology and sensory physiology of free-living protists. Under the leadership of Hutner's student, Cyrus Bacchi, the former led to development of the antiparasitic drug [[efflornithine]] (alpha-difluoromethylornithine) <ref name =B80>Bacchi, C.J., Nathan, H.C., Hutner, S.H., McCann, P.P., Sjoerdsma, A. 1980. Polyamine metabolism: a potential chemotherapeutic target in trypanosomes. ''Science'' 210, 323-334</ref>, widely used today against [[African sleeping sickness]] (trypanosomiasis). Work on antiparasitic drugs continues today under the direction of Nigel Yarlett.


Hutner was a founding member of the Society of Protozoologists (now the [[International Society of Protistologists]]) serving as its president in 1961-2, and was for many years on the editorial board of the [[Journal of Protozoology]] (now the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology). In 1977 an issue of the journal was dedicated to him <ref=L77>Levandowsky, M. (Ed.) 1977. A collection of papers dedicated to Seymour H. Hutner. J. Protozool. 24 (4)</ref>. He died in 2003 after a long illness; an obituary appeared in the ''[[Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology]]'' <ref=L03>Lee, John J. and M. Levandowsky 2003. "In Memoriam: Seymour H. Hutner (1911-2003)." J. Eukaryotic Microbiology 50, 305- 6.</ref>
Hutner was a founding member of the Society of Protozoologists (now the [[International Society of Protistologists]]) serving as its president in 1961-2, and was for many years on the editorial board of the [[Journal of Protozoology]] (now the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology). In 1977 an issue of the journal was dedicated to him <ref name=L77>Levandowsky, M. (Ed.) 1977. A collection of papers dedicated to Seymour H. Hutner. J. Protozool. 24 (4)</ref>. He died in 2003 after a long illness; an obituary appeared in the ''[[Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology]]'' <ref name=L03>Lee, John J. and M. Levandowsky 2003. "In Memoriam: Seymour H. Hutner (1911-2003)." J. Eukaryotic Microbiology 50, 305- 6.</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 18:06, 2 September 2011

Seymour H. Hutner (1911-2003) was a microbiologist specializing in the nutritional biochemistry of protists (protozoa and algae). Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1911, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1931 and a Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1937, where he worked with the Nobel laureate James Sumner.

In 1936 he published a paper showing that the photosynthetic flagellate Euglena had a nutritional requirement for a substance extracted from animal tissue. At that time this was considered to be improbable and the paper was rejected by several American journals before eventually being published in Europe [1]. Years later it was discovered that the required factor was vitamin B12, or cyanocobalamin. He developed a nutritional assay method for vitamin B12 using Euglena that was used for many years in hospitals to test for B12 levels in blood, eventually being replaced by other methods [2]

After graduating from Cornell, he joined an independent research laboratory, the Haskins Laboratories founded by the physicist Franklin Cooper and the entomologist and geneticist Caryl Haskins. Initially this was based in Massachusetts, near M.I.T., but then it moved to a building on East 43rd Street in New York City, where Hutner was joined by a newly arrived Italian scientist, Luigi Provasoli, who had spent time in the laboratory of Andre Lwoff in Paris. In New York, during the 1940's through the 1960’s, Haskins Labs became known for studies of protistan nutrition and the development of culture media and culture assay methods. Hutner was one of the first to appreciate the importance of organic complexing agents in trace metal nutrition of cells . This had significant implications for the development of culture media and also in the understanding of microbial ecology. [3]. With his colleague Luigi Provasoli he showed that photosynthetic organisms could be ‘bleached’ by the antibiotic streptomycin – an early clue of the endosymbiotic hypothesis about the origin of chloroplasts from a prokaryotic ancestor [4].

At 43rd St., Hutner became known for nurturing young students at a time when this was not a typical pattern, and the lab served as an incubator for many talented high school and undergraduate students, without regard to race or gender. Some of these went on to become productive scientists, including 2 Nobel laureates, Joshua Lederberg and David Baltimore. While full time at the lab, Hutner also spent several years on the faculties of Columbia and Fordham Universities in this period. He also edited, with Andre Lwoff (and later in a second edition with Michael Levandowsky), a multivolume compendium, the Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, that was for many years a standard reference [5]; < ref name="HL55" />Hutner,S.H., Lwoff, A. (Eds.) 1955. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 2. Academic Press, NY</ref>; <ref=H1964 Hutner, S.H. (Ed). Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa 1st Ed., Vol. 3, Academic Press, N.Y.</ref>, <ref=LH79> Levandowsky, M., Hutner, S.H. (Eds.) 1979-1981. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 2nd Ed., Vols. 1-4. Academic Press, N.Y. </ref> .

In 1970 the lab was required to leave its quarters at 43rd St. Franklin Cooper and Luigi Provasoli went to Yale University, but Hutner preferred to remain in New York and moved his part of the lab to Pace University in Lower Manhattan, where he became a professor. At Yale, Franklin Cooper developed an institute for the study of speech and linguistics which remains today under the name of Haskins Laboratory. In New York, Hutner's component, focussed on microbiological research, has become a department of Pace University and is named Haskins Laboratories, but the two similarly named laboratories no longer have formal ties. At Pace the lab became a center for metabolic studies of protistan parasites, as well as studies of behavioral ecology and sensory physiology of free-living protists. Under the leadership of Hutner's student, Cyrus Bacchi, the former led to development of the antiparasitic drug efflornithine (alpha-difluoromethylornithine) [6], widely used today against African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Work on antiparasitic drugs continues today under the direction of Nigel Yarlett.

Hutner was a founding member of the Society of Protozoologists (now the International Society of Protistologists) serving as its president in 1961-2, and was for many years on the editorial board of the Journal of Protozoology (now the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology). In 1977 an issue of the journal was dedicated to him [7]. He died in 2003 after a long illness; an obituary appeared in the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology [8]

References

  1. ^ Hutner, S.H. 1936. The nutritional requirements of two species of Euglena. Arch. Protistenkunde 88, 93-106.
  2. ^ Hutner, S.H. Provasoli, L., Stokstad, E.L., Haffman, C.E., Bell, M., Franklin, A.L., Jukes, T.H. 1949. Assay of anti-pernicious anemia factor with Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 70, 118-120.
  3. ^ Hutner, S.H., Provasoli, L. Schatz, A. Haskins C.P. 1950 Some approaches to the study of the role of metals in the metabolism of microorganisms. Proc. Am. Phil Soc. 94, 152-170
  4. ^ Provasoli, L., Hutner, S.H., Schatz, A. 1948. Streptomycin-induced chlorophyll-less races of Euglena. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 69, 279-282
  5. ^ Lwoff, A. (Ed.) 1951. Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, 1st Ed., Vol. 1. Academic Press, N.Y.
  6. ^ Bacchi, C.J., Nathan, H.C., Hutner, S.H., McCann, P.P., Sjoerdsma, A. 1980. Polyamine metabolism: a potential chemotherapeutic target in trypanosomes. Science 210, 323-334
  7. ^ Levandowsky, M. (Ed.) 1977. A collection of papers dedicated to Seymour H. Hutner. J. Protozool. 24 (4)
  8. ^ Lee, John J. and M. Levandowsky 2003. "In Memoriam: Seymour H. Hutner (1911-2003)." J. Eukaryotic Microbiology 50, 305- 6.
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