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Letter to Charles Tipton
Robert M. Weiss writes: “At the present, I am Professor and Chief
of Urology at the Yale University School of Medicine and President of the
Medical Staff at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. My laboratory continues to
be interested in signal transductions and smooth muscle, although most of
our recent work deals with the relationship between an anti apoptotic gene
survivin and bladder cancer. We also have interest in the effects of
diabetes and urinary tract smooth muscle and signal transduction in
inflammatory conditions involving the urinary tract. Our laboratory was
the first to describe the use of survivin in the urine as a marker for
recurrent bladder cancer and we published in the JCI the first indication
of iNOS in human inflammatory cells.”
Letters to Beverly Bishop
Newman L. Stephens writes: “Thank you for your greetings and your
thoughtfulness.
“Currently, I am working as a full-time Professor in the Department of
Physiology. This includes medical undergraduate and graduate basic science
teaching. I have 2 PhD students, 1 MSc, and 1 research associate under my
supervision. Funding for my research continues from Canadian federal
(Canadian Institutes for Health Research) and American sources in the
amount of $300,000 per annum.
“I continue to publish, as you may see from the attached CV. We have three
papers submitted and under editorial consideration as of now.
“I am organizing an international symposium on ‘Asthma: Chronic
Inflammation, remodeling and Hyperreactivity.’ This will be held in
Antigua (The Caribbean’s) in November this year. I held an international
symposium on ‘Models of Smooth Muscle Contraction’ last year at Hecla
Lodge, Manitoba. The proceedings were published in the Canadian Journal of
Physiology and Pharmacology (CJPP).
“More to the kindness of friends than to any great brilliance on my part,
I was given the Rhodarte Merit Award for contributions to science at the
recent meeting of the American Thoracic Society. I was also given an award
from the International Academy of Cardiovascu-lar Sciences, and the Frein
Research Award in Australia.
“With respect to words of wisdom for younger colleagues I would say ‘do
whatever turns you on, don’t settle for the expedient or anything whose
end result is material returns.’ There are two qualities which I regard as
the greatest for scientists. One is wisdom which is distilled from
knowledge, and the other is compassion. Strangely enough these have
accrued from studies in Tibetan spiritualism and a layman’s approach to
quantum physics.”
Vic Chernick writes: “Many thanks for writing to me on the occasion of my
70th birthday. Firstly, let me sincerely apologize for the tardy reply to
your letter because I was abroad for 6 weeks, but more of that later.
“Let me bring you up to date on what I have been doing since I became a
Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba in 2001, after 35 years
on faculty. Although this step theoretically meant retirement, nothing
could be further from the truth. Throughout my career, I always blended
basic and clinical research with the clinical care of children with
respiratory disease. Now, although I am not directly involved in research
activities, I do continue to attend clinical and research rounds and see
patients on a consultation basis one day a week. It is in the clinic that
I come into contact with medical students and post-graduate trainees, and
enjoy teaching the pathophysiology of disease as a basis for understanding
therapeutic approaches. Additionally, since 2002, I have been the
Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology, a journal dedicated to both the
basic and clinical science aspects of pediatric respiratory disease. My
first accomplishment was to switch this journal to an electronic format
using the Scholarone program. I approached the computer with considerable
trepidation and fear but now find it an indispensable tool, and wonder how
I survived before Email. I have also just completed editing the 7th
edition of Kendig's Disorders of the Respiratory Tract in Children which
will be published this spring. Many consider this book to be the 'bible'
of pediatric lung disease. My co-editors were Drs. Tom Boat (Cincinnati),
Andy Bush (London) and Bob Willmot (St. Louis). In fact, I had a great
experience rewriting the basic physiology chapter of this text along with
a junior colleague from San Diego, John West! Once again, I don't know how
we were able to edit this book before the internet.
“Although I am still ‘hard at it,’ I do have more time for physical
fitness (jog three miles three to four times a week etc.), duplicate
bridge and travel. This brings me to the reason for my tardiness in
replying to your letter. At the beginning of January, my wife and I drove
from Winnipeg to Florida to visit friends. We then flew to Ecuador and
spent two weeks in that fascinating country, including the Amazonian
jungle and the Galapagos Islands (site of the Charles Darwin National
Park). After returning to Florida, I flew off to Aspen for a ski week with
'the boys, following which I drove back to Winnipeg to face the frigid
weather. The car was packed with presents for our three daughters, eight
grandchildren and one great- grandson, all of whom live in Winnipeg.
"In closing this verbose epistle, I have some words of wisdom for
clinician-scientists of the future. Although academic activities will be
intense and require long hours of work, try to keep physically fit and
develop some outside interests. I am now auditing an Astronomy course at
the University of Winnipeg, and have taken courses on opera and English
poetry. Never lose your sense of curiosity and zest for learning. Maintain
a good sense of humor and above all, have fun."
Letters to Peter Lauf
Kenneth Jackson writes: “Thank you for the American Physiological Society
80th birthday card.
“Except for the summer months, I go to the University of Washington one
morning each week to meet a colleague for breakfast and to discuss
University activities and other subjects. I no longer do any teaching or
research. Much of my time is devoted to our sailboat (a Tayana 37 cutter).
For the past few years, during three months of the summer, my wife and I
have cruised Canadian waters. Much of the rest of the year is devoted to
local cruising and boat maintenance.”
Hansjoerg E. Kolder writes: “Your invitation, to share my interest in
physiology with APS members, honors me. Thank you. I trained in
physiology, for an academic career. Almost 20 years later, I added
ophthalmology, first as resident and then as faculty member. I will
summarize, for your readers, some opportunities and challenges that I
experienced during my long professional career.
“Physiology fascinated me from the time I started medical school at the
University of Vienna, Austria. After passing my rigorosum in physiology, I
was offered a position as teaching assistant and received a small stipend
that nursed me through school. I had to prepare demonstrations, e.g., the
function of a frog heart, and assist students to record tracings with a
sooted kymographion. Once, before I had much experience, I was asked to
substitute, on short notice, for a lecturer. At the end of my improvised
presentation, and with appropriate answers to questions by students, I
knew that I enjoyed interacting with students. Teaching became for years a
rewarding experience.
“After medical school I returned to physiology and completed the
requirements for venia legendi, the precondition for teaching at the
university. During that time I was guided by Gustav Schubert, Professor
and Head, Physiology, University of Vienna, and mentored by Professor Hans
Bornschein, Director of the Division for Sensory Research. Major
independent research concerned the mechanism of explosive decompression,
the accuracy of spatial orientation affected by centrifugal force, and the
oscillations of the human electro-oculogram.
“De Havilland introduced the first commercial jet airliner with a
pressurized cabin (Comet 1) in 1952. Three accidents occurred between May
1953 and April 1954. The aircrafts disintegrated in flight. Fatigue
cracking was determined as cause. De Havilland suspended further flights
and made modifications. Comet 4 entered service in October 1958. A few
weeks later Boeing introduced its 707. That plane was larger, and more
economical. I came to the USA in late 1958, flying with a DC7 to Atlanta,
in 34 hours. My family joined me two months later, traveling with a 707,
in 17 hours.
“In Austria I was certified as medical examiner for pilots and anxious to
study the events during rapid, or explosive, decompression, as it was
called then. The experiments were performed with a conical, transparent,
small chamber, having a plastic sheet as bottom, and provisions to rupture
it remotely. All of it was placed in a pressure tank. The small chamber
and the pressure tank could be filled with air at different pressures.
High speed photography at 7000 f/s, on 16 mm film, was used on rats,
followed by single frame analysis. It showed that environmental pressure
decrease within milliseconds leads to chest expansion. About 15 msec
later, the nares widen and the chest wall begins to recede. Depending on
the pressure differential, respiratory arrest follows or breathing is
resumed. Time for decompression and pressure differential are inversely
related with a narrow variance. Vagotomy, prior to decompression, prevents
apnea. Alveolar hemorrhage is a secondary phenomenon limiting the
survival. Norbert Untersteiner modeled this process.
“Hilding Bjurstedt, Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
enabled me, with his advise, to use extensively the human centrifuge in
his department for aviation medicine. The accuracy and precision of
orientation in space was studied with and without visual clues. Stepwise
changes of acceleration were used, up to 3 G. The apparent vertical,
perceived by the test subject, was recorded as dependent variable.
Otolithic and somesthetic receptors interact. The angle between torso and
head, as well as the plane of presentation (frontal or sagittal), were
tested and found to be independent. The results suggest that the deep
muscle sense is an additional variable contributing to spatial
orientation. A Coriolis force develops when the distance changes between
center of rotation and position of the labyrinth. The Coriolis force is
normally not perceived, but can cause nausea on the centrifuge. That was
not investigated in this study.
“Gerhard A. Brecher, Professor and Head, Physiology, Emory University,
Atlanta, Georgia, offered me a tenured position in 1963. Funding of
research was, at that time, a priority of the Federal Government. Within
three months I had a grant to establish a laboratory for sensory research.
The main emphasis was to analyze in detail the slow oscillation of the
human electro-oculogram (EOG). The EOG has a natural period of about 30
minutes and can be recorded with periorbital skin electrodes. The EOG
shows also a fast oscillation of inverse polarity and a period of about
two minutes. Both oscillations can be synchronized with rectangular or
sinusoidal variations of light intensity. The EOG has a practical
application for recording eye movements. Several graduate students
contributed to the identification of parameters describing the EOG. Louis
D. Homer developed a descriptive model. He assumed four voltage sources
(cell layers?) with feedback among them. Light intensity, adaptation, and
color, correlate with specific parameters of the model. The
electroretinogram (ERG) is a different phenomenon and records the
electrical response to a flash of light. It has been extensively
researched and is useful for the differential diagnosis of retinal
disorders,
“Frederick C. Blodi was appointed Head of Ophthalmology at the University
of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, in 1967. As clinician and ophthalmic
pathologist, he wanted to add a physiologist and asked me to join the
Department. I was not ready to work in ophthalmology, without qualifying
as clinician. Fred understood my hesitation and offered me residency
training in exchange for teaching ophthalmic physiology. An additional
attraction was Paul Boeder, a mathematician on permanent loan from
American Optical, a large company producing optical devices. Paul, by his
own estimate, had taught physiologic optics to half of all
ophthalmologists practicing in the USA. He was a legend. Paul asked me to
assist him for seven years. At that time physiology became history for me.
I was a renegade, but physiology remained my intellectual base.
“For three years I split my time among training as general
ophthalmologist, teaching sensory physiology of the eye, and studying
reversible vitamin A deficiency, the latter as part of a
multi-disciplinary team at the University of Iowa. Eight volunteers
completed the study, which required living under confined conditions for
more than two years. Dark adaptation threshold, b-wave amplitude of the
electroretinogram and plasma vitamin A level were tested weekly, among
several other parameters. The average onset of dark adaptation impairment
and decrease of b-wave amplitude of the ERG, occurred 533 days after the
start of the experiment. Marked changes occurred once the plasma vitamin A
level had decreased to 11 µg/ml. These changes reverted promptly and dose
dependent with retinol or beta-carotine supplementation.
“I supervised the ERG Laboratory and implemented the development of a new,
chip-based, ERG recording system. I relished also the opportunity to guide
beginning residents through the maze of observational skills, to ask
appropriate questions and follow advice, when performing their first eye
operations. The novice surgeon must respect advice, even intervention,
when operating on an organ where a mistake of a few microns can prevent
good visual outcome. My overriding aim was to guide the residents to
recognize the risk before it occurs.
“More recently I participated, with about 1,000 patients, in a
multi-university study to evaluate pre-operative appropriateness ratings,
developed for patients with cataracts, and co-morbidity. The outcome was
judged by the postoperatively attained visual acuity, as function of
co-morbidity. The data can be used for risk management. That was work as
tedious as the title indicates. But, it had merit, and offered an
intellectual challenge for long nights during the cold Iowa winter.
“When time came to consider retirement, I prepared for a meaningful,
useful and practical activity. My thoughts returned to summers in my
childhood when, on a small farm in Southern Austria, I learned to like
horses and cattle and to accept the discipline to feed them right and
treat them gently. Now I operate a ranch and am conversant with veterinary
physiology, to an extent. To save a calf is more important than to sell a
steak. “ |
