- Theodore Puck
Theodore Puck (born
September 24 ,1916 - diedNovember 6 ,2005 ) was an American geneticist born inChicago, Illinois . He attended Chicago public schools and obtained his bachelors and masters degree from theUniversity of Chicago .Puck was an early pioneer of "somatic cell genetics" and
single-cell plating ( i.e. "cloning" .) This work allowed the genetics of human and other mammalian cells to be studied in detail. Pucks key work ultimately made modern genetics, such as thehuman genome and other mammaliangenome projects, possible.Puck made many basic discoveries in several areas. His team which found that humans had 46
chromosome s rather than 48 which had earlier been believed. He developed the CHO cell line from chinese hamster ovarian cells for this work. These cells are still widely utilized in the biopharmaceutical industry. Puck studied X-rays and cellular mutations. He also isolated and studied cellular mutations.Puck has won a number of honors for his work most notably the
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1958. In 1973 he was awarded theLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize fromColumbia University together withRenato Dulbecco and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1975.He also founded theEleanor Roosevelt Institute at theUniversity of Denver where he was an Emeritus Professor. A member of theNational Academy of Science since 1960, Puck published more than 200 papers on topics includingAlzheimer's Disease andDowns Syndrome , and optimisingradiotherapy dosages for the treatment of cancer.He died following complications from a broken hip.
References
* [http://www.eri.du.edu/faculty.cfm?ID=tpuck Puck's page at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute]
* "Theodore T. Puck." "Notable Scientists: From 1900 to the Present" Gale Group, 2001 Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005
* [http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20051111-13284400-bc-us-puck-obit-crn.xml "Science Daily" obituary November 11, 2005]
* [http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4223267,00.html "Rocky Mountain News", obituary November 9, 2005]
* [http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/manzanar/updates.htm Tribute by Dr. Gordon Sato & colleagues, In Vitro Cell. Devel. Biol-Animal, 2006]
External links
* [http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/ The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]
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