James V. Neel

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James Van Gundia Neel (born March 22, 1915 in Hamilton , Ohio , † February 1, 2000 in Ann Arbor , Michigan ) was an American geneticist .

Life

Neel received a bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster in Wooster , Ohio in 1935 and a Ph.D. from Curt Stern in 1939. at the University of Rochester in Rochester , New York . After a brief stint as a zoologist , Neel studied medicine, earned an MD in 1944 and completed his training as an internist at the Strong Memorial and Rochester Municipal Hospitals in 1946 . In the same year he became an assistant in the vertebrate genetics laboratory at the University of Michigan . In 1946/1947 he served in the Army Medical Corps and directed field studies for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission . In 1948 Neel took over the management of the Heredity Clinic (about: Clinic for Hereditary Diseases) at the Institute for Human Biology at the University of Michigan. In 1956 Neel founded the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan School of Medicine , where he was - until his retirement in 1985 - most recently Lee R. Dice University Professor of Human Genetics . Even after his retirement , Neel was scientifically active, the last work with his co-authorship appeared in 2004.

James V. Neel died of cancer in 2000. He was married and had three children.

Act

Neel was considered a leader in the field of genetics as a branch of medicine. With his work on sickle cell anemia and thalassemia , he was able to show that the rules of inheritance can be applied to common human diseases. With simple laboratory tests for heterozygous carriers of the genes for these hemoglobinopathies , he was able to prove the recessive inheritance in each case . The work of Linus Carl Pauling and co-workers on the structure of hemoglobin complemented Neel's work.

Further work by Neels dealt with the Thrifty gene hypothesis to explain why genetic diseases such as diabetes mellitus or arterial hypertension are so common, although they are detrimental to the carrier, with the consequences of reproduction among blood relatives (" incest "), with the Estimation of the period of colonization of America or with the genetic characteristics of isolated populations such as the Yanomami in the Amazon region.

With his work for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission , a commission to investigate consequential damage after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , Neel was regarded as a world leader in the field of genetic changes caused by ionizing radiation and their difficult assessment based on population genetic data.

After Neel's death, a debate arose over whether Neel triggered or fought a measles epidemic there while doing fieldwork in the Amazon .

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jose F. Cordero et al .: Response to allegations against James V. Neel in Darkness in El Dorado, by Patrick Tierney. In: American Journal of Human Genetics . Volume 70, Number 1, January 2002, pp. 1-10, ISSN  0002-9297 . doi : 10.1086 / 338147 . PMID 11715114 . PMC 384880 (free full text).
  2. ^ Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award - 1960 Winners at the Lasker Foundation (laskerfoundation.org); Retrieved June 12, 2012
  3. ↑ Dr. James Van Gundia Neel at the American Philosophical Society (amphilsoc.org); Retrieved June 12, 2012
  4. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present (PDF, 95 kB) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org); Retrieved June 12, 2012
  5. ↑ James Van Gundia Neel at the National Science Foundation (nsf.org); Retrieved June 12, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Neel, James V.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neel, James Van Gundia; Van Gundia Neel, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamilton (Ohio)
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 2000
Place of death Ann Arbor