Wallace P. Rowe

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Wallace Prescott Rowe (born February 20, 1926 in Baltimore , † July 4, 1983 ibid) was an American virologist and cancer researcher. He was director of the Viral Diseases Laboratory at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD) in Bethesda, Maryland .

Life

Rowe graduated from the College of William and Mary with a bachelor's degree in 1945 and Johns Hopkins University Medical School, where he received his doctorate (MD) in 1948. 1950 to 1952 he was at the Naval Medical Research Laboratory in Bethesda under Erich Traub . There he was the first to find a connection between the pathology of a viral disease and the immune response based on lymphocytic chloriomeningitis in a mouse model. In 1953, as a post-doctoral student with Robert J. Huebner at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) , he isolated the first human adenoviruses in cultures from adenoids and tonsil cells. Shortly afterwards, in 1954, the virus was directly identified as causing colds by Maurice Hilleman . Since then many more adenoviruses have been discovered and since 1962 it was also known that adenoviridae (in hamsters) can cause cancer (Trentin et al.). Rowe later did research on other cancer-causing viruses in mice such as Polyomaviridae and the Murine Leukemia Virus (MLV). The latter is a retrovirus and Rowe was the first to discover that retroviruses can cause cancer in mice. Even if they each do not cause cancer on their own, Rowe found that they can do so together.

Rowe also did research on cell differentiation and developed a more general understanding of a cell's control mechanism. He examined the DNA and RNA of viruses and found that their genomes carry gene loci of the host cell's chromosomes. Rowe was also able to identify at least one such locus.

In 1952 he became Assistant Surgeon at the US Public Health Service (USPHS) and at the NIH's NIAID and in 1956 Surgeon. In 1968 he became head of the NIAD Viral Diseases Laboratory.

In 1960 he received the Eli Lilly and Company Research Award , 1970 the USPHS Meritorious Service Medal, 1976 the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology , 1972 the Rockefeller Public Service Award, 1974 the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award, 1979 the Paul Ehrlich und Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize in 1981 . In 1975 he was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Life data according to Pravin Bhatt (editor) Viral and mycoplasmal infections of laboratory rodents , Academic Press 1986. The book is dedicated to Rowe.
  2. ^ Find a Grave , Wallace P. Rowe
  3. ^ Entry at the National Academy of Sciences, see web links
personal data
SURNAME Rowe, Wallace P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rowe, Wallace Prescott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American virologist and cancer researcher
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1983
Place of death Baltimore