Stanley Falkow, A”H

No Gravatar

He was about the only scientist I knew that didn’t covet the Nobel Prize. Sure, he won every (ok, almost every) other honor (deservedly so) available- but still.

He was elected a member of the Royal Society (this he wanted- big time) in 2007. This British scientific organization dates back to 1660, which meant Sir Isaac Newton was a member. As was Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. He also was awarded the Robert Koch Award for Medical Research (2000), the Lifetime Achievement Award (American Society of Microbiology, 2003), the Lasker Prize (2008), and the National Medal of Science (2015), among many others. He also served as President of the American Society or Microbiology (of which I have been a member for more than 45 years) in the late 1990s.

Dr. Stanley Falkow succumbed to myelodysplastic syndrome on 5 May. A rare malady where one’s bone marrow fails to produce red blood cells properly, with which he was diagnosed in 2004 (and then told he had but two years to live).

Stanley Falkow, PhD
When I was studying biochemical engineering (and industrial microbiology), we were learning about the brand new discovery that Dr. Falkow explained. He determined that microbes could transfer antibiotic resistance to one another.

It was another great microbiologist, Dr. Josh(ua) Lederberg, who provided us our initial introductions to plasmids (1952). He declared these extrachromosomal hereditary determinants so that there would be no confusion as to whether viruses or episomes (a term retired once the concept of plasmids was universally accepted) were involved.

Plasmid

(Maybe this is a good time to remark that we (that’s our firm) didn’t use any genetic recombination in our microbial development work; we relied on plasmids for the traits we required! But, it was Falkow who laid the groundwork for recombinant DNA research.)

As I said above, it  was Dr. Falkow, in the 1970s, who figured out how bacterial resistance to antibiotics spread in a population. It was those tiny rings of DNA known as plasmids (tiny rings of double-stranded DNA, containing genes), holding [in this case] the genes for antibiotic resistance, that moved from bacterium to bacterium. (It’s also why he was among the first to push the FDA (Dr. Donald Kennedy was the Director, at the time) to outlaw antibiotics from animal feed. It was a key method to diminish the spread of antibiotic resistance.)

But, it wasn’t just antibiotic resistance. These plasmids, which can jump-fully intact- from microbe to microbe- afford microbes the ability to produce and transmit toxins from one to the next- which is one of the ways folks develop diarrhea from what were heretofore innocuous microbes.  We already discussed that plasmid transfer also is a way for antibiotic resistance to proliferate among the microbial population.

Stanley Falkow was among the first to recognize what we now call the gut microbiome. He identified the “seething cauldron of more than 600 species of bacteria that inhabit the large bowel”.

Koch Postulates

While Stanley Falkow was born in Albany (24 January 1934), it was when he was in Newport, Rhode Island (at the age of 11) that he became hooked on microbiology. He read the 1926 tome by Paul de Kruif – The Microbe Hunters– and was mesmerized. (I, too, was mesmerized by this book- and also by the story of Dr. Paul Ehrlich[who worked in Robert Koch’s lab, one of the subjects depicted in the Microbe Hunters] and his magic bullet, compound 606.) Stanley also was a poor student until the 8th grade when a teacher informed him, “You could make something of yourself”.

Falkow's Molecular Basis of Koch Postulates

Which is what he did,  With the above research, also by serving as a mentor to some 100 doctoral candidates, and teaching countless others, and  by providing a molecular basis to Koch’s postulates (those he learned from that de Kruif book).

After earning his PhD from Brown, he joined the Walter Reed Hospital, then the faculty at Georgetown, and then the University of Washington faculty. But, his longest tenure was his last, as the Department Chairman of Medical Microbiology at Stanford (from 1981 on, eventually as Emeritus). But, he worked with and visited  many other labs around the world.

All that was possible after Stanley Falkow conquered his phobias.  From panic attacks  to anxiety to fear of travel to extreme shyness.  He actually withdrew from Michigan (where he was originally a graduate student).  But, then, he began developing coping mechanisms because he knew if he wanted to be the microbial researcher he hoped to be, these phobias had to be conquered.

Stanley also was a firm believer in the team nature of scientific research. ”  It wasn’t “I”, it was “we”  “. Another something that stuck with me in my academic and corporate career, seeking out and granting credit to the team members.

I’m sure glad he lived way more than those 2 years he was promised back in 2004.  He shall be missed.

Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

Share this:
Share this page via Email Share this page via Stumble Upon Share this page via Digg this Share this page via Facebook Share this page via Twitter
Share

7 thoughts on “Stanley Falkow, A”H”

  1. An amazing man, his loss will be mourned. But more than his scientific skills, I am intrigued by his phobias. The mind is a wonderful thing, but when it goes wrong, it so impacts our lives. Kudos to him for being able to overcome them and rise to greatness.
    Alana recently posted..Grancy Greybeard Skies #SkywatchFriday

  2. You’re so cool! I don’t believe I’ve read something like this before.
    So good to discover another person with unique thoughts
    on this subject matter. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up.
    This web site is one thing that’s needed on the internet, someone with some originality!
    link 188bet recently posted..link 188bet

Comments are closed.