Biography
René Jules Dubos (February 20, 1901 – February 20, 1982) was a French-American microbiologist , experimental pathologist , environmentalist , humanist , and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book So Human An Animal . [ 2 ] He is credited for having made famous the environmental maxim: " Think globally, act locally ." Aside from a period from 1942 to 1944 when he was George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology and professor of tropical medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health , his scientific career was spent entirely at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, later renamed The Rockefeller University . Dubos was born in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France, on February 20, 1901, and grew up in Hénonville, another small Île-de-France farming village north of Paris. His parents operated butcher shops in each of these villages. [ 3 ] He attended high school and the National Institute of Agronomy in Paris, and he received a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1927. [ 1 ] Dubos began his career in microbiology in 1927, when he joined Oswald Avery 's laboratory [ 4 ] at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Avery was looking for a microbe that could break down the polysaccharide capsule of a deadly strain of bacterial pneumonia in the same way that soil bacteria digested decaying organic matter in the woods. Dubos identified a bacterium that secreted an enzyme that broke down polysaccharide. [ 5 ] In 1939, with the help of Rockefeller Institute biochemist Rollin Hotchkiss , Dubos isolated the antibacterial agents tyrothricin and gramicidin from the bacterium Bacillus brevis that killed or inhibited Gram-positive bacteria and tested their bacterial, chemical, and clinical properties. These antibiotics remain in limited use today. In 1942, before antibiotics were in general use, Dubos warned that bacterial resistance should be expected. [ 6 ] Fields: Microbiology
About the Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."
Quick Facts
- Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
- Added: 2026-02-07
- Source: Wikipedia
- Established: 1946
- Presented by: Lasker Foundation