Understanding Immunity
In the mid-1940s University of Wisconsin geneticist Ray Owen noticed a surprising fact about non-identical cattle twins. Each twin had two kinds of blood cells, its own and those of its twin. In ordinary transfusions, such mixing of blood cells often leads to severe immunological reaction. Owen realized that when bloods are exchanged early in development, each twin somehow learns to tolerate the other\'s cells. This discovery of "immune tolerance" helped to explain how an organism can tell its own cells from foreign ones, and fueled a revolution in immunology. The nature of immune tolerance is central to studies of organ transplantation, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
Controlling Blood Clotting
Through the misfortune of a Wisconsin farmer, biochemist Karl Paul Link and his University of Wisconsin associates were handed the keys to discovery of anticlotting factors. Farmer Ed Carlson in February 1933 brought to Link sweet clover hay that he thought might be involved in the death of his cattle from uncontrollable bleeding. Link and students isolated and identified dicumarol as the anticlotting agent in the spoiled hay. Link, and biochemists Mark Stahmann and M. Ikawa, then synthesized comparable compounds including Warfarin, which is widely used to treat thrombosis and other clotting disorders. It also proved to be a highly effective rodenticide.
Preventing Endemic Goiter
In regions distant from the oceans, goiter once was a common disease of humans and animals. Goiter, manifested through an enlarged thyroid gland, is caused by a deficiency of iodine in the diet. University of Wisconsin biochemists Edwin B. Hart and Harry Steenbock in 1917 confirmed the cause of goiter. In 1939, Hart and his associates developed a process to stabilize added iodine in table salt. This provided an inexpensive and universal means to prevent goiter.
Disease-Resistant Plants
At the end of the 19th century, a fungal infection called cabbage yellows threatened the entire Wisconsin cabbage crop. University of Wisconsin plant pathologist John C. Walker solved the problem by developing strains of cabbage resistant to the fungus. This was the first of many successful research efforts that later developed disease resistance in onions, potatoes, beans, peas, and cucumbers. Fifty-two of his 101 years of life were devoted to studying plant diseases at the University of Wisconsin.
Treatment of Iron Deficiency
Biochemists in the 1920s conducted studies leading to improved understanding of the roles of minerals in animal and human diets. University of Wisconsin biochemists E.B. Hart, C.A. Elvehjem, and Harry Steenbock discovered that copper, in addition to iron, is necessary for making hemoglobin, a component of blood that carries oxygen from the lungs to tissues, and carbon dioxide from tissues to lungs. This led to the use of copper to treat iron deficiency anemia.
First Reliable Test of Milk Quality
A milestone in modern dairying was the development of a simple and accurate measure of the butterfat content of milk. University of Wisconsin biochemist Stephen M. Babcock in 1890 developed the test that made him internationally famous and revolutionized milk production and marketing. The test provided a rational basis of milk evaluation, and prompted better breeding, feeding, and milk production practices. Babcock instructed dairy farmers in the use of the test, which led to the start of the nation\'s first dairy manufacturing short course.
Genetically Superior Crops
University of Wisconsin geneticist R.A. Brink brought hybrid corn to Wisconsin, releasing the s first hybrid for production in 1933. Eight years later ninety percent of Wisconsin corn was hybrid. Soon the yield per acre was tripled. Brink also developed a strain of alfalfa that could survive freezing weather. This strain, Vernal, soon became the leading variety in the nation. Throughout his career, Brink remained involved in basic research. His best-known efforts focused on transposable genetic elements, bits of DNA that move from one chromosomal site to another and add to genetic diversity.
Discovery of Vitamins A and B
In 1913 University of Wisconsin biochemist Elmer V. McCollum and associates used rats to conduct nutritional studies that led to the discovery of vitamin A in butterfat and cod liver oil. In 1917 his group discovered the vitamin B complex in milk whey. This opened the field of nutrition for the identification of all the vitamins, a search completed in the 1940s.
Scientific Approach to Agriculture
In 1893 the College of Agriculture\'s emerging science-based approach to agriculture was emphatically demonstrated to farmers and Wisconsin citizens by the postmortem verification of a tuberculosis test for cattle. Organized by University of Wisconsin bacteriologist Harry L. Russell, the slaughter of the exceptionally fine University dairy herd verified the accuracy of the test to a doubting audience. Acceptance of the test helped pave the way to control of tuberculosis in animals and humans. Russell, who succeeded William A. Henry as dean in 1907, was known as the "Science Dean" because of his emphasis on research.
First Chemical Synthesis of a Gene
Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1968 for research that was essential to understanding how DNA is translated into proteins. His work at the Institute for Enzyme Research completed the puzzle of which particular nucleic acid sequences code for each of the twenty-one amino acids that make up all proteins. He was also the first person to synthesize a gene chemically.
Mass Production of Penicillin
During World War II countless lives were saved through the use of the antibiotic penicillin, a natural product of a mold. However, the drug became widely available only after a method was developed to mass-produce it from a selected and genetically altered strain of the mold. University of Wisconsin bacteriologist Kenneth B. Raper isolated a productive organism, botanist John F. Stauffer genetically modified it, and biochemists William H. Peterson and Marvin Johnson developed submerged fermentation techniques to produce penicillin in quantity. The early wholesale cost of 100,000 units dropped from twenty dollars to three cents by the end of the war.