David Baltimore

Born: March 7, 1938
New York, New York
American virologist

The American virologist David Baltimore was only thirty-seven years old when he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his significant work in cancer research.

Early life and education

David Baltimore was born on March 7, 1938, in New York, New York, the son of Richard and Gertrude (Lipschitz) Baltimore. As a student Baltimore excelled in math, but quickly developed an intense interest in science. While still a high school student, he spent a summer at the Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, experiencing biology under actual research conditions. This so affected him that upon entering Swarthmore College in 1956 he declared himself a biology major. Later he switched to chemistry to complete a research thesis (a research report, usually a requirement for graduation). He graduated in 1960 with a bachelor's degree with high honors. Between his sophomore and junior years at Swarthmore he spent a summer at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. There the influence of George Streisinger led him to molecular biology, a branch of biology concerned with the structure and development of biological systems.

Baltimore spent two years doing graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in biophysics. He then left for a summer at the Albert Einstein Medical College and to take the animal virus course at Cold Spring Harbor under Richard Franklin and Edward Simon. In 1965 he became a research associate at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, working in association with Renato Dulbecco. Here he met fellow scientist, Alice S. Huang, and the two were married on October 5, 1968. In 1972 Baltimore was appointed to a full professorship at MIT. In 1974 he joined the staff of the MIT Center for Cancer Research under Salvador Luria.

Received recognition

Baltimore received many awards for his work in cancer research. In 1971 he was the recipient of the Gustav Stern award in virology (the study of viruses), the Warren Triennial Prize, and the Eli Lilly and Co. award in microbiology (a type of biology that investigates microscopic life forms) and immunology (a branch of science that involves the study of the immune system). His most prestigious award came in 1975 when he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Howard M. Temin and Renato Dulbecco for research on retroviruses (types of viruses) and cancer. His research demonstrated that the flow of genetic information in such viruses did not have to go from DNA to RNA (deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid, living cells that help define an individual's characteristics) but could flow from RNA to DNA, a finding that changed the central belief of molecular biology.

Baltimore's interests later took him further into the study of how viruses reproduce themselves and into work on the immune systems of animals and humans, where he concentrated upon the process of developing antibodies (proteins that help the immune system fight infection). Central to much of this work was DNA technology, in which he maintained an active interest.

Baltimore proved himself an effective educator, conducting seminars with graduate students as well as his peers. He also became successful at directing research rather than doing it himself, again working closely with students.

Research controversy

In 1989 Thereza Imanishi-Kari, with whom Baltimore coauthored a 1986 paper on immunology, was charged with falsifying data. Imanishi-Kari, an MIT assistant professor, was cleared in 1996 when a top government ethics panel (a group that judges behavior) declared they found no wrongdoing. Although Baltimore was never connected to any wrongdoing, the incident caused him to withdraw the paper. He was also pressured by colleagues to resign (quit) from his presidency at New York's Rockefeller University, which he did in 1991.

In 1998 Daniel Kevles, a humanities and scientific policy professor at the California Institute of Technology who had followed the case closely, wrote "The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character." Kevles investigated the events and proposed that Imanishi-Kari and Baltimore were unjustly given a bad name.

Baltimore Chairs AIDS Vaccine Research Panel

Baltimore was an early supporter of government-sponsored research on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS, an incurable virus that attacks the body's immune system). In December 1996 Baltimore became the head of a new AIDS vaccine research panel for the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institute of Health. The panel was formed to step up the search for an AIDS vaccine. He also became the president of the California Institute of Technology in 1997.

In 2000 President Bill Clinton (1946–) awarded Baltimore the National Medals of Science and Technology, the highest American award for science. He was honored for his discoveries in molecular biology, immunology, and virology.

Baltimore remains active in the scientific community. He is a strong supporter of the highly controversial issue of stem-cell research, a cancer research that takes cells from embryos. Baltimore argues that the study of such cells can greatly increase disease research. "Embryonic stem cells hold remarkable promise for reversing the devastation of human disease," Baltimore wrote in The Wall Street Journal in 2002. "To refuse to allow [the country] to participate in this exciting research would be an affront [an offense] to the American people, especially those who suffer from diseases that could one day be reversed by these miraculous cells."

For More Information

Crotty, Shane. Ahead of the Curve: David Baltimore's Life in Science. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

Sarasohn, Judy. Science on Trial: The Whistle Blower, the Accused, and the Nobel Laureate. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.

David Baltimore

The American virologist David Baltimore (born 1938) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work on retrovirus biochemistry and its significance for cancer research.

David Baltimore was born on March 7, 1938, in New York City, the son of Richard I. and Gertrude (Lipschitz) Baltimore. While still a high school student, he spent a summer at the Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, experiencing biology under actual research conditions. This so affected him that upon entering Swarthmore College in 1956 he declared himself a biology major. Later he switched to chemistry to complete a research thesis and graduated in 1960 with a B.A. and high honors. Between his sophomore and junior years at Swarthmore, he spent a summer at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, where the influence of George Streisinger led him to molecular biology.

Baltimore spent two years of graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in biophysics, then left for a summer with Philip Marcus at the Albert Einstein Medical College and to take the animal virus course at Cold Spring Harbor under Richard Franklin and Edward Simon. He then joined Franklin at the Rockefeller Institute, completing his thesis by 1964 and staying on as a postdoctoral fellow in animal virology with James Darnell.

In 1965 he became a research associate at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, working in association with Renato Dulbecco. Here he first met Alice S. Huang, with whom he also conducted research. He and Huang were married on October 5, 1968, and that same year they returned to MIT, where he held the position of associate professor of microbiology until 1971. In 1972 he rose to full professorship, and in 1974 he joined the staff of the MIT Center for Cancer Research under Salvador Luria.

Received Recognition For Cancer and Immunology Research

Baltimore received many awards for his work. In 1971 he was the recipient of the Gustav Stern award in virology, the Warren Triennial Prize, and the Eli Lilly and Co. award in microbiology and immunology. A year after being promoted to full professorship at MIT, he was rewarded a lifetime research professorship by the American Cancer Society. In 1974 he was presented with the U.S. Steel Foundation award in molecular biology and the Gairdner Foundation Annual Award. His most prestigious award came in 1975 when he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Howard M. Temin and Renato Dulbecco for research on retro-viruses and cancer. Much of this work concentrated upon protein and nucleic acid synthesis of RNA (ribonucleic acid) animal viruses, especially polio-virus and the RNA tumor virus. His research demonstrated that the flow of genetic information in such viruses did not have to go from DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to RNA but could flow from RNA to DNA, a finding which undermined the central dogma of molecular biology—i.e., unilinear information flow from DNA to proteins. This process came to be called, facetiously, "reverse transcriptase."

Baltimore's interests later took him further into the study of how viruses reproduce themselves and into work on the immune systems of animals and humans, where he concentrated upon the process by which antibodies may develop. Central to much of this work was DNA technology, in which he maintained an active interest.

Baltimore proved himself an effective educator, conducting seminars with graduate students and younger colleagues. He also became successful at directing research rather than doing it himself, again working closely with students.

Research Debacle

In 1989 Thereza Imanishi-Kari, a collegue with whom he co-authored a 1986 paper on immunology for Cell, was charged with falsifying data. Imanishi-Kari, a Massachussets Institute of Technology Assistant Professor, was absolved when a top government ethics panel declared they found no wrongdoing in 1996. Although Baltimore was never implicated in any wrongdoing, the incident caused him to withdraw the paper. He was also pressured by colleagues to resign from his presidency at New York's Rockefeller University, which he did in 1991.

Baltimore Chairs AIDS Vaccine Research Panel

In December 1996, Baltimore became the head of a new AIDS vaccine research panel for the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institute of Health. The panel was formed to step up the search for an AIDS vaccine. He also became the President of the California Institute of Technology in 1997.

Further Reading

Short biographies of David Baltimore can be found in the 39th edition of Who's Who in America (1976-1977) and in the 14th edition of American Men and Women of Science: Physical and Biological Sciences (1979). He provided an autobiographical sketch in the Nobel Lectures (1977), and a New York Times interview (August 26, 1980) gives additional information.

For further reading, see: Appeals Panel Reverses Fraud Finding by K. Fackelmann in Science News, July 6, 1996; Baltimore to Head New Vaccine Panel by Jon Cohen in Science, December 20, 1996; and A Shot In the Arm by Mark Schoofs, The Village Voice, December 24, 1996. □

BALTIMORE, DAVID 1938-

Biochemlst

Education and Awards

David Baltimore was born in New York City, graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.S. in chemistry in 1960, and received a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1964. In 1968 he became an associate professor of microbiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 1970 he won the Gustav Stern Award in Virology. Three years later he was awarded a prestigious American Cancer Society professorship. "My life," he told a Time correspondent in 1979, "is dedicated to increasing knowledge."

Nobel Laureate

In 1975 he shared the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology (along with Renato Dulbecco and Howard Termin) for the discovery of reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that carries out one of the basic processes in a cell. He discovered that viral RNA (ribonucleic acid) can pass information to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and replicate. This ground breaking discovery explained the perplexing problem of the replication of a group of retroviruses, whose genetic center consists of RNA rather than DNA. Scientists had been puzzled by the ability of some RNA viruses in tumors to transform healthy cells that they had infected. Since a better understanding of this cellular process potentially held answers to questions about the etiology of cancer, microbiologists toiled over the problem for years. In the 1960s and early 1970s Baltimore's colleague and cowinner of the Nobel Prize, Howard Tein, had promoted the view that genetic information might be passed from RNA to DNA, Temin's theory was ridiculed by many in the microbiological community, but it paid off.

Activist for Honest Science

Baltimore is well-known for his efforts to develop guidelines for genetic engineering research. Of the burgeoning field of genetic engineering, he said in an interview with Time magazine in 1974, "science fiction fantasies may come true very soon, we should be prepared." The following year he took a leading role in setting up a forum in which scientists discussed the need for self-policing their experiments in recombinant DNA. In 1976 he was appointed as a member of the government's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) to establish federal guidelines for funding genetic engineering research. In the mid 1980s he remained active in the debate about what genetic experiments should be attempted. In an interview in Technology Review in 1986 he noted that "We certainly need to examine every case on its merits to decide when concern is reasonable and when it's not. But generally I don't think such organisms will pose a problem for a number of reasons. First, the manipulations we're doing in the laboratory are minimal compared with what evolution has done. Evolution has made you and me out of bacterium, and we're not doing anything close to that."

Controversy

In 1974 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1983 he was appointed director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, a position he held for seven years. In 1990 Baltimore was named president of Rockefeller University. In 1991, after a research paper which he had co-authored in 1986 was found to be based on falsified data, he resigned the university's presidency under faculty pressure. The case represented something of a cause celebre in the academy. Margaret OToole, a young scientist, discovered clear evidence that the 1986 article was fraudulent. When she confronted the authors with her findings she was demoted—and later claimed that her career had been ruined by her superiors. The United States House of Representatives held an inquiry into the matter, as did the Office of Scientific Integrity, and both found O'Toole's claims credible. Baltimore, however, was cleared of any wrongdoing. For, it appeared, his coauthor, Imanishi-Kari, was responsible for those aspects of the paper called into question by O'Toole. Baltimore continued on as a professor at Rockefeller University following his resignation of the presidency.

Sources:

"David Baltimore: Setting the Record Straight on Biotechnology" Technology Review (October 1986): 38-46;

"The 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine," Science, 190 (1975): 650;

"A Troubled Homecoming," Scientific American, 226 (1992): 33-35.

David Baltimore , 1938–, American microbiologist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Rockefeller Univ., 1964. He conducted (1965–68) virology research at the Salk Institute before becoming a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. In 1970 he and his wife Alice Huang discovered a virus caused by an enzyme that could transcribe DNA into RNA. He shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Renato Dulbecco and Howard Temin for his study on the connections between viruses and cancer.

Appointed president of Rockefeller Univ. in 1990, he resigned the next year after a scientific fraud scandal. A paper he coauthored was said to contain fraudulent data from another author, Dr. Thereza Imanishi-Kari, and Baltimore was criticized for his vehement defense of the paper despite the evidence. In 1996, an appeals panel overturned the verdict of the original investigating office, the federal Office of Scientific Integrity (now the Office of Reasearch Integrity), and Baltimore and Imanishi-Kari were exonerated. In 1997 Baltimore was appointed president of the California Institute of Technology.

Bibliography: See D. J. Kevles, The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character (1998).