Cell. Mol. Life Sci. (2015) 72:1227–1229 DOI 10.1007/s00018-015-1849-7
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
MEMORIES AND RETROSPECTIVES
Richard M. Krause, M.D. Jan. 4. 1925–Jan. 6. 2015 Klaus Eichmann
Ó Springer Basel 2015
Richard M. Krause, early 1980s
Richard Michael Krause, M.D. medical microbiologist, immunologist, and later science administrator, was born in Marietta, Ohio, USA, where his father was professor of chemistry at Marietta College, and where Krause received his BA in 1947. He went on to study medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and received his MD degree in 1952. During these studies, he was first exposed to the field of infectious diseases and epidemiology when he participated in a project under the late Charles H. Rammelkamp on immunology and
K. Eichmann (&) Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
prevention of acute rheumatic fever. This disease, with focus on its causative agent Group A streptococcus, became the leading theme in his scientific work and remained at the center of his interest throughout his career. He frequently referred to Rammelkamp as his mentor. Krause trained as a physician at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO, but soon developed a preference for research. As a result, in 1954, he moved to Rockefeller University in New York where he spent, interrupted by 4 years at Washington University St. Louis, the majority of his career as an active scientist, and was promoted to full professor and department head. At Rockefeller he met, among others, the late Rebecca Lancefield and the late Maclyn McCarty, both to become pivotal sources of inspiration for Krause’s work on the composition and chemistry of the streptococcal cell wall and later on anti-streptococcal antibodies. After two decades of highly successful scientific work, Krause decided, at age 50, to engage in science administration. He accepted a call from the NIH and became director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post that he held from 1975 to 1984. This was the decade of the emergence and spread of the AIDS epidemic, an event that seemed to vindicate Krause’s farsighted vision of the continuing threat to mankind by microbial attack, even in the face of an ever-increasing variety of antibiotics. These ideas were detailed in his seminal monograph ‘‘The Restless Tide—The Persistent Challenge of the Microbial World’’ that appeared in 1981. Krause’s warnings went unheard for some time. The budgets of the NIAID remained low compared to that of other NIH institutes dealing with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and others. Even with the spreading AIDS epidemic, and not for Krause’s lack of trying, resources at NIAID first
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remained limited, raising severe protests of gay organizations, accusing Krause of ignoring this catastrophic development. Only with time were Krause’s warnings met with more success. In the early 1980s, he was able to initiate and finance field research on AIDS in Haiti and Africa, the latter in collaboration with the Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot who had previously co-identified the EBOLA virus in Zaire. Anthony S. Fauci, who succeeded Krause as NIAID director noted: ‘‘Richard was among the first scientists in the modern era to sound a clarion call about the persistent threat of infectious diseases, and during his leadership he kept scientists and policymakers focused on the concepts of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.’’ After an intermezzo as dean of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Krause returned to the NIAID in 1989 to become a senior scientific advisor of the Fogarty International Center, an organization that selects and invites prominent foreign scholars to spend a sabbatical at the NIH, among other activities. In parallel, he was an emeritus investigator in the NIH Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, where he was active until shortly before his death. NIH authorities continued asking him to travel to developing countries to advise researchers and governments in the context of various collaborative project under NIH support. Among those he greatly enjoyed traveling to India in a project aimed at assessing the epidemiology of streptococcal pharyngitis and rheumatic fever in children. He took much pride in having supervised several doctoral theses of young Indian fellows in this project. Other foreign activities included work for the governments of Egypt and Japan, honored in 1980 by the Order of Gumhuria Award from President Anwar el Sadat, Republic of Egypt, and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from the Emperor of Japan in 2005, respectively. He also was asked by the German government for advice in the context of the reorganization of the East German academic system after German unification, and was honored by the Order of Merit, Federal Republic of Germany in 1997. Richard Krause’s ancestors had immigrated to the United States from a small town in West Prussia (then Germany, now Poland) in the 19th century. As a small boy, Richard had spent a year in Berlin, around 1930, when his father was a guest professor at Berlin University. This may have played a pivotal role in Richard’s keen interest in Germany and its history and people. He maintained close friendships with a number of his contemporary German colleagues. In addition, he generously accepted young German fellows as coworkers in his lab, even though some of them, like myself, had little scientific background to offer. When he was asked on what grounds he had accepted me, he answered: ‘‘I put him to the liquor test’’, meaning that he had invited me to a gin and tonic at noon time at the
123
K. Eichmann
bar of the hotel Frankfurter Hof were we first met for an interview. On top of his scientific achievements, Richards role in educating a fair number of young German scientists, at a time when immunology in Germany was still in a state of development, won him the Robert Koch Medal in Gold in 1985. I joined Richard’s laboratory in 1968, finding myself thrown into a buzzing research environment focused on a variety of themes in immunology, pathogenicity, and bacteriology of the streptococci. The goal of the laboratory had been the prevention and control of acute rheumatic fever, so Krause’s work had centered on the causative agent, betahemolytic streptococci. Research into the bio- and immunochemistry of the streptococcal cell wall had resulted in the elucidation of the structural composition of the carbohydrate, the mucopeptide, and the M protein moieties. Krause’s original work, published in several papers together with Maclyn McCarty in the 1960s, was of fundamental importance in streptococcal research. His second most-cited article (Krause, Richard M., and Maclyn McCarty. ‘‘Studies on the chemical structure of the streptococcal cell wall I: The identification of a mucopeptide in the cell walls of groups A and A-variant streptococci.’’ The Journal of Experimental Medicine 114.1 ,1961: 127–140) described part of this work, only topped by his review article entitled ‘‘The Search for Antibodies with Molecular Uniformity’’, published in 1970 (Krause, Richard M. Adv. Immunol 12.1,1970: 358). In this review, Krause summarized the studies that began in his lab after the fortuitous discovery that antibodies of rabbits immunized to produce typing antisera for streptococci were in some cases homogeneous, in contrast to most other antibodies available at the time. Not only were these antibodies homogeneous, they were also produced in large quantities, and thus offered the possibility of assessing the structural basis of antibody specificity towards a known antigen. So far, structural studies on immunoglobulins had been limited to myeloma proteins that usually have no known specificity. In addition, the genetic basis of antibody diversity was a hot topic at the time, and so we studied genetic factors that influenced antibody properties and production. Remarkably, and unlike most other lab heads, Richard let us publish much of our work without adding his name to the list of authors. It was a highly successful period for everyone working in the lab and set the stage for the careers of a number of Richard’s young collaborators. Richard received numerous honors and awards, and was elected to the National Academy of Science of the US in 1977. In his later years, Richard became a science historian and natural philosopher of the evolutionary dynamics among man and microbes. After ‘‘The Restless Tide’’, some of his later thoughts are summarized in his article
Richard M. Krause, M.D
entitled ‘‘The origin of plagues: old and new’’ (Krause, Richard M. Science 257.5073,1992: 1073–1078). Science for him was intimately associated with individuals, and knowledge derived from research was inseparably connected to the individual researcher. He felt a deep admiration for Rebecca Lancefield who by systematic typing had identified the culprit of sore throat and rheumatic fever, Group A Strep. In recent years, Richard worked on a biography of Lancefield, who in his view had not been sufficiently appreciated because she was female. This project could not be brought to completion. Other scientists in whom he
1229
was deeply interested included, among others, the late Fred Griffith who had discovered the phenomenon of pneumococcal transformation, and the late Oswald T. Avery who had used pneumococcal transformation for the discovery that genetic information is transmitted by DNA. Not only did he study their scientific work in depth, he dug deeply into their personalities and private lives and went as far as visiting their graves. In his historical efforts, he unearthed the work of the largely unknown German immunologist and microbiologist Fred Neufeld who had discovered pneumococcal serotypes, work that laid the foundations for serum therapy of pneumonia and the discovery, by pneumococcal transformation, that genes consist of DNA. I had the privilege of helping him write an article on Neufeld and his contributions, which to my knowledge was Richard’s last published paper (Eichmann, K., Krause, R.M., Fred Neufeld and pneumococcal serotypes: Foundations for the discovery of the transforming principle. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 70: 2225–2236, 2013). Richard greatly enjoyed his life as a bachelor, or so it seemed. It gave him the leeway to devote his attention to a wide array of subjects and people, only a small section of which could be touched upon here. He loved classical music and the opera, he was a keen admirer of the arts and had assembled an impressive collection of paintings, many from native artists in the developing countries that he visited. Much of this collection he donated to Marietta College, which he supported in many other ways as well. Perhaps most of all he loved good company and to gather and discuss with groups of congenial companions. Whenever he came across an interesting thought or fact in his studies, he shared it by e-mail with friends and colleagues. He maintained close connections to many of his former collaborators whom he kept visiting during his extended travels around the world. He will be remembered as a creative and far-sighted scientist, a considerate supervisor and mentor, and a generous and reliable friend.
Richard M. Krause at the grave of O.T. Avery, around 2008
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Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
MEMORIES AND RETROSPECTIVES
Richard M. Krause, M.D. Jan. 4. 1925–Jan. 6. 2015 Klaus Eichmann
Ó Springer Basel 2015
Richard M. Krause, early 1980s
Richard Michael Krause, M.D. medical microbiologist, immunologist, and later science administrator, was born in Marietta, Ohio, USA, where his father was professor of chemistry at Marietta College, and where Krause received his BA in 1947. He went on to study medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and received his MD degree in 1952. During these studies, he was first exposed to the field of infectious diseases and epidemiology when he participated in a project under the late Charles H. Rammelkamp on immunology and
K. Eichmann (&) Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
prevention of acute rheumatic fever. This disease, with focus on its causative agent Group A streptococcus, became the leading theme in his scientific work and remained at the center of his interest throughout his career. He frequently referred to Rammelkamp as his mentor. Krause trained as a physician at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO, but soon developed a preference for research. As a result, in 1954, he moved to Rockefeller University in New York where he spent, interrupted by 4 years at Washington University St. Louis, the majority of his career as an active scientist, and was promoted to full professor and department head. At Rockefeller he met, among others, the late Rebecca Lancefield and the late Maclyn McCarty, both to become pivotal sources of inspiration for Krause’s work on the composition and chemistry of the streptococcal cell wall and later on anti-streptococcal antibodies. After two decades of highly successful scientific work, Krause decided, at age 50, to engage in science administration. He accepted a call from the NIH and became director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post that he held from 1975 to 1984. This was the decade of the emergence and spread of the AIDS epidemic, an event that seemed to vindicate Krause’s farsighted vision of the continuing threat to mankind by microbial attack, even in the face of an ever-increasing variety of antibiotics. These ideas were detailed in his seminal monograph ‘‘The Restless Tide—The Persistent Challenge of the Microbial World’’ that appeared in 1981. Krause’s warnings went unheard for some time. The budgets of the NIAID remained low compared to that of other NIH institutes dealing with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and others. Even with the spreading AIDS epidemic, and not for Krause’s lack of trying, resources at NIAID first
123
1228
remained limited, raising severe protests of gay organizations, accusing Krause of ignoring this catastrophic development. Only with time were Krause’s warnings met with more success. In the early 1980s, he was able to initiate and finance field research on AIDS in Haiti and Africa, the latter in collaboration with the Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot who had previously co-identified the EBOLA virus in Zaire. Anthony S. Fauci, who succeeded Krause as NIAID director noted: ‘‘Richard was among the first scientists in the modern era to sound a clarion call about the persistent threat of infectious diseases, and during his leadership he kept scientists and policymakers focused on the concepts of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.’’ After an intermezzo as dean of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Krause returned to the NIAID in 1989 to become a senior scientific advisor of the Fogarty International Center, an organization that selects and invites prominent foreign scholars to spend a sabbatical at the NIH, among other activities. In parallel, he was an emeritus investigator in the NIH Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, where he was active until shortly before his death. NIH authorities continued asking him to travel to developing countries to advise researchers and governments in the context of various collaborative project under NIH support. Among those he greatly enjoyed traveling to India in a project aimed at assessing the epidemiology of streptococcal pharyngitis and rheumatic fever in children. He took much pride in having supervised several doctoral theses of young Indian fellows in this project. Other foreign activities included work for the governments of Egypt and Japan, honored in 1980 by the Order of Gumhuria Award from President Anwar el Sadat, Republic of Egypt, and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from the Emperor of Japan in 2005, respectively. He also was asked by the German government for advice in the context of the reorganization of the East German academic system after German unification, and was honored by the Order of Merit, Federal Republic of Germany in 1997. Richard Krause’s ancestors had immigrated to the United States from a small town in West Prussia (then Germany, now Poland) in the 19th century. As a small boy, Richard had spent a year in Berlin, around 1930, when his father was a guest professor at Berlin University. This may have played a pivotal role in Richard’s keen interest in Germany and its history and people. He maintained close friendships with a number of his contemporary German colleagues. In addition, he generously accepted young German fellows as coworkers in his lab, even though some of them, like myself, had little scientific background to offer. When he was asked on what grounds he had accepted me, he answered: ‘‘I put him to the liquor test’’, meaning that he had invited me to a gin and tonic at noon time at the
123
K. Eichmann
bar of the hotel Frankfurter Hof were we first met for an interview. On top of his scientific achievements, Richards role in educating a fair number of young German scientists, at a time when immunology in Germany was still in a state of development, won him the Robert Koch Medal in Gold in 1985. I joined Richard’s laboratory in 1968, finding myself thrown into a buzzing research environment focused on a variety of themes in immunology, pathogenicity, and bacteriology of the streptococci. The goal of the laboratory had been the prevention and control of acute rheumatic fever, so Krause’s work had centered on the causative agent, betahemolytic streptococci. Research into the bio- and immunochemistry of the streptococcal cell wall had resulted in the elucidation of the structural composition of the carbohydrate, the mucopeptide, and the M protein moieties. Krause’s original work, published in several papers together with Maclyn McCarty in the 1960s, was of fundamental importance in streptococcal research. His second most-cited article (Krause, Richard M., and Maclyn McCarty. ‘‘Studies on the chemical structure of the streptococcal cell wall I: The identification of a mucopeptide in the cell walls of groups A and A-variant streptococci.’’ The Journal of Experimental Medicine 114.1 ,1961: 127–140) described part of this work, only topped by his review article entitled ‘‘The Search for Antibodies with Molecular Uniformity’’, published in 1970 (Krause, Richard M. Adv. Immunol 12.1,1970: 358). In this review, Krause summarized the studies that began in his lab after the fortuitous discovery that antibodies of rabbits immunized to produce typing antisera for streptococci were in some cases homogeneous, in contrast to most other antibodies available at the time. Not only were these antibodies homogeneous, they were also produced in large quantities, and thus offered the possibility of assessing the structural basis of antibody specificity towards a known antigen. So far, structural studies on immunoglobulins had been limited to myeloma proteins that usually have no known specificity. In addition, the genetic basis of antibody diversity was a hot topic at the time, and so we studied genetic factors that influenced antibody properties and production. Remarkably, and unlike most other lab heads, Richard let us publish much of our work without adding his name to the list of authors. It was a highly successful period for everyone working in the lab and set the stage for the careers of a number of Richard’s young collaborators. Richard received numerous honors and awards, and was elected to the National Academy of Science of the US in 1977. In his later years, Richard became a science historian and natural philosopher of the evolutionary dynamics among man and microbes. After ‘‘The Restless Tide’’, some of his later thoughts are summarized in his article
Richard M. Krause, M.D
entitled ‘‘The origin of plagues: old and new’’ (Krause, Richard M. Science 257.5073,1992: 1073–1078). Science for him was intimately associated with individuals, and knowledge derived from research was inseparably connected to the individual researcher. He felt a deep admiration for Rebecca Lancefield who by systematic typing had identified the culprit of sore throat and rheumatic fever, Group A Strep. In recent years, Richard worked on a biography of Lancefield, who in his view had not been sufficiently appreciated because she was female. This project could not be brought to completion. Other scientists in whom he
1229
was deeply interested included, among others, the late Fred Griffith who had discovered the phenomenon of pneumococcal transformation, and the late Oswald T. Avery who had used pneumococcal transformation for the discovery that genetic information is transmitted by DNA. Not only did he study their scientific work in depth, he dug deeply into their personalities and private lives and went as far as visiting their graves. In his historical efforts, he unearthed the work of the largely unknown German immunologist and microbiologist Fred Neufeld who had discovered pneumococcal serotypes, work that laid the foundations for serum therapy of pneumonia and the discovery, by pneumococcal transformation, that genes consist of DNA. I had the privilege of helping him write an article on Neufeld and his contributions, which to my knowledge was Richard’s last published paper (Eichmann, K., Krause, R.M., Fred Neufeld and pneumococcal serotypes: Foundations for the discovery of the transforming principle. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 70: 2225–2236, 2013). Richard greatly enjoyed his life as a bachelor, or so it seemed. It gave him the leeway to devote his attention to a wide array of subjects and people, only a small section of which could be touched upon here. He loved classical music and the opera, he was a keen admirer of the arts and had assembled an impressive collection of paintings, many from native artists in the developing countries that he visited. Much of this collection he donated to Marietta College, which he supported in many other ways as well. Perhaps most of all he loved good company and to gather and discuss with groups of congenial companions. Whenever he came across an interesting thought or fact in his studies, he shared it by e-mail with friends and colleagues. He maintained close connections to many of his former collaborators whom he kept visiting during his extended travels around the world. He will be remembered as a creative and far-sighted scientist, a considerate supervisor and mentor, and a generous and reliable friend.
Richard M. Krause at the grave of O.T. Avery, around 2008
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