Dr. Ernst Freese (September 27, 1925 - March 30, 1990) was a molecular biologist who worked on the mechanism of
mutations
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
in DNA. From 1962 until his death he was Chief of the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The ...
(NINDS) Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH). Ernst Freese's scientific career started in theoretical particle physics and later moved to molecular biology where he contributed to early genetics research.
Education and academic career
Ernst Freese began his career as a student of physics with
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...
at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, Göttingen, Germany, where Freese received his PhD in 1953 in work in theoretical particle physics. He came to the United States in 1954 to work as a postdoctoral fellow with
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. He started his career in biology at
Max Delbrück
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (; September 4, 1906 – March 9, 1981) was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical science, physical scientist ...
's laboratory at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1955. He held research positions at the
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...
(1956-1957) and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(1957-1959), where he worked with
James Watson
James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...
. Freese joined the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
as an Associate Professor of genetics in 1959 and established the university's first molecular biology program. In 1962 he moved to the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH) as Chief of the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The ...
(NINDS) Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He held this position until his death. The other laboratory chiefs included
Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Marshall Warren Nirenberg (April 10, 1927 – January 15, 2010) was an American biochemist and geneticist. He shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for "breaking the genetic code" a ...
and
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek ( ;Holley, Joe (December 16, 2008) "D. Carleton Gajdusek; Controversial Scientist", ''The Washington Post'', p. B5. September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co ...
. Freese was also the Director of the Basic Neurosciences Program at NINDS from 1987.
Contributions to molecular biology
Freese was interested in the molecular mechanism of mutations and determined the difference between spontaneous and chemical mutations by using T4 phage. In 1959 he coined the terms "transitions" and "transversions" to categorize different types of point mutations.
Point mutation
A point mutation is a genetic mutation where a single nucleotide base is changed, inserted or deleted from a DNA or RNA sequence of an organism's genome. Point mutations have a variety of effects on the downstream protein product—consequences ...
s, often caused by chemicals or malfunction of DNA replication, exchange a single
nucleotide
Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules wi ...
for another. Most common is the
transition that exchanges a
purine
Purine is a heterocyclic compound, heterocyclic aromatic organic compound that consists of two rings (pyrimidine and imidazole) fused together. It is water-soluble. Purine also gives its name to the wider class of molecules, purines, which includ ...
for a purine (A ↔ G) or a
pyrimidine
Pyrimidine (; ) is an aromatic, heterocyclic, organic compound similar to pyridine (). One of the three diazines (six-membered heterocyclics with two nitrogen atoms in the ring), it has nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 in the ring. The other ...
for a pyrimidine, (C ↔ T).
Freese's research also included microbial differentiation and molecular neurobiology. He studied the effect of lipophilic acids on the growth and differentiation of bacteria. Freese's laboratory worked on the metabolic control of sporulation and germination of Bacillus subtilis bacteria. He identified the key metabolite for ignition of sporulation: a decrease of GTP. Freese was cofounder of the
Environmental Mutagen Society
The Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS) is a scientific society "for the promotion of critical scientific knowledge and research into the causes and consequences of damage to the genome and epigenome in order to inform and suppor ...
and served as its president for two years. In 1971, he organized the first comprehensive conference focused on the prospects of gene therapy through the
John E. Fogarty International Center
The John E. Fogarty International Center was founded in 1968 by US President Lyndon Johnson at the National Institutes of Health to support international medical and behavioral research and to train international researchers.
History
On July 1, ...
. His laboratory identified certain compounds as mutagenic and he was instrumental in banning the use of certain pesticides and food additives. Later in his career, as a NIH administrator, he provided the initial support to J.
Craig Venter
John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biotechnologist and businessman. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and assembled the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. ...
to initiate his program to sequence the human genome. His laboratory first sequenced
GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), and helped to elucidate its role in neural structure and development. Throughout his career, he trained dozens of postdoctoral research fellows. He received the Alexander von
Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...
in 1983.
Personal life
After meeting her at Caltech, Freese married his fellow postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Elisabeth Bautz, in 1956, and together they had two children,
Katherine Freese
Katherine Freese (born 8 February 1957) is a theoretical astrophysicist. She is currently a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the Jeff and Gail Kodosky Endowed Chair in Physics. She is known for her work ...
Curriculum Vitae of Katherine Freese
/ref> and Andrew Freese. After the death of Elisabeth, he married Katherine Bick, Ph.D. in 1985, who was the Deputy Director of Extramural Research for the National Institutes of Health.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freese, Ernst
1925 births
1990 deaths
University of Göttingen alumni
German molecular biologists
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
German expatriates in the United States