Johan Hultin (October 7, 1924 – January 22, 2022) was a Swedish-born American
pathologist
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in t ...
known for recovering tissues containing traces of the
1918 influenza virus
This year is noted for the end of the World War I, First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide.
Events
Belo ...
that killed millions worldwide.
Life and career
Hultin was born into a wealthy family in
Stockholm on October 7, 1924.
His father, Viking Hultin, was a businessman, and his mother was Eivor Jeansson Hultin, who later remarried the pathologist Carl Næslund. Hultin grew up with two sisters, one of them succumbed to
sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
at the age of six and the other died in a traffic collision at 32.
Hultin was initially pursuing a degree in medicine at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
,
but decided to immigrate to the U.S. in 1949 with his first wife, Gunvor,
and earned his
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. and an
M.D.
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
.
During his time there, he researched and warned against
bioterrorism
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in much the same ...
.
After a brief career as a scientist, he switched gears and became a pathologist, working at several hospitals in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
. During his spare time, he developed ways to improve automotive safety which led to recognition by the
U.S. Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...
. He was an avid hiker and is the oldest person to ski
Mustagh Ata in China.
Hultin was also a builder. He constructed a log cabin in
Bear Valley, California, that is a replica of
Vastveitloftet, a 1355 A.D. loft house from
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
.
Hultin was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Iowa in 2000. In 2009, the University of Iowa awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science.
1918 influenza discovery
The Hultin couple had some experience with permafrost excavation after assisting at an Alaska dig site under the supervision of
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Otto Geist in the summer of 1949.
In 1951, Johan Hultin tried to isolate the 1918 influenza virus from victims who had been buried in the Alaskan
permafrost of a town called
Brevig Mission. During the pandemic, 72 of the town's 80 residents perished from the flu. In his search, he unearthed bodies but failed to find any live viruses.
Nearly 50 years later, in July 1997, Hultin read an article in the journal ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
'' written by
virologist
Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, thei ...
Jeffery Taubenberger who published the initial genetic sequence of the 1918 flu virus. Hultin offered his services to recover lung tissues from victims of 1918 and returned to Brevig Mission. Again he received permission to dig for victims of the 1918 flu pandemic, and this time he unearthed the remains of an
obese
Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...
woman, roughly thirty years old, whom he christened "Lucy". The fat had protected her lungs from
decay
Decay may refer to:
Science and technology
* Bit decay, in computing
* Software decay, in computing
* Distance decay, in geography
* Decay time (fall time), in electronics
Biology
* Decomposition of organic matter
* Tooth decay (dental caries ...
, and he took both of them. It turned out that in Lucy's case there was enough material to sequence the complete 1918 virus many times over. The first sequence from the sample was published in the journal
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' with Hultin as a co-author. This sample provided scientists a first-hand opportunity to study the virus, which was inactivated with
guanidinium thiocyanate
Guanidinium thiocyanate (GTC) or guanidinium isothiocyanate (GITC) is a chemical compound used as a general protein denaturant, being a chaotropic agent, although it is most commonly used as a nucleic acid protector in the extraction of DNA and ...
before transport. This sample and others found in U.S.
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) (1862 – September 15, 2011) was a U.S. government institution concerned with diagnostic consultation, education, and research in the medical specialty of pathology.
Overview
It was founded in ...
(AFIP) archives allowed researchers to completely analyze the critical
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
structures of the 1918 virus. Using the recovered traces, scientists revealed that the virus originated from birds and
mutated to infect humans.
Personal life and death
With his first wife, Gunvor (1924–2011), Hultin had four children; he and Gunvor later divorced, and, in 1985, he married English-born Eileen.
In 2020, they were living in
Rossmoor, California
Rossmoor is a planned census-designated place located in Orange County, California. As of th2020 census the CDP had a total population of 10,625 up from the 2010 census population of 10,244. The gated Leisure World retirement community in the ...
.
He died at his home in
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...
, on January 22, 2022, at the age of 97.
Quotations
“It is absolutely certain another pandemic will come, but we don’t know what form it will be. The question is, How can we be forewarned?” (February 2002)
“There are only two things that can threaten mankind in the short term. One is an influenza virus, and the other is
nuclear war.” (2020)
See also
*
1918 flu pandemic
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
*
Spanish flu research
*
Kirsty Duncan
Kirsty Ellen Duncan (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian politician and medical geographer from Ontario, Canada. Duncan is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North and Duncan serves as deputy leader of the govern ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hultin, Johan
1924 births
2022 deaths
American pathologists
Swedish emigrants to the United States
University of Iowa alumni
Scientists from Stockholm