Marguerite Vogt (13 February 1913 – 6 July 2007) was a cancer

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and

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 ...

. She was most noted for her research on

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

and cancer at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Early life

Vogt was born in Germany in 1913. The youngest daughter of

Oskar Vogt Oskar Vogt (6 April 1870, in Husum – 30 July 1959, in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German physician and neurologist. He and his wife Cécile Vogt-Mugnier are known for their extensive cytoarchetectonic studies on the brain. Personal life He w ...

and French-born

Cécile Vogt-Mugnier Cécile Vogt-Mugnier (27 March 1875 – 4 May 1962) was a French neurologist from Haute-Savoie. She and her husband Oskar Vogt are known for their extensive cytoarchetectonic studies on the brain. Professional life Education and career Vogt-M ...

, Vogt took her

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. ...

degree from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

in 1937. Her parents were prominent

neuroscientists A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial c ...

and she grew up in an intense scientific environment. Her older sister, Marthe Vogt (1903–2003) was a neuropharmacologist who became a

fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

and a professor at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Career

Vogt joined her parents at a private institute in Neustadt, the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, where the family lived for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; there, she worked extensively on ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many speci ...

'' development. She published over 30 papers on the ring gland and homeotic mutants. Vogt moved to 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 1950 to work with

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 scientists' interest int ...

. He introduced her to Renato Dulbecco, a junior faculty member in the division of biology and together, Vogt and Dulbecco worked on methods to culture

poliovirus A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species '' Enterovirus C'', in the family of ''Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of a ...

. They were the first to successfully grow the virus

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called " test-tube experiments", these studies in biology ...

and were able to plaque purify it, an essential step for subsequent

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

production. Vogt's technical abilities as a cell culturist were critical to this work. This resulted in a classic paper. They next turned their attention to cancer causing viruses, beginning with the

polyoma virus ''Polyomaviridae'' is a family of viruses whose natural hosts are primarily mammals and birds. As of 2020, there are six recognized genera and 117 species, five of which are unassigned to a genus. 14 species are known to infect humans, while othe ...

. They were able to culture this virus and examine its latency, resulting in another classic study. Dulbecco was recruited to the newly founded Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963, and Vogt joined him as a research fellow in his group. They continued their work on tumor-causing viruses. However, their interests diverged, and in 1973, Vogt was appointed as a research professor which was an independent position that allowed her to pursue her interest in origins of cancer. Her interests evolved to examining cellular immortalization in cancer cells, and the role of

telomere A telomere (; ) is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes. Although there are different architectures, telomeres, in a broad sense, are a widespread genetic feature mos ...

s in this process. She published her last paper in 1998. Vogt made significant contributions as a scientist in multiple areas: as a ''Drosophila'' developmental geneticist, as a virologist working with Nobel laureate Renato Dulbecco, and as an investigator into viral transformation and cellular immortalization. Moreover, she was an influential mentor and colleague to many junior scientists, among them several future Nobel laureates. Her work was never recognized by a major prize, though this is widely viewed as an oversight. She was noted for her dedication, and was busy in her lab even into her 80s. She died July 6, 2007, at her home in La Jolla, California, aged 94.

References

External links

Remembering Marguerite Vogt: a Biography
MSS 688
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vogt, Marguerite Polio 1913 births 2007 deaths American virologists German virologists Women virologists Salk Institute for Biological Studies people