Francis Peyton Rous () (October 5, 1879 – February 16, 1970) was an 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 ...
at the
Rockefeller University known for his works in
oncoviruses,
blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
and
physiology of digestion.
A medical graduate from the
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
, he was discouraged to become a practicing physician due to severe tuberculosis. After three years of working as an instructor of pathology at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, he became dedicated researcher at the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classi ...
for the rest of his career.
His discovery in 1911 that a chicken tumor was caused by a virus (later named
Rous sarcoma virus) led to more discoveries and understanding of the role of
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
es in the development of certain types of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
. He was awarded a
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
for his work in 1966, 55 years after his initial discovery and he remains the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
He and Joseph R. Turner studied methods to make use of
blood types
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the ...
for
blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, they developed a technique for
preserving blood sample by using an acid,
citrate
Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in the ...
. This enabled the first practical storage of blood samples for transfusion and was introduced by
Oswald H. Robertson at the front line in Belgium in 1917 as the world's first blood bank.
Early life and education
Rous was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles Rous and Frances Anderson ''née'' Wood. He had two younger sisters. His father, a grain broker, died when he was 11 years of age. He studied at the local public schools up to secondary education.
He received a scholarship to
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
from where he obtained a B.A. degree in 1900.
He immediately took up medicine at the
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...
.
While in the second year at the medical school, Rous contracted
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
through his injured finger while performing an autopsy. A tuberculous bone (
axillary tuberculous lymphadenitis) developed in his armpit and was surgically removed. He was given leave from the medical school for recovery. His uncle got him a job as a cowboy at a cattle ranch in Texas, where he worked for a year. He was able to resume his medical course in 1904. Due to the disease, he considered himself as unfit to be a physician, or a "real doctor," for which he focussed his interest in medical research.
He obtained an M.D. degree in 1905.
Career and research
After completing an internship, Rous joined the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
as an instructor of pathology. Alfred Warthin, head of the pathology department, advised him to study German to pursue specialised pathological course in Germany. To earn extra salary, Warthin arranged for him temporary teaching position at the summer school.
He published his first technical paper on white blood cell analysis in the ''Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine'' (now ''
Experimental Biology and Medicine'') in 1906. In 1907, he went to Germany for a training course on morbid anatomy at Friedrichstadt Municipal Hospital (Krankenhaus Dresden-Friedrichstadt) in Dresden
under
Christian Georg Schmorl
Christian Georg Schmorl (2 May 1861 – 14 August 1932) was a German pathologist who was a native of Mügeln in the Kingdom of Saxony.
He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, where in 1892 he obtained his habilitation for forensic me ...
.
On his way home from Germany, he showed symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis and was sent to the
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular ...
in northeastern Upstate New York for recovery.
After his return in 1908, Warthin informed him of a Rockefeller Scholarship for cancer research at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now
Rockefeller University) in New York.
Using the grants, he studied
lymphocytes on which he published a series of papers in 1908.
Simon Flexner
Simon Flexner, M.D. (March 25, 1863 in Louisville, Kentucky – May 2, 1946) was a physician, scientist, administrator, and professor of experimental pathology at the University of Pennsylvania (1899–1903). He served as the first director ...
, director of the Rockefeller Institute and editor of the ''Experimental Biology and Medicine'' which published his papers, recognized his research interest and offered him to lead cancer research at the institute. In 1909, he joined the laboratories as a full-time researcher at Rockefeller.
In 1920, he was appointed Member of the Rockefeller Institute, and became Member Emeritus in 1945, the position he occupied till his death.
Cancer
Rous started his Rockefeller research on the tumors in rodents, and turned to that of chicken (specifically, a
sarcoma
A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal ( connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sar ...
) in the early 1910. A woman brought him a
Plymouth Rock hen which had developed a "large irregularly globular mass" on its left breast two months earlier.
He identified the tumor as a "spindle-celled sarcoma."
After several experiments of attempting to see the effect of the tumor exudate on healthy chicken, he realized that he could induce the same tumour in healthy chickens of the same breed only, so that genetic relatedness was important for the specific tumor.
His first report in May 1910 on spontaneous chicken tumor established the first avian tumor that was transplantable to other individuals. Speculating the medical importance, he noted that "there is no reason to suspect on these points
f growth and transmissionthat the
neoplasm
A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...
will differ from the better-known tumors of mammals."
He continued to maintain and transplant the tumor in different individuals. In 1911, he made a seminal observation that cell-free filtrate (using Berkefeld filter that separate bacteria and large microbes) of chicken sarcoma could produce a malignant tumor when transferred to other chickens,
describing:
A transmissible sarcoma of the chicken has been under observation in this laboratory for the past fourteen months, and it has assumed of late a special interest because of its extreme malignancy and a tendency to wide-spread metastasis... small quantities of a cell-free filtrate have sufficed to transmit the growth to susceptible fowls.
This finding, that cancer could be transmitted by a virus (now known as the
Rous sarcoma virus, a
retrovirus), was widely discredited by most of the field's experts at that time as "utter nonsense" as it was a medically accepted fact that cancer was not an infection.
As recorded by Charles Oberling:
Tumor pathology was then completely under the spell of the German school of pathologic anatomy which, probably as an aftermath of the antagonism between Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...
and udolf Virchow, was utterly opposed to any theory of an infectious origin of cancer. And suddenly, in opposition to all these dignified and bearded ''Herren Professoren'' who firmly believed what they said, rose the voice of a young American who claimed to have transmitted by a cell-free filtrate a neoplasm—a chicken sarcoma. Of course this could not be true, and for years they did not even try to repeat his experiments.
He was even accused of using faulty technique and contaminating the tumor samples with cancer cells.
However, he was convinced that the malignancy was as those of any other cancer cells, the only difference being that it could be produced by a cell-free filtrate of a tumor. Experiments he continued with James B. Murphy and published made conclusive evidences for the cancerous nature of the infection. An experiment they did with W.H. Tytler in 1912 gave the first clue of virus as the filterable agent, but failed to make an exact identification.
Rous continued to work on cancer up to 1915, after which he gave up due to failure to obtain other carcinogenic agents from chicken and mice, and general acceptance of his discovery. After 18 years, he returned to cancer research upon the request of a colleague Richard Shope.
In 1933, Shope had discovered that a skin tumor (
papilloma
A papilloma (plural papillomas or papillomata) ('' papillo-'' + '' -oma'') is a benign epithelial tumor growing exophytically (outwardly projecting) in nipple-like and often finger-like fronds. In this context, papilla refers to the projection c ...
) in
cottontail rabbit
Cottontail rabbits are the leporid species in the genus ''Sylvilagus'', found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteristic name. However, this ...
s was due to a filterable virus, later known as
Shope papilloma virus
The Shope papilloma virus (SPV), also known as cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV) or ''Kappapapillomavirus 2'', is a papillomavirus which infects certain leporids, causing keratinous carcinomas resembling horns, typically on or near the ...
, and showed in 1935 that the virus was transmissible in healthy rabbits. Shope realized the similarity as a cancer agent with Rous's virus and requested Rous for further investigation. Rous obliged and soon reported on the details Shope papilloma virus. From his initial study, he knew that such tumor can "undergo progressive changes in the direction of malignancy when they grow vigorously." His research during the next three decades helped to confirm that viral papilloma can lead to cancers.
The virus nature of the Rous sarcoma was shown by
William Ewart Gye
William Ewart Gye FRS (born William Ewart Bullock; 11 August 1889, Breaston – 14 October 1952) was a British pathologist and cancer researcher.
Career
After a difficult financial struggle, Bullock matriculated at University College, Notti ...
of the
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC);
In 2016, the NIMR b ...
at Hampstead in 1925. The carcinogenic property was widely accepted after the discovery of the
oncogene
An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels. in 1960, the exact gene of which was identified in the 1970s as ''
src.
''
Blood transfusion
The outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
inspired Rous to turn his attention to blood transfusion, as he learned soldiers were dying at the war fronts due to blood loss.
In 1915, he collaborated with Joseph R. Turner to work on the methods of blood transfusion.
That year, they deviced a method for testing blood compatibility to avoid complications in transfusion. Although an Austrian physician
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner (; 14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943) was an Austrian-born American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from ...
had discovered blood types a decade earlier, the practical usage was not yet developed, as Rous described: "The fate of Landsteiner's effort to call attention to the practical bearing of the group differences in human bloods provides an exquisite instance of knowledge marking time on technique. Transfusion was still not done because (until at least 1915), the risk of clotting was too great."
He and Turner also successfully developed a technique for prolonged blood preservation initially by adding gelatine in the blood sample. In 1916, they replaced the additive with a citrate-glucose solution which extended blood storage from one week to two weeks. The use of citrate was the key to the beginning of modern blood transfusion. At the time, blood transfusion was by direct person-to-person so that the preservation method allowed transfusion in the absence of a donor. An English physician
Oswald H. Robertson, serving in the US Army, brought the new technique to Belgium in 1917. It became the world's first blood bank.
Physiology
Rous also made important contributions in the physiology of digestion focussing on the liver and gall bladder.
With Louise D. Larimore, he described the conditions leading to liver damage and the effect on bile secretion. He and Philip D. McMaster worked out the main function of gall bladder as the site of bile concentration. He showed that bile was concentrated by the gallbladder from water as it is released from the liver, and this also helped to the understanding of diseases associated with bile secretions, such as
jaundice and
gallstone
A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of mi ...
formation.
Awards and honors
Rous was elected a
Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1940.
[ He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1958 and the ]National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
in 1965. He was also member of the Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London.
History
The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chamber ...
, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
{{Infobox organization
, name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
, full_name =
, native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
, native_name_lang =
, logo = Royal ...
, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Unive ...
. He was appointed honorary fellow of the Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...
and foreign correspondent of the Académie Nationale de Médecine in Paris. He also received the Kovalenko Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Service Award of the American Cancer Society, the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Prize for Cancer Research, and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...
from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Rous shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
in 1966 with Charles Brenton Huggins
Charles Brenton Huggins (September 22, 1901 – January 12, 1997) was a Canadian-American physician, physiologist and cancer researcher at the University of Chicago specializing in prostate cancer. He was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for Physio ...
"for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses." As early as 1926, Karl Landsteiner had nominated him and subsequently received other 16 nominations up to 1951, but was selected 55 years after his initial discovery at the age of 87, and he is recorded as the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. His remains "the longest 'incubation period' in the 110 years history of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine."
Personal life
Rous married Marion Eckford de Kay in 1915 who survived him by five years and died in 1985. He had three daughters, Marion Marion may refer to:
People
*Marion (given name)
*Marion (surname)
*Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion"
*Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992)
Places Antarctica
* Mario ...
(Marni), Ellen and Phoebe. Marni (1917–2015) was a children's book editor, and the wife of another Nobel Prize winner, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles.
Early life and education
Hodgkin was ...
. Phoebe married Thomas J. Wilson, director of the Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
.
In his later life he wrote biographies of Simon Flexner
Simon Flexner, M.D. (March 25, 1863 in Louisville, Kentucky – May 2, 1946) was a physician, scientist, administrator, and professor of experimental pathology at the University of Pennsylvania (1899–1903). He served as the first director ...
and Karl Landsteiner.
Death
Rous died of abdominal cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...
in New York. His wife died in 1985.
References
Further reading
* Cornwall, Claudia M. Catching cancer : the quest for its viral and bacterial causes. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013.
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Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1963–1970, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rous, Francis Peyton
American virologists
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
American Nobel laureates
Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
Johns Hopkins University alumni
1879 births
1970 deaths
Scientists from Baltimore
National Medal of Science laureates
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Rockefeller University people
Infectious causes of cancer
Cancer researchers