Robert Gordon Webster (born 5 July 1932 in
Balclutha, New Zealand) is an
avian influenza
Avian influenza, known informally as avian flu or bird flu, is a variety of influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds. authority who correctly posited that
pandemic
A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...
strains of
flu
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...
arise from genes in flu virus strains in nonhumans; for example, via a reassortment of
genetic segments (
antigenic shift
Antigenic shift is the process by which two or more different strains of a virus, or strains of two or more different viruses, combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two or more original strains. The term is ...
) between
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 Ivanovsky's 1 ...
es in humans and nonhumans (especially
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s) rather than by
mutation
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 ...
s (
antigenic drift
Antigenic drift is a kind of genetic variation in viruses, arising from the accumulation of mutations in the virus genes that code for virus-surface proteins that host antibodies recognize. This results in a new strain of virus particles that is ...
) in annual
human flu
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
strains.
Background
Robert Webster grew up on a New Zealand farm,
["The Flu Hunter" Rosenwald, Michael. ''Smithsonian. '' January 2006. Page 36.] and studied microbiology on leaving school, gaining his
BSc
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
from
University of Otago, New Zealand in 1955, his
MSc at the same university in 1957, and his
PhD from the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
,
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, in 1962.
He worked as a virologist with the New Zealand Department of Agriculture in 1958 - 1959 before being appointed research fellow at the Department of Microbiology at ANU's John Curtin Medical School, for 1964 - 1966. He moved to
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in 1969 where he became a member of both the Department of Microbiology and the Department of Immunology at the
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, a city where he has lived ever since and has held many research posts.
Accomplishments
Robert G. Webster holds the Rose Marie Thomas Chair in Virology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is also director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on the Ecology of Influenza Viruses in Lower Animals and Birds, the world's only laboratory designed to study influenza at the animal-human interface. He is 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 science, natural knowledge, incl ...
of London, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. In December 2002, he was presented with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Diseases Research.
Webster has been awarded membership of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
, and has been named a fellow of both the
Royal Societies of New Zealand and London. He is also a member of the
American Society for Microbiology
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It ...
,
American Society for Virology
The American Society for Virology (ASV) is an American scientific society serving the community of researchers in virology. The organization was founded in 1981 and was the first scientific society in the world dedicated exclusively to virology.
F ...
, and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He heads the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
(WHO)
collaborating laboratory on animal influenza.
Work on general influenza
Webster's major discoveries relating to influenza include the likelihood that avians were most likely the culprit in other flu outbreaks. His work is also responsible for the method of human influenza vaccination that is commonly used. Before Webster and his colleagues separated the influenza virus into different particles, the entire influenza virus was injected into a patient as a vaccine - now, only certain parts of the virus are necessary to create the same response, lessening side effects of the vaccine.
H5N1 Work
Webster's work with the avian flu can be said to have sprung from a beach walk with fellow researcher Graeme Laver, on which the men noticed a large number of birds dead along the shoreline. Webster wondered whether it was possible that the birds had died from the avian flu, and subsequently traveled to an island to take samples from hundreds of birds. This led to more trips, and eventually Webster discovered a link between the avian flu and the human flu. This link meant one thing to Webster: that it is possible for the avian and human viruses to combine, creating a new virus that humans would have no antibodies to.
In an interview with NBC, he said that when he first reestablished there was a link, few paid attention to what he saw as a great danger. He was quoted as recalling that "The veterinarians said, 'Not a problem.' The medical people said, 'Not a problem.'" However, Webster theorizes that the only event that has to occur to begin a flu pandemic is the mixing of avian and human flu strains in the same mammalian cell - most likely in a pig. Pigs are similar enough in genetic makeup to humans that they are susceptible to the human flu; also, in many areas, pigs come in close contact with chickens or ducks, making it likely that they will catch the avian flu.
Another danger that Webster has uncovered is the duck. Ducks, while capable of catching and transmitting the avian flu virus through contact with chickens, seldom sicken and die from the exposure. Being alive and quite healthy, the ducks are then capable of spreading the virus to other areas.
Honors and awards
* 1989 Fellow of the Royal Society
* 2010 Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Lecture Prize
Sources
Further reading
Dr. Robert G. Webster@
St. Jude Children's Research HospitalVIDEO: Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own HatchingMichael Greger, MD, speaks at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The ISI CV on Dr Webster*
ttp://www.terradaily.com/news/epidemics-05zzzw.html News article: Experts fear bird flu in Africabr>
St. JudeRobert G. Webster, PhD - Member, St. Jude Faculty - Rose Marie Thomas Chair
*
ttp://www.americanscientist.org/template/AuthorDetail/authorid/21;jsessionid=aaa4KxL1uKYE6 American Scientistshort bio
UVMWebster is director, World Health Organization Collaborating Center on the Ecology of Influenza Viruses in Lower Animals and Birds Professor of Excellence, University of Hong-Kong
Selected publications by Robert Webster
article ''Influenza: An Emerging Disease'' published in Emerging Infectious Diseases - vol. 4 no. 3 - July September 1998
Journal of Virology, July 2000, p. 6309-6315, Vol. 74, No. 14article ''Characterization of the Influenza A Virus Gene Pool in Avian Species in Southern China: Was
H6N1 a Derivative or a Precursor of H5N1?''
Science Magarticle ''Perspectives:VIROLOGY:Enhanced: A Molecular Whodunit'' - in Science - 7 September 2001 - 1773-1775
American Scientistarticle ''The world is teetering on the edge of a pandemic that could kill a large fraction of the human population'' in 2003
articles ''H5N1 Outbreaks and Enzootic Influenza'' published in Emerging Infectious Diseases - vol. 12 no. 01 - January 2006
PNASarticle ''Establishment of multiple sublineages of H5N1 influenza virus in Asia: Implications for pandemic control'' published online before print 10 February 2006, 10.1073/pnas.0511120103 - PNAS - 21 February 2006 - vol. 103 - no. 8 - 2845-2850
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Robert
New Zealand biologists
New Zealand emigrants to the United States
American virologists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
1932 births
Living people
University of Otago alumni
Australian National University alumni
Influenza researchers
New Zealand Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Balclutha, New Zealand
20th-century New Zealand scientists