Ross Granville Harrison (January 13, 1870 – September 30, 1959) was an American biologist and anatomist credited for his pioneering work on animal
tissue culture
Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, su ...
. His work also contributed to the understanding of embryonic development. Harrison studied in many places around the world and made a career as a university professor. He was also a member of many learned societies and received several awards for his contributions to anatomy and biology.
Education
Harrison received his early schooling in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, where his family had moved from
Germantown, Philadelphia
Germantown (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscheschteddel'') is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about ...
. Announcing in his mid teens a resolve to study medicine, he entered
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in 1886, receiving his BA degree in 1889 at the age of nineteen. In 1890, he worked as a laboratory assistant for the United States Fish Commission in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
studying the embryology of the oyster with his close friend
E. G. Conklin and
H. V. Wilson.
In 1891, he participated in a marine zoology field trip to the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory
in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
. Attracted to the work of
Moritz Nussbaum, he worked in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
during 1892-1893, 1895-1896, and 1898 and became an M.D. there in 1899. Harrison gained his Ph.D. in 1894 after courses in physiology with
H. Newell Martin
Henry Newell Martin, FRS (1 July 1848 – 27 October 1896) was a British physiologist and vivisection activist.
Biography
He was born in Newry, County Down, the son of Henry Martin, a Congregational minister. He was educated at University Co ...
and morphology with
William Keith Brooks
William Keith Brooks (March 25, 1848 – November 12, 1908) was an American zoologist, born in Cleveland, Ohio, March 25, 1848. Brooks studied embryological development in invertebrates and founded a marine biological laboratory where he and ot ...
. He devoted study to mathematics, astronomy and also the Latin and Greek classics.
Career
Between his studies in Bonn, Harrison taught morphology at
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
with
T. H. Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role tha ...
from 1894-1895. He was an instructor at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
from 1896-1897 and became an associate at the university from 1897-1899.
From 1899 until 1907, he was the Associate Professor of Anatomy, teaching histology and embryology. By this time he had contributed more than twenty papers and made the acquaintance of many leading biologists. His work on tissue culture became very influential.
He then moved to New Haven to take up a post at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, where he was Bronson Professor of Comparative Anatomy. He was made chair of zoology department in 1912,
participating through to 1913 in a revitalisation and re-organisation of the several faculties of which he became a member. He undertook further studies at the United States Fish Commission in the early years of the century. In 1913 he was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences
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 the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
. Harrison was instrumental in the 1913 opening of the university laboratory, Osborn Memorial Laboratory, and served as its director beginning in 1918. In 1914, Harrison was the Medical School's chief advisor on staffing. He was made the Sterling Professor of Biology in 1927 and kept these three titles until his retirement in 1938, when he was made Yale's Professor Emeritus.
Other pursuits
Harrison pursued many things outside of his work in university. From 1904-1946, Harrison was the managing editor of the ''Journal of Experimental Zoology''. He served in the American Society of Anatomists from 1912-1914, and joined the
American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...
in 1913. In 1924, Harrison joined the American Society of Zoologists and in 1933, he joined the Beaumont Medical Club. He was a member of Anatomische Gesellschaft ("Anatomical Society" in German) from 1934-1935 and became chair of section F for the
American Association for 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 ...
in 1936.
After his retirement from Yale, he was called upon several times as an advisor to the U.S. government and his organisational skills were of paramount importance in establishing links between scientists, the government, and the media. He was Chairman of the National Research Council from 1938-1946 and worked to help people with difficulties obtaining medicines such as penicillin.
He was a member of the Science Committee of the National Resources Planning Board in 1938, and chairman of the Committee on Civil Service Improvement and a member of the Sixth Pacific Science Congress in 1939.
He was awarded many prizes, such as the John Scott Medal and Premium of the City of Philadelphia in 1925 and the John J. Carty Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1947.
He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as
Society for Science & the Public
Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including ...
, from 1938–1956. From 1946-1947, Harrison was a member of the Society for the Study of Development and Growth.
Harrison gave a
Croonian Lecture
The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.
Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow a single l ...
in 1933: ''The origin and development of the nervous system studied by the methods of experimental embryology''. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1940. He gave the 1948-49
Silliman Memorial Lecture
The Silliman Memorial lectures series has been published by Yale University since 1901. The lectures were established by the university on the foundation of a bequest of $80,000, left in 1883 by Augustus Ely Silliman, in memory of his mother, Mrs. ...
: ''Organization and Development of the Embryo'', published posthumously in 1969.
Studies in embryology
Harrison successfully cultured frog
neuroblast
In vertebrates, a neuroblast or primitive nerve cell is a postmitotic cell that does not divide further, and which will develop into a neuron after a migration phase. In invertebrates such as ''Drosophila,'' neuroblasts are neural progenitor cells ...
s in a
lymph
Lymph (from Latin, , meaning "water") is the fluid that flows through the lymphatic system, a system composed of lymph vessels (channels) and intervening lymph nodes whose function, like the venous system, is to return fluid from the tissues to ...
medium, proving that nerve fibers develop without a preexisting bridge or chain and that tissues can be grown outside of the body. He published the results of his studies in 1907. This part of Harrison's research was the first step toward current research on precursor and
stem cells
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
. While Harrison himself didn't develop this area of research any further, he encouraged others to.
He was considered for a Nobel prize for his work on nerve-cell outgrowth, which helped form the modern functional understanding of the nervous system, and he contributed to surgical tissue transplant technique.
During the first world war, Harrison studied embryology and the symmetries of development. By means of the dissection of embryos followed by transplantation and rotation of the limb bud he demonstrated that the main axes of the developing limb are determined independently and at slightly different times, determination of the anteroposterior (anterior-posterior) axis preceding that of the dorsoventral (dorsal-ventral) axis. Harrison dissected
''Ambystoma puncatatum'' (salamander) embryos and transplanted limb buds to determine whether the limbs developed independently or according to instructions from host cells. When the limb buds were transplanted in halves or doubled, they still developed into normal limbs. Harrison concluded that the information from the host (the surrounding embryo cells) directed the cells to develop normally even though they were transplanted in halves or doubles. Therefore, the limb buds were all equipotential, meaning they all developed the same way, and the tissue around the limb buds determined their dorsoventral orientation. However, when a left limb was put on the right side of the body, a left limb grew anyway despite its relocation. The same pattern occurred when a right disk was placed on the left side of the body—a right limb grew. Harrison also transplanted inverted limbs. When a left disk was inverted, it grew a right limb (and vice versa). Harrison then concluded by this data that the buds determined anteroposterior orientation independent of the surrounding host tissue. Harrison's research lead him to assume that the development of limbs is not determined exclusively by the limb buds or by the environment, but that both of these factors influence how an embryo develops.
Harrison published the results of this study in 1921 in the ''Journal of Experimental Zoology'' in a paper titled "On relations of symmetry in transplanted limbs"''.''
Personal life
Harrison married Ida Lange (1874-1967) in Altona, Germany on January 9, 1896 and they had a family of five children. One of them is the cartographer
Richard Edes Harrison
Richard Edes Harrison (March 11, 1901 – January 5, 1994) was an American scientific illustrator and cartographer. He was the house cartographer of ''Fortune'' and a consultant at ''Life'' for almost two decades. He played a key role in "challen ...
.
The first world war was not a happy time for Harrison, with his pacifist leanings and his German wife and studies, but he persevered with embryology, working upon the symmetries of development.
Although a keen morphogeneticist and an admirer of
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
, Harrison himself did not philosophise much in his papers and, being somewhat reserved and diffident in his social dealings despite his warm feelings for his students' attainment, did not enjoy lecturing but chiefly confined himself to organisation, publication (his textbook illustrations have been highly praised) and patient experiment. He remained a keen walker all his life and is presumed to have died in New Haven.
See also
*
Alexander Gurwitsch
Alexander Gavrilovich Gurwitsch (also Gurvich, Gurvitch; russian: Алекса́ндр Гаври́лович Гу́рвич; 1874–1954) was a Russian and Soviet biologist and medical scientist who originated the morphogenetic field theory and di ...
*
Hans Spemann
Hans Spemann (; 27 June 1869 – 9 September 1941) was a German embryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his student Hilde Mangold's discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, e ...
*
Paul Alfred Weiss
Paul Alfred Weiss (March 21, 1898 – September 8, 1989) was an Austrian biologist who specialised in morphogenesis, development, differentiation and neurobiology. A teacher, experimenter and theorist, he made a lasting contribution to science ...
References
External links
Ross Granville Harrison papers (MS 263) Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Ross Granville
1870 births
1959 deaths
American anatomists
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
United States Fish Commission personnel
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Yale School of Medicine faculty
Yale Sterling Professors
Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala