Seymour Herbert Hutner (1911–2003) was a microbiologist specializing in the nutritional biochemistry of

protist A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the exc ...

s (protozoa and algae). Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1911, he obtained a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1931 and a Ph.D. at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1937, where he worked with the Nobel laureate James B. Sumner. In 1936 he published a paper showing that the photosynthetic flagellate

Euglena ''Euglena'' is a genus of single cell flagellate eukaryotes. It is the best known and most widely studied member of the class Euglenoidea, a diverse group containing some 54 genera and at least 200 species. Species of ''Euglena'' are found in f ...

had a nutritional requirement for a substance extracted from animal tissue. At that time this was considered to be improbable and the paper was rejected by several American journals before eventually being published in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

.Hutner, S.H. 1936. The nutritional requirements of two species of Euglena. ''Arch. Protistenkunde'' 88, 93-106. Years later it was discovered that the required factor was

vitamin B12 Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism. It is one of eight B vitamins. It is required by animals, which use it as a cofactor in DNA synthesis, in both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism. ...

, or cyanocobalamin. He developed a nutritional assay method for vitamin B12 using Euglena that was used for many years in hospitals to test for B12 levels in blood, eventually being replaced by other methodsHutner, S.H. Provasoli, L., Stokstad, E.L., Haffman, C.E., Bell, M., Franklin, A.L., Jukes, T.H. 1949. Assay of anti-pernicious anemia factor with Euglena. ''Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med.'' 70, 118-120. After graduating from Cornell, he joined an independent research laboratory, the

Haskins Laboratories Haskins Laboratories, Inc. is an independent 501(c) non-profit corporation, founded in 1935 and located in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1970. Haskins has formal affiliation agreements with both Yale University and the University of Connecticut; ...

founded by the physicist Franklin Cooper and the entomologist and geneticist Caryl Haskins. Initially this was based in Massachusetts, near M.I.T., but then it moved to a building on East 43rd Street in New York City, where Hutner was joined by a newly arrived Italian scientist,

Luigi Provasoli Luigi Provasoli (1908 – 30 October 1992) was an Italian phycologist, professor, and expert on the nutrition, physiology, and cultivation of algae, protozoa, and invertebrates. Career Provasoli attended the University of Milan and earned hi ...

, who had spent time in the laboratory of Andre Lwoff in Paris. In New York, during the 1940s through the 1960s, Haskins Labs became known for studies of protistan nutrition and the development of culture media and culture assay methods. Hutner was one of the first to appreciate the importance of organic complexing agents in trace metal nutrition of cells . This had significant implications for the development of culture media and also in the understanding of microbial ecology.Hutner, S.H., Provasoli, L. Schatz, A. Haskins C.P. 1950 Some approaches to the study of the role of metals in the metabolism of microorganisms. ''Proc. Am. Phil Soc''. 94, 152-170 With his colleague Luigi Provasoli he showed that photosynthetic organisms could be ‘bleached’ by the antibiotic

streptomycin Streptomycin is an antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, ''Mycobacterium avium'' complex, endocarditis, brucellosis, ''Burkholderia'' infection, plague, tularemia, and rat bite fever. F ...

– an early clue of the endosymbiotic hypothesis about the origin of chloroplasts from a prokaryotic ancestor.Provasoli, L., Hutner, S.H., Schatz, A. 1948. Streptomycin-induced chlorophyll-less races of Euglena.'' Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med.'' 69, 279-282 At 43rd St., Hutner became known for nurturing young students at a time when this was not a typical pattern, and the lab served as an incubator for many talented high school and undergraduate students. Some went on to become productive scientists, including the two Nobel laureates,

Joshua Lederberg Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

and

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technol ...

. While full-time at the lab, Hutner also spent several years on the faculties of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and Fordham University in this period. He also edited, with Lwoff (and later in a second edition with Michael Levandowsky), a multivolume compendium, the ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', that was for many years a standard reference;Lwoff, A. (Ed.) 1951. ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', 1st Ed., Vol. 1. Academic Press, N.Y.Hutner,S.H., Lwoff, A. (Eds.) 1955. ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', 1st Ed., Vol. 2. Academic Press, NYHutner, S.H. (Ed). Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa 1st Ed., Vol. 3, Academic Press, N.Y.Levandowsky, M., Hutner, S.H. (Eds.) 1979-1981. ''Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa'', 2nd Ed., Vols. 1-4. Academic Press, N.Y. In 1970 the lab was required to leave its quarters at 43rd St. Cooper and Provasoli went to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, but Hutner preferred to remain in New York and moved his part of the lab to

Pace University Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pace ...

in Lower Manhattan, where he became a professor. Cooper developed the New Haven lab into an institute for the study of speech, language, and reading. It remains today an independently chartered

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

under the name of

, while maintaining close ties with Yale University and University of Connecticut. In New York, Hutner's component, focused on microbiological research, has become a department of Pace University and is also named Haskins Laboratories, but the two identically named laboratories no longer have formal ties. At Pace the lab became a center for metabolic studies of protistan parasites, as well as studies of behavioral ecology and sensory physiology of free-living protists. Under the leadership of Hutner's student, Cyrus Bacchi, the former led to development of the antiparasitic drug

eflornithine Eflornithine, sold under the brand name Vaniqa among others, is a medication used to treat African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and excessive hair growth on the face in women. Specifically it is used for the 2nd stage of sleeping sickness ...

(alpha-difluoromethylornithine),Bacchi, C.J., Nathan, H.C., Hutner, S.H., McCann, P.P., Sjoerdsma, A. 1980. Polyamine metabolism: a potential chemotherapeutic target in trypanosomes. ''

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 ...

'' 210, 323-334 widely used today against African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Work on antiparasitic drugs continues today under the direction of Nigel Yarlett. Hutner was a founding member of the Society of Protozoologists (now the International Society of Protistologists) serving as its president in 1961-2, and was for many years on the editorial board of the Journal of Protozoology (now the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology). In 1977 an issue of the journal was dedicated to him.Levandowsky, M. (Ed.) 1977. A collection of papers dedicated to Seymour H. Hutner. J. Protozool. 24 (4) He died in 2003 after a long illness; an obituary appeared in the '' Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology''Lee, John J. and M. Levandowsky 2003. "In Memoriam: Seymour H. Hutner (1911-2003)." ''J. Eukaryotic Microbiology'' 50, 305- 6.

Personal life

In 1956, he married the medical mycologist Margarita Silva.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutner, Seymour Haskins Laboratories scientists 1911 births 2003 deaths Scientists from Brooklyn American microbiologists City College of New York alumni Cornell University alumni Scientists from New York (state)