Test Lives Saved

David Cushman
November 15, 1939 – August 14, 2000

Indiana Jones was famous for his abhorrence of snakes. However, the venom of one particularly deadly slitherer from Brazil was made into something useful. The Brazilian pit viper’s venom works as an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. ACE inhibitors help to reduce hypertension and treat cardiovascular problems and kidney disease. David Cushman, along with his associate, Miguel Ondetti, made the discoveries about ACE and the snake venom which led to the drug breakthrough. The resulting drug was dubbed Captopril, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981. Captopril also had the distinction of being produced in a process called “drug design.”. A year before his death in 2000, Cushman was the recipient of the 1999 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award along with Miguel Ondetti. Oh, and honorable mention goes to the pharmacologist who actually handled the snake, and carefully siphoned off the lethal fluid: Sergio Ferreira

Lasker Foundation entry
http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/1999_c_description.htm

Beyond Discovery reference
http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.page.asp?I=101

Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cushman

Gerhard Domagk
1895-1964
Lagow, Brandenburg (a part of modern day Poland)

The daughter of Dr. Gerhard Domagk is especially thankful for her father. She had developed a streptococcus infection on her arm, and faced amputation but, because of her dad’s discovery, she was able to return to full health, arm intact. Dr. Domagk's discovery was sulphanilamide which went by the commercial name of Prontosil. This treatment garnered Dr. Domagk the Nobel Prize, and was the first antibiotic marketed to the public. Dr. Domagk’s research was inspired by his exposure to troop sickness in the first World War, where he saw first hand the devastation that infections visited upon soldiers in the trenches. Unfortunately, Dr. Domagk's country of residence during the 1930s was Germany and it would not allow him to receive the Nobel Prize given in 1939 because the Third Reich was having a dispute with the Nobel Committee, and prohibited German prize winners from acknowledging the honor. Prontosil and like products have since been surpassed by penicillin, but Dr. Domagk nonetheless deserves credit for groundbreaking work in treating infectious diseases. Tuberculosis therapy was also advanced by Dr. Domagk's research.

Nobel Prize site
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1939/domagk-bio.html

Wikipedia reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Domagk

Bayer source
http://www.bayer.com/en/gerhard-domagk.aspx

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James Lind
1716-1794
Edinburgh, Scotland

The old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” has a parallel in the navy: a lemon or lime stops scurvy. In the 1700s, James Lind was an early practitioner of the scientific method whose experiments on methods to stop scurvy led to observations that the Vitamin C in citrus fruits did the trick. While the observation that lemons and limes helped scurvy was already known prior to Lind, the Scotsman, however, conducted a controlled experiment to ascertain just which supplements impacted scurvy directly. Lind arranged for 6 groups of sailors, two men in a group, to use various foods thought to have medicinal benefits, including cider, elixir of vitriol, vinegar, seawater, barley water, and oranges/lemons. The most successful were those who received the oranges and lemons. Unfortunately, Lind's study was opposed by the King of England's surgeon, Sir James Pringle, and since Lind was of Scottish background, his loyalties to the English crown were also suspect at the time. Finally, by the end of the 18th Century the common acceptance of citrus products to combat scurvy become universally accepted.

BBC link
http://www.1) Namebbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lind_james.shtm

Entry from James Lind Library
http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/17th_18th_Century/lind/lind_1753_commentary.html

Wikipedia citation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lind

Dean Kamen
April 5, 1951
Rockville Centre, New York

Do you like Star Wars? Mad magazine? How about a wheelchair that climbs stairs - does that sound like a fascinating piece of equipment? Or, does the prospect of a home built like a hexagon, with secret hallways and long, winding stairs, built around a massive steam engine which was originally owned by Henry Ford, excite you? Does all this sound like something you'd find in Disneyland? Well, think again. All the above is connected to popular inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen is perhaps best known for the Segway, a type of two wheeled electric powered scooter which a person can use to commute around town while standing vertically. Kamen, who's father was an artist for Mad Magazine, also designed the IBOT, a wheelchair that is able to climb stairs. Kamen has created a new kind of artificial arm, called the Luke Arm- after the prosthetic attachment which Luke Skywalker was fitted in the Star Wars trilogy. The Luke Arm provides 18 degrees of freedom (or actions the limb is capable of) - substantially more than the typical 3 degrees of freedom in the standard arm attachment, and close to the 22 degrees of freedom a person experiences with a natural limb. Kamen's architectural wonder of a home is in New Hampshire, and one of the prizes offered to students by Kamen's “For Inspiration and Recognition of Service and Technology” (FIRST) group is a tour of his residence. The prolific inventor has also created devices to assist diabetics via portable insulin pumps, as well as mobile kidney dialysis machines.

MIT link
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kamen.html

Wikipedia reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen

IEEE entry
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/dean-kamens-luke-arm-prosthesis-readies-for-clinical-trials/1

Benjamin Franklin
1706-1790
Boston, Massachusetts

What do lightning rods, the Gulf Stream, and bifocal lenses have in common? All were inventions or discoveries by one of America's premier founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was so prodigious in his various interests that he's been described as a “polymath”, or one who has mastered multiple fields of study. In his later years, in the late 1700s, the Great Philadelphian would complain about having to switch his glasses, one pair used for reading, another for other pursuits. So, Franklin combined both concave and convex segments of glass and pressed them together in one set of lenses. As a result, he was able to see both near and far without having to change his eyewear.

Bifocal Reading-Glasses link
http://bifocalreading-glasses.com/history-of-bifocal-reading-glasses/

Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#cite_note-Engber-0

Clear-Lenses cite
http://www.clear-lenses.com/Articles-2/2421_bifocal_lens_by_benjamin_franklin.htm

Adolf Fick
1852 – 1937
Marburg, Germany

One nice thing about contact lenses is that you never know whether someone is wearing them or not which makes this type of eyewear a fashionable way to correct vision. Those who wear contacts have Adolf Fick to thank. Fick was an ophthalmologist who invented the first pair of such lenses in 1887 in Zurich, Switzerland. He used blown glass, fitted from the eyes of rabbits at first, then human corpses, and finally his own cornea. Fick's work was initially disregarded, helping only a small number of patients who could wear them but for only a few hours. Eventually, though, such corneal spectacles caught on and today, over 125 million persons worldwide wear contact lenses. Fick himself had an interesting life in the military as well, volunteering in both the Franco-Prussian War of the 19th century and World War I in the 20th where he was captured by the French.

Science Museum reference
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/adolfeugenfick.aspx

Andrew Gasson cite
http://www.andrewgasson.co.uk/opioneers_fick.htm

Wikipedia reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_lens

Alfred Knudson, Jr.
1922
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Alfred Knudson, Jr.'s approach to studying cancer is like that of a boxer who throws a “one-two punch.” In Dr. Knudson's case, his term is “two-hit.” In 1971, Knudson advanced the hypothesis that tumors develop following a two step process. Step one is a genetic predisposition toward a form of cancer. Step two occurs when some environmental factor is introduced such as exposure to a dangerous chemical, harmful food consumption, or exposure to damaging radiation. This impacts the damaged gene from step one.. Knudson's research was based on a cancer found in the eye called retinoblastoma. In fact, he named the gene with this trait RB1. Knudson's conclusions initially involved intricate math formulas, and his study was rejected by the larger scientific community when published. Eventually though, in 1976, subsequent review identified that those patients who suffered from retinoblastoma lacked a portion of Chromosome 13. An important aspect of Knudson's discoveries identified genes that suppressed cancer, acting to stop other cells from becoming tumors. Knudson received a number of distinguished awards for his contributions, such as the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1998 and the 1999 John Scott Award from the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA.

Lasker Foundation reference
http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/1998_c_description.htm

Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_G._Knudson

FCCC link
http://www.fccc.edu/news/knudson/bio.html

Earle Dickson
October 10, 1892- September 21,1961

The Boy Scouts Motto is “Be Prepared”, and on any hike, you can be sure the troop has a first aid kit, which includes a product we're all familiar with - Band-Aids. What is less known is that the Scouts were the group which popularized the use of Band-Aids back in the 1920s. The bandage product was provided, at no cost, to the Boy Scouts of America by Johnson & Johnson in order to publicize their new product. Johnson & Johnson was the company that Earle Dickson worked for, and it was Dickson who invented this commonly used topical adhesive back in 1921. Dickson's wife Josephine would cut herself repeatedly while cooking, so Dickson fashioned a covering using gauze attached to tape, and covered with a piece of cloth called crinoline. The Band-Aid, a registered trademark, has now become an widespread feature of any medical process. Indeed, Band-Aids are the McDonald's of first aid, with 100 billion having been produced. As for Earle Dickson, he was rewarded for his efforts by a promotion to Vice President at Johnson & Johnson.

Inventors about website
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/bandaid.htm

MIT link
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/dickson.html

Bandaid.com reference
http://www.bandaid.com/brandHeritage.jsp