TY - JOUR
T1 - Bert vallee—a 20th century adventure(R) in zincology
AU - Jacob, Claus
AU - Abdin, Ahmad Yaman
AU - Köhler, Frederieke
AU - Maret, Wolfgang
N1 - Funding Information:
Saarbrücken, Germany, the COST Action NutRedOx‐CA16112 supported by COST (European Co‐ operation in Science and Technology), the “Landesforschungsförderungsprogramm” of the State of Saarland (Grant No. WT/2—LFFP16/01) and the support of the Erasmus + program of the European Union, Saarland University (SAARBRU01).
Funding Information:
Funding: The authors acknowledge the “London Metallomics Facility” funded by the Welcome Trust (grant reference 202902/Z/16/Z) and King’s College London, and the project EFSA‐CDN (No.CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000841). Further we would like to thank the Saarland University,
Funding Information:
During the first years of his studies and scientific career, Bert was affected and driven by political developments, first in Europe and then also in the U.S., a situation he acknowl‐ edges in his letters. In subsequent years, another external societal factor became a similarly important driving force in his career, namely economics. Today, outside funding from agencies or companies at universities is commonplace. In the 1950s, striking substantial financial deals with industry had been highly unconventional, something frowned upon, and only attempted by persons thinking outside the box. In his own words, Bert Vallee has been such a “Querdenker”, a lateral thinker able to identify and then also follow ave‐ nues off the trodden path and not immediately apparent to his contemporaries. Indeed, Bert forged large alliances with private donors. He was successful in per‐ suading the giant American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company Mon‐ santo into backing his research on angiogenesis. This particular research grant from the 1970s added to millions of U.S. dollars, led to a major expansion in terms of facilities and equipment, and eventually, in 1985, cumulated in the isolation, characterisation, and se‐ quencing of the first human organogenic factor, the blood vessel‐inducing, tumour‐de‐ rived protein angiogenin [14–16]. Moreover, thanks to substantial funding from the Sam‐ uel Bronfman Foundation, the Endowment for Research in Human Biology was estab‐ lished. The initial funding was tax‐free, topped over USD 5 million, and was allocated to investigate the more practical applications of zinc, for example in human alcohol dehy‐ drogenases, and possible links to the treatment of alcoholism. In the subsequent years, another USD 10 million were granted, eventually necessitating the expansion of Bert’s laboratory, which changed its name from the Biophysics Research Laboratory into the Centre for Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences and Medicine (CBBSM), with laborato‐ ries at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital [7]. The name reflects the wide interests of Bert in the biomedical sciences. It would be safe to say that Bert Vallee had a vision, was a first‐class negotiator, and profoundly understood the role finance played as a driver of science and scientific discovery. In his well‐equipped laboratory, Bert focused on a biochemistry component, i.e., en‐ zyme mechanisms and zinc biology, a biophysics component, i.e., spectroscopy and ki‐ netics, and a medicine component which was a reminder of his training as a physician. The overarching goals of his research were ensuring that it was translational, perhaps as a homage to belonging to a medical school, Harvard Medical School. In the 1980s, the centre employed 70 staff. It had all the necessary facilities to be self‐ sufficient, namely instrumentation for metal analyses and biophysical measurements, protein and nucleic acid sequencing, cell culture and animal facilities, and a library with a significant number of key journals. The staff structure included other professors at the three academic levels, all under his tutelage, almost exclusively postdoctoral scientists from all over the world, technicians, administrators, and secretaries. The expansion of the work established him in many additional areas, such as alcohol research, specifically the enzymology of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases, the molecular and kinetic mecha‐ nisms of zinc proteases, in particular carboxypeptidase, and developmental biology with the description of angiogenin and the physiological function of zinc in cell biology. High‐ lights in the order of these areas include the isolation and characterization of the multiple members of the human alcohol dehydrogenase family, made possible by the invention of a ternary complex affinity chromatography; the isolation of an aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor from a traditional Chinese medicine, suppressing alcohol drinking in animal models; the isolation of angiogenin, triggering blood vessel formation (angiogenesis), which turned out to be a ribonuclease and expanded work into the enzymology of these enzymes and the molecular characterization of the placental ribonuclease inhibitor; zinc biology by using the model organisms Euglena gracilis and Xenopus laevis; and showing the essential role of zinc in cell proliferation and in the cell cycle. Credit is due not only to the perma‐
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - Bert Lester Vallee (1919–2019) has been among the most important biochemists of the 20th century, a pioneer in metalloproteins and discoverer of numerous zinc proteins and enzymes, such as carboxypeptidase, alcohol dehydrogenases and metallothioneins. His scientific achievements are condensed in over 600 publications, and articles relying on and citing his research are suited to fill entire bookshelves. Although Bert Vallee, as a scientist, has left a significant legacy on science, his more personal side and encounters have mostly escaped public observation. We deem this oversight rather unfortunate, as his personality, and indeed personal circumstances, have been truly turbulent and must have influenced his scientific career, from his birth as Bertold Blumenthal in the small village of Hemer in post‐World War I Germany via Switzerland to New York and then Boston. To-gether with public records, the less obvious attributes and actions recommend a more holistic biog-raphy. On the occasion of Bert Vallee’s 100th birthday in 2019, we have attempted to provide such an inclusive and rounded résumé. We also propose that a similar rounded approach will add additional layers to the biographies of contemporary scientists, considering social, economic, political, and historical environments and their mutual interactions, which tend to shape the scientist embed-ded in them.
AB - Bert Lester Vallee (1919–2019) has been among the most important biochemists of the 20th century, a pioneer in metalloproteins and discoverer of numerous zinc proteins and enzymes, such as carboxypeptidase, alcohol dehydrogenases and metallothioneins. His scientific achievements are condensed in over 600 publications, and articles relying on and citing his research are suited to fill entire bookshelves. Although Bert Vallee, as a scientist, has left a significant legacy on science, his more personal side and encounters have mostly escaped public observation. We deem this oversight rather unfortunate, as his personality, and indeed personal circumstances, have been truly turbulent and must have influenced his scientific career, from his birth as Bertold Blumenthal in the small village of Hemer in post‐World War I Germany via Switzerland to New York and then Boston. To-gether with public records, the less obvious attributes and actions recommend a more holistic biog-raphy. On the occasion of Bert Vallee’s 100th birthday in 2019, we have attempted to provide such an inclusive and rounded résumé. We also propose that a similar rounded approach will add additional layers to the biographies of contemporary scientists, considering social, economic, political, and historical environments and their mutual interactions, which tend to shape the scientist embed-ded in them.
KW - Angiogenin
KW - Biochemistry
KW - Biography
KW - Metallothionein
KW - Sulfur
KW - Zinc
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120931885&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijms222413393
DO - 10.3390/ijms222413393
M3 - Editorial
AN - SCOPUS:85120931885
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 22
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 24
M1 - 13393
ER -