C. C. Little
Encyclopedia
Clarence Cook "C.C." Little (October 6, 1888 – December 22, 1971) was an American
genetics
, cancer
, and tobacco
researcher and academic administrator.
and attended Harvard University
after his secondary education at the Noble and Greenough School
. While studying under W. E. Castle, Little began his work with mice
, focused on inheritance, transplants, and grafts. He also was an assistant dean and secretary to the president. His most important research occurred at Harvard, including what some call his most brilliant work, "A Mendelian
explanation for the inheritance of a trait that has apparently non-Mendelian characteristics". His observations on transplant rejection became codified into the "five laws of transplant immunology" by George Snell
. Little developed the "DBA (Dilute, Brown and non-Agouti)" strain
of mice while at Harvard. For his research, he received the 1978 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award
.
During World War I
Little served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, attaining the rank of Major. Following the war he spent three years at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
. In 1921 he helped found the American Birth Control League
with Margaret Sanger
and Lothrop Stoddard
.
Little accepted the post of President of the University of Maine
in 1922, becoming at age 33 the youngest university president in the country. While there he started a summer laboratory in Bar Harbor
. In 1925 he left to become the President of the University of Michigan
. His tenure at the university was controversial due to his outspokenness in favor of eugenics
, birth control
, and euthanasia
. He left Michigan in 1929 in order to devote himself to his research at Bar Harbor. With funding from Detroit car manufacturers he was able to improve the facility for year-round use. He renamed it the "Jackson Laboratory" in honor of one donor, Roscoe B. Jackson of the Hudson Motor Car Corporation, who died in Mentone, France from influenza. Also in 1929 he took on a part-time job as managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer (later became the American Cancer Society
(ACS)) and served as President to the American Eugenics Society
.
Funding for the Jackson Laboratory
was extremely limited during the Great Depression
, but it received one of the first grants from the newly formed National Cancer Institute
in 1938. Little energetically developed both the lab and the ACS, and by 1944 they were shipping 9000 mice a week to other laboratories. A brush fire destroyed the laboratory and all of the livestock in 1947, but it was quickly rebuilt and most mouse strains were recovered from other labs around the world. By 1950 the lab was maintaining 60 inbred strains, and had developed the F1 hybrid that became widely used for chemical testing. Little resigned in 1954.
His last major post, from 1954 to 1969, was as the Scientific Director of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (renamed Council for Tobacco Research in 1964). In that role he was a leading scientific voice of the tobacco industry
and oversaw a USD 1 million research budget that gave grants to hundreds of scientists. http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_pm/22809.html#imageshttp://tobaccodocuments.org/tplp/ATMXPRIV0009047-9049.html#images In 1959 he refuted his earlier assertion, made as Director of the ACS, that inhaling fine particles is unhealthy, and stated that smoking does not cause lung cancer and is at most a minor contributing factor. http://tobaccodocuments.org/tplp/ATMXPRIV00013038-3041.html#images. A decade later he said, "there is no demonstrated causal relationship between smoking or any disease."http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_s1/TI55842608.html In keeping with his earlier research he believed that the main cause of cancer was genetic, not environmental.
He died of a heart attack
in 1971 at the age of 83.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
researcher and academic administrator.
Biography
He was born in Brookline, MassachusettsBrookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
and attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
after his secondary education at the Noble and Greenough School
Noble and Greenough School
The Noble and Greenough School, commonly known as Nobles, is a coeducational, nonsectarian day and boarding school for students in grades seven through twelve. It is located on a campus in Dedham, Massachusetts. The current enrollment of 550 students includes a balance of boys and girls, of whom...
. While studying under W. E. Castle, Little began his work with mice
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
, focused on inheritance, transplants, and grafts. He also was an assistant dean and secretary to the president. His most important research occurred at Harvard, including what some call his most brilliant work, "A Mendelian
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
explanation for the inheritance of a trait that has apparently non-Mendelian characteristics". His observations on transplant rejection became codified into the "five laws of transplant immunology" by George Snell
George Davis Snell
George Davis Snell was an American mouse geneticist and basic transplant immunologist.-Work:George Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Baruj Benacerraf and Jean Dausset for their discoveries concerning "genetically determined structures on the cell surface that...
. Little developed the "DBA (Dilute, Brown and non-Agouti)" strain
Strain (biology)
In biology, a strain is a low-level taxonomic rank used in three related ways.-Microbiology and virology:A strain is a genetic variant or subtype of a micro-organism . For example, a "flu strain" is a certain biological form of the influenza or "flu" virus...
of mice while at Harvard. For his research, he received the 1978 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award
William B. Coley Award
The William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology is presented annually by the Cancer Research Institute, Inc., to scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of basic and tumor immunology and whose work has deepened our understanding of the...
.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Little served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, attaining the rank of Major. Following the war he spent three years at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
. In 1921 he helped found the American Birth Control League
American Birth Control League
The American Birth Control League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. The League was incorporated under the laws of New York State on April 5, 1922. Its headquarters were located at 104 Fifth Avenue, New York City from 1921–30 and...
with Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
and Lothrop Stoddard
Lothrop Stoddard
Theodore Lothrop Stoddard was an American historian, journalist, racial anthropologist, eugenicist, political theorist and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of books which are cited by historians as prominent examples of early 20th-century scientific racism.- Biography :Stoddard was...
.
Little accepted the post of President of the University of Maine
University of Maine
The University of Maine is a public research university located in Orono, Maine, United States. The university was established in 1865 as a land grant college and is referred to as the flagship university of the University of Maine System...
in 1922, becoming at age 33 the youngest university president in the country. While there he started a summer laboratory in Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population is 5,235. Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. It is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island...
. In 1925 he left to become the President of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. His tenure at the university was controversial due to his outspokenness in favor of eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
, birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
, and euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
. He left Michigan in 1929 in order to devote himself to his research at Bar Harbor. With funding from Detroit car manufacturers he was able to improve the facility for year-round use. He renamed it the "Jackson Laboratory" in honor of one donor, Roscoe B. Jackson of the Hudson Motor Car Corporation, who died in Mentone, France from influenza. Also in 1929 he took on a part-time job as managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer (later became the American Cancer Society
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
(ACS)) and served as President to the American Eugenics Society
American Eugenics Society
The American Eugenics Society was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics in the United States.It was the result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics . The founders included Madison Grant, Harry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Henry Crampton...
.
Funding for the Jackson Laboratory
Jackson Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory was founded in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1929 by former University of Maine and University of Michigan president C. C. Little under the name Roscoe B...
was extremely limited during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, but it received one of the first grants from the newly formed National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
in 1938. Little energetically developed both the lab and the ACS, and by 1944 they were shipping 9000 mice a week to other laboratories. A brush fire destroyed the laboratory and all of the livestock in 1947, but it was quickly rebuilt and most mouse strains were recovered from other labs around the world. By 1950 the lab was maintaining 60 inbred strains, and had developed the F1 hybrid that became widely used for chemical testing. Little resigned in 1954.
His last major post, from 1954 to 1969, was as the Scientific Director of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (renamed Council for Tobacco Research in 1964). In that role he was a leading scientific voice of the tobacco industry
Tobacco industry
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it can be farmed on all...
and oversaw a USD 1 million research budget that gave grants to hundreds of scientists. http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_pm/22809.html#imageshttp://tobaccodocuments.org/tplp/ATMXPRIV0009047-9049.html#images In 1959 he refuted his earlier assertion, made as Director of the ACS, that inhaling fine particles is unhealthy, and stated that smoking does not cause lung cancer and is at most a minor contributing factor. http://tobaccodocuments.org/tplp/ATMXPRIV00013038-3041.html#images. A decade later he said, "there is no demonstrated causal relationship between smoking or any disease."http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_s1/TI55842608.html In keeping with his earlier research he believed that the main cause of cancer was genetic, not environmental.
He died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1971 at the age of 83.
External links
- "The strange career of C.C. Little" Christopher Zbrozek, The Michigan Daily September 26, 2006