Robert Huebner
Encyclopedia
Robert Joseph Huebner was an American
physician and virologist whose research into viruses, their causes and treatment that led to his breakthrough insights into the connections between viruses and cancer, leading to new treatments, as well as his hypothesized oncogene
, which was discovered to be a trigger for normal cells turning cancerous.
, a western suburb of Cincinnati, on February 23, 1914. After attending a local parish elementary school, he attended Elder High School
, graduating in 1932. He attended Xavier College (later Xavier University
, where he majored in economics and English literature and took the prerequisites to attend law school. He decided he wanted to become a physician and did his premed
undergraduate training at the University of Cincinnati
. He attended the Saint Louis University School of Medicine
starting in 1938. He was threatened with expulsion from the school after officials there discovered that he had taken outside work to pay for his education in violation of school policy — including a job as a bouncer
at a brothel
— but stayed in school and graduated in 1942. He graduated in June 1942, ranked in the top five of his class of 100.
After graduating, he joined the United States Public Health Service
during World War II, and was assigned for a year to the United States Marine Hospital in Seattle, and then to the United States Coast Guard
ship USS Hemlock in Alaska
. The Public Health Service transferred him to a position as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health
in July 1944.
that struck more than 100 New York City residents, most of whom were residents of a single apartment complex in Kew Gardens, Queens
. Local physicians hadn't initially reported the cases to authorities, as most presented with a rash and fever, but recovered within two weeks without any specific treatment. The New York City Department of Health was informed after a "minor epidemic" broke out at the Queens housing complex and individuals had been sent to hospitals with violent fevers and skin lesions. The seven known rickettsia
l diseases were all ruled out based on tests.
Visiting the complex with self-trained entomologist Charles Pomerantz
, the two peeled back wallpaper to find the walls swarming with mites, so much so that tenants had described that "the walls had movement". Huebner's investigations on the site led to the conclusion that tenants had been bitten by a mite
identified as Allodermanyssus sanguineus, found on mice that infested the storerooms and incinerator areas in the buildings. After culturing and isolating the organism in laboratory mice, the pathogen they named Rickettsia akari
was identified as the ultimate cause of the disease now called rickettsialpox
. The Department of Health announced a program to work with building owners to exterminate the mice that were the vector for the disease.
Huebner document his findings of the new disease in a 1947 paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
. He was recognized by the American Society of Tropical Medicine for his efforts with the Bailey K. Ashford Award in 1949, which included a $1,000 prize from Eli Lilly and Company
that he later used as a down payment for a farm in Frederick, Maryland
.
was a report he had done on an outbreak of 18 cases that occurred in early 1946 in an NIH laboratory, where he showed a correlation between a spike in cases and the preparation of antigens in yolk sacs, and he prepared another report on a group of 47 patients being treated for the condition at the Public Health Service Hospital in Baltimore
. He was sent in spring 1947 to investigate an outbreak at milk farms in the Los Angeles
area, in which there was a dense population of farms in which the animals had little space, creating what Huebner called "unpasturized cows". Huebner found the cause to be a member of the rickettsia family that was found in containers of unpasteurized milk. The cause was found to be Coxiella burnetii
, with their findings published in 1948 in the American Journal of Public Health
. Dairy farmers were upset by the insinuation that they were responsible for the outbreak and put pressure on local health officials to ask Huebner to leave the area.
Huebner found that the C. burnetii bacteria could survive temperatures of up to 60 °C (140 °F) in sealed containers for as long as 30 minutes, just below the levels used for vat pasteurization
. This could mean that there was no way to verify that every particle within a vat was raised to the peak temperature and that pasteurization might not eliminate all of the bacteria in the milk being treated.
viruses, he and his colleague Dr. Wallace Rowe first tried to use adenoid
and tonsil
tissue, before using a culture based on tumor cells. From that culture they isolated cytomegalovirus
, as well as the first of a large family of adenoviruses. Dr. Robert M. Chanock
said the discovery "put him up there with Sabin
" (creator of the oral polio vaccine
) as one of the "great moments in virology". Based on their observations, Huebner and Rowe hypothesized that these viruses could trigger an unknown gene that would cause cells to grow out of control.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
in 1969, Huebner advanced his theory that oncogene
s, then only a hypothetical construct, could cause normal cells to mutate and become cancerous. A specific gene matching the theorized description was discovered and led to the development of treatments for cancer and other diseases.
In contrast to medical wisdom in the 1960s and 1970s, Huebner was confident that viruses were a cause of cancer in humans and convinced the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare to provide $60 million in grants to fund research on the connection as part of the War on Cancer
. This led to the discovery of the role that cytomegalovirus plays in opportunistic infection
s in patients with immunodeficiency
. Research on retrovirus
es led to the development of a vaccine for hepatitis B, which has led to major decreases in rates of liver cancer
, rates of some viral cancers, like that of the liver, have been sharply reduced.
He took a position in 1968 as chief of the National Cancer Institute
's Laboratory of Viral Carcinogenesis, staying there until his retirement in 1982.
Richard Nixon
presented Huebner with the National Medal of Science
at a White House
dinner held on February 16, 1970, recognizing his "contributions to the modern understanding of the biology of viruses and their role in the induction of diverse diseases."
He was also inducted into and participated actively in the United States National Academy of Sciences
. He also received the Rockefeller Public Service Award.
where he raised his family, using the money he had received as part of an award for his rickettsial research to make the necessary downpayment. His children were each given the task of raising an Angus cattle
bull to help pay for their college education. By the time of Huebner's death in 1998, the farm was operated by three of his children.
Huebner died at age 84 due to pneumonia
on August 26, 1998, at the Veterans Administration Medical Center
in Coatesville, Pennsylvania
, where he had been a resident since 1991. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
in the early 1980s. He was survived by his second wife, Harriet, as well as by six daughters, two sons and 11 grandchildren. His first marriage had ended in divorce.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physician and virologist whose research into viruses, their causes and treatment that led to his breakthrough insights into the connections between viruses and cancer, leading to new treatments, as well as his hypothesized oncogene
Oncogene
An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, they are often mutated or expressed at high levels.An oncogene is a gene found in the chromosomes of tumor cells whose activation is associated with the initial and continuing conversion of normal cells into cancer...
, which was discovered to be a trigger for normal cells turning cancerous.
Early life and education
Huebner was born in Cheviot, OhioCheviot, Ohio
Cheviot is a city located in west central Hamilton County, Ohio. The population was 9,015 at the 2000 census.- History :In 1814 a Scottish immigrant named John Craig purchased a half section of of Green Township from Elias Boudinot. He built an inn and tavern on the Harrison Pike. In 1818 Craig...
, a western suburb of Cincinnati, on February 23, 1914. After attending a local parish elementary school, he attended Elder High School
Elder High School
Elder High School is a parochial all-male, college-preparatory high school in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The high school has been in existence for over 85 years and is a parochial high school within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati...
, graduating in 1932. He attended Xavier College (later Xavier University
Xavier University (Cincinnati)
Xavier University is a co-educational Jesuit university in the United States located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The University is the sixth-oldest Catholic university in the nation and has an undergraduate enrollment of about 4,000 students and graduate enrollment of 2,600 students. Xavier is primarily...
, where he majored in economics and English literature and took the prerequisites to attend law school. He decided he wanted to become a physician and did his premed
Pre-medical
Pre-medical is a term used to describe a track an undergraduate student in the United States pursues prior to becoming a medical student...
undergraduate training at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
. He attended the Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Saint Louis University School of Medicine is a private, American medical school within Saint Louis University.It was established in 1836 as the Medical Department of the university and had the distinction, in 1839, of awarding the first M.D. degree granted west of the Mississippi River...
starting in 1938. He was threatened with expulsion from the school after officials there discovered that he had taken outside work to pay for his education in violation of school policy — including a job as a bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
at a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
— but stayed in school and graduated in 1942. He graduated in June 1942, ranked in the top five of his class of 100.
After graduating, he joined the United States Public Health Service
United States Public Health Service
The Public Health Service Act of 1944 structured the United States Public Health Service as the primary division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare , which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The PHS comprises all Agency Divisions of Health and...
during World War II, and was assigned for a year to the United States Marine Hospital in Seattle, and then to the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
ship USS Hemlock in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. The Public Health Service transferred him to a position as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
in July 1944.
Rickettsialpox
In June and July 1945, Huebner was asked to investigate an outbreak of cases of a spotted feverSpotted fever
A spotted fever is a type of tick-borne disease which presents on the skin.Types include:* Mediterranean spotted fever* Rocky Mountain spotted fever* Queensland tick typhus...
that struck more than 100 New York City residents, most of whom were residents of a single apartment complex in Kew Gardens, Queens
Kew Gardens, Queens
Kew Gardens is a triangular-shaped neighborhood in central Queens bounded to the north by the Jackie Robinson Parkway , to the east by Van Wyck Expressway and 131st Street, to the south by Hillside Avenue, and to the west by Park Lane, Abingdon Road and 118th Street...
. Local physicians hadn't initially reported the cases to authorities, as most presented with a rash and fever, but recovered within two weeks without any specific treatment. The New York City Department of Health was informed after a "minor epidemic" broke out at the Queens housing complex and individuals had been sent to hospitals with violent fevers and skin lesions. The seven known rickettsia
Rickettsia
Rickettsia is a genus of non-motile, Gram-negative, non-sporeforming, highly pleomorphic bacteria that can present as cocci , rods or thread-like . Being obligate intracellular parasites, the Rickettsia survival depends on entry, growth, and replication within the cytoplasm of eukaryotic host cells...
l diseases were all ruled out based on tests.
Visiting the complex with self-trained entomologist Charles Pomerantz
Charles Pomerantz
Charles Pomerantz was a pest control expert and self-trained entomologist who played a pivotal role in identifying the etiology of a 1946 outbreak in New York City of what was later named rickettsialpox...
, the two peeled back wallpaper to find the walls swarming with mites, so much so that tenants had described that "the walls had movement". Huebner's investigations on the site led to the conclusion that tenants had been bitten by a mite
Mite
Mites, along with ticks, are small arthropods belonging to the subclass Acari and the class Arachnida. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology.-Diversity and systematics:...
identified as Allodermanyssus sanguineus, found on mice that infested the storerooms and incinerator areas in the buildings. After culturing and isolating the organism in laboratory mice, the pathogen they named Rickettsia akari
Rickettsia akari
Rickettsia akari is a species of Rickettsia which causes rickettsialpox.After a 1946 outbreak of a rickettsial-type disease at an apartment complex in Kew Gardens, Queens, an investigation was performed to identify the source of the infections...
was identified as the ultimate cause of the disease now called rickettsialpox
Rickettsialpox
Rickettsialpox is an illness caused by bacteria of the Rickettsia genus . Physician Robert Huebner and self-trained entomologist Charles Pomerantz played major roles in identifying the etiology of the disease after an outbreak in 1946 in a New York City apartment complex, documented in medical...
. The Department of Health announced a program to work with building owners to exterminate the mice that were the vector for the disease.
Huebner document his findings of the new disease in a 1947 paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
. He was recognized by the American Society of Tropical Medicine for his efforts with the Bailey K. Ashford Award in 1949, which included a $1,000 prize from Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
that he later used as a down payment for a farm in Frederick, Maryland
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
.
Q Fever
Huebner's first work on Q FeverQ fever
Q fever is a disease caused by infection with Coxiella burnetii, a bacterium that affects humans and other animals. This organism is uncommon but may be found in cattle, sheep, goats and other domestic mammals, including cats and dogs...
was a report he had done on an outbreak of 18 cases that occurred in early 1946 in an NIH laboratory, where he showed a correlation between a spike in cases and the preparation of antigens in yolk sacs, and he prepared another report on a group of 47 patients being treated for the condition at the Public Health Service Hospital in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. He was sent in spring 1947 to investigate an outbreak at milk farms in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area, in which there was a dense population of farms in which the animals had little space, creating what Huebner called "unpasturized cows". Huebner found the cause to be a member of the rickettsia family that was found in containers of unpasteurized milk. The cause was found to be Coxiella burnetii
Coxiella burnetii
Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen, and is the causative agent of Q fever. The genus Coxiella is morphologically similar to Rickettsia, but with a variety of genetic and physiological differences. C...
, with their findings published in 1948 in the American Journal of Public Health
American Journal of Public Health
The American Journal of Public Health is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Public Health Association covering health policy and public health. The journal was established in 1911 and its stated mission is "to advance public health research, policy, practice, and...
. Dairy farmers were upset by the insinuation that they were responsible for the outbreak and put pressure on local health officials to ask Huebner to leave the area.
Huebner found that the C. burnetii bacteria could survive temperatures of up to 60 °C (140 °F) in sealed containers for as long as 30 minutes, just below the levels used for vat pasteurization
Pasteurization
Pasteurization is a process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately. This process slows microbial growth in food...
. This could mean that there was no way to verify that every particle within a vat was raised to the peak temperature and that pasteurization might not eliminate all of the bacteria in the milk being treated.
Adenovirus and oncogenes
While trying to grow common coldCommon cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
viruses, he and his colleague Dr. Wallace Rowe first tried to use adenoid
Adenoid
Adenoids are a mass of lymphoid tissue situated posterior to the nasal cavity, in the roof of the nasopharynx, where the nose blends into the throat....
and tonsil
Tonsil
Palatine tonsils, occasionally called the faucial tonsils, are the tonsils that can be seen on the left and right sides at the back of the throat....
tissue, before using a culture based on tumor cells. From that culture they isolated cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus is a viral genus of the viral group known as Herpesviridae or herpesviruses. It is typically abbreviated as CMV: The species that infects humans is commonly known as human CMV or human herpesvirus-5 , and is the most studied of all cytomegaloviruses...
, as well as the first of a large family of adenoviruses. Dr. Robert M. Chanock
Robert M. Chanock
Robert Merritt Chanock was an American pediatrician and virologist who made major contributions to the prevention and treatment of childhood respiratory infections in more than 50 years spent at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Chanock was born July 8, 1924 in Chicago. His...
said the discovery "put him up there with Sabin
Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
" (creator of the oral polio vaccine
Polio vaccine
Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
) as one of the "great moments in virology". Based on their observations, Huebner and Rowe hypothesized that these viruses could trigger an unknown gene that would cause cells to grow out of control.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences...
in 1969, Huebner advanced his theory that oncogene
Oncogene
An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, they are often mutated or expressed at high levels.An oncogene is a gene found in the chromosomes of tumor cells whose activation is associated with the initial and continuing conversion of normal cells into cancer...
s, then only a hypothetical construct, could cause normal cells to mutate and become cancerous. A specific gene matching the theorized description was discovered and led to the development of treatments for cancer and other diseases.
In contrast to medical wisdom in the 1960s and 1970s, Huebner was confident that viruses were a cause of cancer in humans and convinced the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare to provide $60 million in grants to fund research on the connection as part of the War on Cancer
War on Cancer
The War on Cancer refers to the effort to find a cure for cancer by increased research to improve the understanding of cancer biology and the development of more effective cancer treatments, such as targeted drug therapies. The aim of such efforts is to eradicate cancer as a major cause of death....
. This led to the discovery of the role that cytomegalovirus plays in opportunistic infection
Opportunistic infection
An opportunistic infection is an infection caused by pathogens, particularly opportunistic pathogens—those that take advantage of certain situations—such as bacterial, viral, fungal or protozoan infections that usually do not cause disease in a healthy host, one with a healthy immune system...
s in patients with immunodeficiency
Immunodeficiency
Immunodeficiency is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious disease is compromised or entirely absent. Immunodeficiency may also decrease cancer immunosurveillance. Most cases of immunodeficiency are acquired but some people are born with defects in their immune system,...
. Research on retrovirus
Retrovirus
A retrovirus is an RNA virus that is duplicated in a host cell using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome. The DNA is then incorporated into the host's genome by an integrase enzyme. The virus thereafter replicates as part of the host cell's DNA...
es led to the development of a vaccine for hepatitis B, which has led to major decreases in rates of liver cancer
Liver cancer
Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver . Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant...
, rates of some viral cancers, like that of the liver, have been sharply reduced.
He took a position in 1968 as chief of the 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...
's Laboratory of Viral Carcinogenesis, staying there until his retirement in 1982.
Awards and recognition
President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
presented Huebner with the National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
at a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
dinner held on February 16, 1970, recognizing his "contributions to the modern understanding of the biology of viruses and their role in the induction of diverse diseases."
He was also inducted into and participated actively in the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. He also received the Rockefeller Public Service Award.
Personal
He bought a 300 acres (1.2 km²) farm for $4,000 in Frederick, MarylandFrederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
where he raised his family, using the money he had received as part of an award for his rickettsial research to make the necessary downpayment. His children were each given the task of raising an Angus cattle
Angus cattle
Angus cattle are a breed of cattle much used in beef production. They were developed from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland, and are known as Aberdeen Angus in most parts of the world....
bull to help pay for their college education. By the time of Huebner's death in 1998, the farm was operated by three of his children.
Huebner died at age 84 due to pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on August 26, 1998, at the Veterans Administration Medical Center
Veterans Administration Medical Center
The Veterans Administration Medical Center was a sanatorium in Center Township, Grant County, Indiana dedicated to the treatment of U.S. military personnel inflicted with mental illness....
in Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,100 at the 2010 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia....
, where he had been a resident since 1991. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in the early 1980s. He was survived by his second wife, Harriet, as well as by six daughters, two sons and 11 grandchildren. His first marriage had ended in divorce.