Walter Dobrogosz is a Professor Emeritus of North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...

, best known for his discovery and further research on the probiotic

Probiotic

Probiotics are live microorganisms thought to be beneficial to the host organism. According to the currently adopted definition by FAO/WHO, probiotics are: "Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host"...

 bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri

Lactobacillus reuteri

Lactobacillus reuteri is a Gram-positive bacterium that naturally inhabits the gut of mammals and birds. First described in the early 1980s, some strains of L. reuteri are used as probiotics. BioGaia AB in Sweden owns several commercially important strains and a large number of different patents...

.

Professional life

Dobrogosz was born in 1933 in Albion, Pennsylvania

Albion, Pennsylvania

Albion is a borough in Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,607 at the 2000 census. A neighboring, larger town which many Albionites may associate with is Edinboro, and the much larger but more distant city of Erie. It is part of the Erie Metropolitan Statistical Area. One...

. He grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...

, and received his B.S., Masters, and Ph. D. degrees in bacteriology

Bacteriology

Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...

 and biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 from Penn State University. In 1960-62, Dobrogosz held an NIH-supported postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

, and afterwards began teaching at N.C. State University. He became a full Professor of Microbiology

Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...

 at N. C. State in 1968 and remained there until his retirement in 2003. While at N. C. State, he taught the graduate courses 'Metabolic Regulatory Mechanisms,' 'Microbial Physiology and Bioenergetics,' and 'Metabolism, Growth, and Regulation,' and the undergraduate courses "General Microbiology,' 'Microbial Metabolism,' and 'Microbes and World Affairs.'

Early in his research career, Dobrogosz studied metabolic

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

 regulation in such species as Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...

and Salmonella typhimurium. In particular, his research focused on the phenomenon of catabolite repression

Catabolite repression

Carbon catabolite repression, or simply catabolite repression, is an important part of global control system of various bacteria and other micro-organisms. Catabolite repression allows bacteria to adapt quickly to a preferred carbon and energy source first...

, a regulatory system involving interactions of cyclic AMP, the catabolite repressor protein (CRP) complex, and the lac operon

Lac operon

The lac operon is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in Escherichia coli and some other enteric bacteria. It consists of three adjacent structural genes, lacZ, lacY and lacA. The lac operon is regulated by several factors including the availability of glucose and of...

 and other inducible systems in bacteria.

The focus of Dobrogosz's research shifted in 1985, when he and student Lars Axelsson identified L. reuteri, a new lactic acid bacterium

Lactic acid bacteria

The lactic acid bacteria comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce...

. Later that year, while on a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Dobrogosz and colleague Sven Lindgren discovered that L. reuteri produces a potent anti-microbial substance, which they termed "reuterin." Based on this, they hypothesized that the human-specific strain of L. reuteri had the potential to be a protective probiotic. Dobrogosz and his fellows obtained patents on both the bacterium and reuterin, and later began to market L. reuteri for its benefits to human and animal health.

Dobrogosz founded Probiologics International (PBI) in 1987, a company devoted to the commercial prospects of L. reuteri. PBI began to carry out human clinical trials, and found that L. reuteri is effective in preventing diarheal diseases and other gut infections. L. reuteri is now known to maintain intestinal health, prevent fungal

Fungus

A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

, bacterial, and protozoal infections, and mediate the body's immune response. PBI was purchased by public investors in 1990, and later its name was changed to BioGaia AB. It continues to market L. reuteri, often contained in yoghurt

Yoghurt

Yoghurt, yogurt or yogourt is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yoghurt are known as "yoghurt cultures"...

 or milk-based products, worldwide.

Dobrogosz has been involved with the American Society for Microbiology

American Society for Microbiology

The American Society for Microbiology is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. Microbiology is the study of organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye and which must be viewed with a...

 (ASM) throughout his career. He has served on the editorial board of the ASM journal, chaired the Genetics and Physiology section of the ASM, and presided for two terms over the ASM's North Carolina branch.

Since retirement, Dobrogosz has remained an active advocate of the "probiotic concept"; the importance of microbes in human health. He continues to publish review articles on L. reuteri, in addition to attending and lecturing at conferences on probiotic and microbiological research.

Personal life

Though born in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Dobrogosz is of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

an ancestry. His father was born in Warsaw, Poland (then under Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n control), and his mother was Slovac.

Professor Dobrogosz married his wife Donna in 1953 and is the father of four children, including musician Steve Dobrogosz

Steve Dobrogosz

Steve Dobrogosz is an American pianist and composer.Dobrogosz was born in 1956 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and afterwards moved to Stockholm, Sweden in 1978, where he began...

, and grandfather of nine. He now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

.

Dobrogosz has been an avid athlete since his youth. In high school he lettered in basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

, and track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

. At Penn State University, he competed on the varsity track and field team as a hurdler. In his adulthood Dobrogosz discovered handball

American handball

American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...

, at which he also became very competitive. One of the premier handball players in North Carolina during the 1970s, Dobrogosz won many tournaments, including the 1975 and 1977 North Carolina amateur men's singles championships, and the 1972, 1974, 1980, and 1981 Raleigh YMCA

YMCA

The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

doubles titles.

Sources:
http://microbiology.ncsu.edu/WJD/WJD.html

http://www.biogaia.se/

Selected publications