by King-Thom Chung, Department of Biology, The University of Memphis

Oswald Avery, before the age of antibiotics, pioneered the theory and practice of control of virulence in pathogenic organisms. He was a professor of the eminent Rockefeller Institute from 1913 to 1948. His work, especially on the discovery of bacterial genetic transmission, formed the basis for the development of the famous double-helix structure of molecular DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) by Watson and Crick.

He was born on Oct. 21, 1877 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Joseph Francis Avery and the former Elizabeth Crowdy. They gave him the name of Oswald Theodore. His grandfather, Joseph Henry Avery was an unusually skilled papermaker for Oxford University. He developed the extra fine thin paper, which took print on both sides and was in the famous Oxford Bibles. His father, also named Joseph, was not satisfied with being a papermaker, even though the paper was used in Bibles. Coming under the influence of a well-known Baptist Evangelist, C. H. Spurgeon, he left the Church of England and become a Baptist seminarian. He married Elizabeth Crowdy and served as a Baptist pastor in England for several years. Against the advice of Evangelist Spurgeon and friends he decided to go to Canada, even without a church appointment.

His confidence was rewarded and he became pastor of two churches in Canada over a four-year period. His next call was to New York City, where he served in the Mariner's Temple. This was a Baptist mission in a part of the city noted for being rowdy and in extreme poverty. The organ of the Temple was broken and there were no funds to repair it. Mrs. Avery employed a young German musician to play for the church services. This proved to be a great advantage to Oswald. He and his brother Ernest both learned to play the cornet and became so proficient that they were able to obtain scholarships in the National Conservatory of Music. Ernest died of tuberculosis, but Oswald continued his musical career, even playing Anton Dvorak's Symphony "From the New World" under the direction of Walter Damrosch. Later, while in the University, he continued to play the cornet and became leader of the band.

Avery attended Colgate Academy and then Colgate University, a Baptist school, but one which encouraged a broad and scientific outlook---unusual for the times. For instance, he and a group of students asked a professor of philosophy to give them a class in metaphysics, examining the foundations of the Christian religion. In later life, Avery was considered a very cautious scientist, who never took a position unless he felt that he had absolute proof. However, he was so impressed by the course on the scientific background of religion that he once told his colleagues: "Fellows, you know there really is a God."

Avery's life is one which should be noted by all scientists. He was an excellent student, but not interested in science! The experiences that a microbiologist has in high school and college, or the university, may, or may not indicate his adult interests in life and his life's work. He majored in the humanities, taking only those science courses that were required--and his grades were poorest in science. Avery graduated from Colgate in 1900 and this same year entered Columbia University. During his later years at Colgate he underwent a very deep change of interest, which has never been clearly understood. This change affected his entire life. Instead of continuing in the Humanities, where he had gained honors in Oratory, Public Speaking and Debate, he entered the college of Physicians and Surgeons. Therefore his life centered upon the field of medicine. Most of his family had assumed that he would enter the ministry.

Although an excellent student, he made poor grades in bacteriology and pathology, two fields that later were his main interest in life and to which he made monumental contributions. There was, of course, at this time, no scientific requirement for entrance to medicine, nor was there a single microbiological course for the aspiring doctor, in spite of later proven fact that a large proportion of diseases are microbial in nature. He completed his medical training in 1904 and joined a group in practice. He remained in general practice for 3 years, but was distressed to find patients with pulmonary disorders for which he could do nothing. Although his relations with patients was entirely satisfactory, he was neither intellectually nor emotionally satisfied with his life.

Medicine was changing at this time and research was becoming more important. It was therefore not difficult for him to leave practice and shift from clinical to laboratory work. He started working part-time for the Board of Health, doing tests on the opsonin indices of patients. In addition he carried out milk bacteriology for the Sheffield Company. Pasteurizing of milk was becoming highly important and Avery made bacterial counts of milk before and after pasteurization--for a salary of $50.00 a month.

This work was highly satisfactory to him and was performed so efficiently that he was appointed to the Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn, NY. This was a most valuable appointment as it was the only private laboratory in the United States doing bacteriological research, which was of crucial importance to his microbiological development. Benjamen White, the Director, was so pleased with Avery that he appointed him associate director for the then magnificent salary of $1,200.00! His relationship with White was most valuable, as White was a chemist. Although Avery's work was in microbiology, he had the advantage of precision and care that came with "the chemical mode of thinking." This precision was especially beneficial as he developed the methods of microbiology that enabled him to isolate and characterize the organism of syphilis, Treponema pallidum. He also worked on organisms found in milk and in the fermentation of milk.

In 1910 Avery's colleague White had a reactivation of tuberculosis, from which he had suffered earlier. Avery went to his sanitarium and spent a great deal of time with him, both as a friend professionally, doing research on tuberculosis. Basically, Avery was a research scientist, more interested in theoretically questions than routine and clinical work. But for his friend he carried out all the routine work needed. This had its reward. His work gained the attention of Dr. Rufus Cole, director of the Rockefeller Institute Hospital. Dr. Cole sent a letter to Avery offering him a position. Since he received no answer, he sent another and more urgent letter. Again there was no response. This time, he came in person and again offered the position at a much higher salary. Dr. Cole had misinterpreted Dr. Avery's failure to reply as being due to the salary offered; actually, at this time in his life, Avery was very poor with regard to any business response. He simply felt too busy to bother with a letter, even though the offer was interesting. (Dr. Cole did not learn this for several years.) The personal call was effective and Avery joined the Rockefeller staff.

After leaving the medical field, his interest in all aspects of infectious disease grew. He studied how microorganisms invaded body tissues, how they grew, the nature of the lesions, the responses of the body and how recovery takes place. These studies grew into the fields of microbiology and immunology. It would be 30 years before penicillin, but rational methods of disease prevention and cure were developed by such organizations as Rockefeller Institute. The particular disease that Avery used as his basis of operation was lobar pneumonia. At this time pneumonia was just as severe and destructive a disease as typhoid fever or tuberculosis.

Dr. Avery studied the virulence of organisms that had wide application theoretically to many unrelated species. He found that the virulence of pneumococci and other organisms was related very often to their ability to produce an ectoplasmic membrane constituting a cellular external capsule. The bacteria lost their virulence when they failed to be able to secrete the capsule. The capsule gave virulence to the organism by providing pneumococci and others with a defense mechanism against the cells of the blood and tissues. He found also that the organisms could be identified and divided into species by separating them into various types by the polysaccharides of the capsules. Although established with pneumococci, the principles were applied broadly to many organisms.

Avery established these principles of immunity and virulence in relationship to deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA), which was one of the landmarks of biology, establishing that DNA was a principle carrier of heredity in microbial life and also throughout life itself. He demonstrated that the DNA of other bacteria could be made to enhance the heredity of pneumococci--the principle of transformation.

At the time he left Rockefeller in 1948, Avery was recognized as one of the greatest of microbiologists. He was completely devoted to his work and never married. But he was also concerned with his family. A major reason for leaving Rockefeller was to move to Nashville, Tennessee to be near his brother Roy. Roy was his only living relative. He continued to do some work for the Department of Defense until his death. Toward the middle of 1954, he was diagnosed as having an extensive hepatoma, or cancer of the liver. Oswald Theodore Avery lived to be 78 years of age, dying on February 20, 1955 in Nashville.