Faculty

I'm one of the old-timers in this department, judging from how long I've been a member of the faculty as well as being just old, now on the threshhold of retirement. I've taught immunology for over a quarter of a century, and have even learned to teach basic microbiology, and worse yet, beginning biology. My graduate training took place at the University of Chicago at a time when immunology was in its infancy (nobody knew what antibodies really were, and lymphocytes could not possibly have anything to do with immunity because they looked so quiescent histologically) and what was really on the minds of many scientists was what ionizing radiation did to just about anything (remember it was the morning of the so-called atomic bomb age). Hence I was intellectually raised in the atmosphere of concern about radiation and immunity. After some time doing this sort of stuff at the Argonne National Laboratory, and the Radiation Branch of the National Cancer Institute, everyone seemed to lose interest. But that experience had implanted deep roots in me, and even today my interest in the immune system has been rather organismal...the system as a whole, comprising various interacting organs and tissues. For a while my laboratory considered the function of the rabbit appendix (about 10 grams of lymphocytes in one bag!...about 60% of the total lymphoid mass in the rabbit). But who's interested in rabbits? Now my students and I are breaking new ground (for us) by inquiring into the contribution of host immune reactivity to the development of something called periodontal disease, which at its worst results in tooth loss because the supporting alveolar bone is resorbed. There is considerable evidence that the inflammatory reactions associated with the disease (periodontitis) lead to this resorption; our interest is how the immune reactivity to oral microbes might actually induce the inflammation and, in effect, ultimately cause the disease. This project is an offshoot of a broader study of the bacteriology of periodontal disease artificially-induced in dogs, being carried out by a group of investigators at this and neighboring campuses. As I write this, we have done most of the animal and benchwork on a first phase of the study, accumulating reams of data sheets; now we have to do some serious number crunching to see if we can learn anything that might give courage to some successor to pursue the idea further.

I've enjoyed my years here mainly because the department has always maintained a certain undefineable but pervasive enthusiasm for what we do, a caring for our students, and a general and genuine good will among us all. As faculty and students have come and gone that spirit has never seriously wavered.