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

Rene' Jules Bubos was born in Saint-Brice-sous-Foret, France, on February 20, 1901. His father was George Alexandre Dubos and his mother Adeline (de Bloedt) Dubos. They lived in several small agricultural villages north of Paris. When 10 years old he contracted rheumatic fever and for seven years was unable to have vigorous exercise. This was a blessing in disguise as he formed the habit of reading. One book which had a lasting effect was Essay on the Fables of La Fontaines by Hippolyte Taine. As a boy of fifteen he ruminated on Taine's concept that the spirit of the fables was caused by the nature of the landscape in the story. All his life, Rene' Dubos was to be aware that the environment had a strong influence on an individual's development.

At World War I (WWI), Rene's father bought a butcher shop in Paris, but was almost immediately called into the military service. His mother and Rene' ran the butcher shop during the war. They were not very successful. The neighborhood of his upbringing, was, however, quite diverse; he lived in rather drab surroundings, but not far away in his part of Paris there were better homes. He completed his high school training at College Chaptal in 1919. At this time his father died of a wound received in the war; he was needed to support his mother and could not go to the University as he would like. However, he did manage to enroll in the nearby Institute National Agronomique and won scholarships which enabled him to major in science---rather than history, which he would have preferred. A microbiologist might learn from Dubo's life that sometimes such a situation turns out satisfactorily!

After receiving his BS in 1921 he was drafted into the Army as an officer trainee. A mild recurrence of rheumatic fever caused his discharge and he went to Rome, Italy to be the assistant editor of a science magazine. This was published by the International Instituite of Agriculture and he served for seven years in this position. An article by a Russian microbiologist, Sergei Winogradsky changed his life. This article taught that soil bacteria should be studied in their own environment, not merely in laboratory cultures. He later stated that this is where his intellectual life began. After reading this article he decided to become a microbiologist.

He decided further that he would have the best opportunities to learn bacteriology in the United States. To earn money for the trip he translated books and guided tourists arounf Rome. Finally with enough money he boarded ship for New York. By good fortune, one of the passengers he met was Dr. Selman Waksman, who was director of the soil microbiology laboratory at the New Jersey State Agricultural Station of Rutgers University. Waksman helped him get a position as bacteriologist at Rutgers and at the same time work his Ph.D. degree as a research assistant for Waksman. His Ph.D. research was on the way different organisms in the soil decompose cellulose; this research revealed to him the wide range of microbiological activity that existed in natural environments. This observation was one which he never forgot; his later experiences related to it strongly.

After he earned his Ph.D. in 1927, Dubos joined the staff of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical; Research as a fellow. He continued his research here and in 1965, this institution became Rockefeller University. During this period, Dubos moved up the scientific ladder from assistant, in 1928 to professor in 1956. He held this position until 1971. A great hero to Dubos was Louis Pasteur and one idea of Pasteur's that took hold was the power of microbes to use energy and break down and decompose any organic substances. With that idea firmly in mind, Dubos began to study soil, and especially swamp soil, trying to find organisms which could break down the protective coat surrounding human lobar pneumonia bacteria. He did isolate a swamp bacterium which produced an enzyme, tyrothricin, which enabled the human body to attack the pneumonia germ directly. Later, he isolated baceteria, such as Bacillus brevis which could consume deadly germs. Other microbiologists were stirred by Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and Dubos's disccovery of tyrothricin to make still other discoveries of broad spectrum antibiotics.

In 1942, during WWII, he was invited to become the George Fabyan Professor of Pathology and Tropical Medicine at Harvard Institute. After two years, however, he returned to Rockefeller University to begin work on tuberculosis, which it is believed killed his first wife. At this time, laboratories were greatly handicapped by their inability to culture pathogenic bacteria, such as the tubercle bacillus, so that they would remain pathogenic. These organisms became harmless and almost worthless for disease research. By 1947 Dubos discovered how to grow pathogenic tubercle bacilli in large quantities. (One facet of his method was the addition of a very common detergent, "tween 80" into the culture medium. This indicates the common sense approach used.) Dubos and his staff made many important discoveries in regard to tuberculosis and the strains, virulent and avirulent which abounded. In addition, he studied all facets of the patient and disease, including heredity, nutrition, society and the environment. Eventually, the relationship of environment to human health and the effects of changing environments became his dominant interest.

In 1950 Rene Dubos married Letha Jean Porter, with whom he also collaborated, publishin a book with her, White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society in 1952. Dubos became more and more anti-pollution. He lectured to the top agencies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on the dangers which bacteria producing toxins in the environmental possessed. He also proved that commercially prepared laundry detergents contained enzymes from bacteria which could destroy red blood cells and producing dangerous clumping in humans. In 1971, he retired as professor emeritus at Rockefeller University and divided his time between two new positions: professor and director of environmental studies at the New York College at Purchase, New York and as advisor to the Richmond College of the City University of New York. Richmond College collaborated with Statan Islanders to achieve integration between the community of Richmond and the College; Dubos was a key individual in this work.

The life of Dubos shows clearly how the skills and abilities of a microbiologists may mature from the specifics of work at the bench to broad humanistic and social interests--but which are still related to and influenced by the scientist's knowledge of the all-pervasive microbial life around us. Dubos's book indicate this change in interest. He published many books related to microbiology directly, such as Bacterial Cell in Its Relation to Problems of Virulence, Immunity and Chemotherapy, Bacterial and Mycotic Infections of Man. He also published two books on Pasteur: Louis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science (1950) and Pasteur and Modern Science (1960). These were two highl popular works. He received the Phi Beta Kappa award in 1963 for his great publication on the science of microbiology itself: The Unseen World. In 1968 he received the Pulitzer Price for So Human an Animal. This book and Man Adapting both reflected his understanding of the relationship of man to his environment, in an era when these concepts were only beginning to be felt.

Dubos was highly concerned about the misuse of science and technology. He fearded not human extinction, but the debasement of our environment with consequent deleterious changes in the ecology. Today these fears are expressed so generally and organizations to address them have emerged so that they no longer seem unusal. But it is greatly to the credit of Rene' Jules Dubos that, as a microbiologist, he forcefully pioneered them.

From the life of Dubos, we see a glorifying torch of concerns and love for human's future. Was that love and compassion which keep many microbiologists work day and night tirelessly as Dubos with the hope that human beings can live better?