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Obituary: Kenneth L. Temple, 1918 – 2013

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Kenneth Temple, emeritus professor of microbiology at Montana State University, died of pneumonia at age 95 on September 30, 2013, at home in Bozeman.

Ken Temple was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 22, 1918, the third child of Sterling Temple and Isabella Matchett Temple. At an early age his family moved to New York state where Ken grew up, first on Staten Island in New York City and then in Niagara Falls. He developed his lifelong love of reading, gardening, nature, and the outdoors early on, and adopted his younger sister's accordion after she lost interest. He was raised in the Methodist church. His collegiate undergraduate years were spent at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Ken developed many outdoor interests including downhill and cross-country skiing, camping, hiking in the Adirondacks, horseback jumping, and working as a camp counselor. In those days ski lifts were rare enough, so he said, that skiers generally had to work their way up the slopes by sidestep or herringbone to reach the top. Ken had an old pair of hickory skis dating from that time that he kept for many years.

Ken majored in chemistry, as had his father and an older brother before him, earning his degree in 1940. He then received an M.S. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was in Madison that he learned to square dance. With the imminent entry of the United States into World War II, Ken became an employee of the U.S. Navy, working at Naval Research in Washington, D.C. In Washington, at a square dance, he met his lifelong love and partner, Ruth Remsberg. They were married September 4, 1943. Their marriage continued for 55 years until Ruth's death in 1998.

After the war Ken switched fields and earned a PhD in microbiology from Rutgers University. After receiving his degree, Ken became a post-doctoral researcher at West Virginia University. There he did groundbreaking work on sulfuric acid runoff from coal mines. Prior to this, no one had identified microbial action as the source of that pollution. Ken discovered and named the organism responsible, thiobacillus ferrooxidans.

After five years, Ken relocated to Houston, Texas to work for Texaco. Two years later, in 1955, he moved to Montana to join the Department of Botany and Bacteriology in what was then Montana State College. The Bozeman area suited him perfectly, offering as it did both interesting research opportunities in microbiology, as well as a wealth of opportunities for hiking in the mountains, summer and winter camping, skiing, hunting and fishing, and canoeing.

While at Montana State, research on microorganisms in Yellowstone geothermal waters became one of Ken's main professional interests. He was the first person to identify what are now called extremophiles, in this case thermophile organisms living in water previously thought to be too hot to support life. The study of extremophiles has become a major scientific enterprise since that time.

Ken lived in Bozeman for the rest of his life, except for a two-year research sabbatical in Australia, another year-long sabbatical in England, and two years late in life in a retirement community near his daughter Susan in the Seattle area.

Ken enjoyed a wide range of activities. His love of square dancing and playing the accordion continued all his life. He loved dogs and was very interested in all wildlife, whether that meant watching a nearby mountain lion, building bluebird houses, or videotaping wildflowers. Ken joined colleagues in winter ski-camping across parts of northern Yellowstone, hiking up Blackmore and in the Spanish Peaks, and climbing Granite Peak. He was also very family-oriented and enjoyed joining his children in recreational activities such as skiing, hiking, chess, and word games like Scrabble and Jotto. Ken and Ruth delivered Meals on Wheels together for decades. Especially after his retirement from MSU, Ken enjoyed playing and eventually teaching bridge (although he was never as good at it as Ruth). He read widely in literature, science, religion, and other areas. Science fiction was among his favorites. He had a good understanding of language, and would grimace if someone used a word incorrectly. Ken and Ruth enjoyed taking the family on long road trip vacations, including visiting relatives on the east coast, exploring national parks, and on one occasion venturing into southern Mexico.

Kenneth was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Ralph and Willard, and his wife Ruth. He is survived by his three children, George of St. Paul, MN, Judson of Oklahoma City, OK, and Susan of Bellevue, WA; five granddaughters, Anya Temple, Sarah Temple, Kate O'Donnell, Kirsten Temple, and Julie Whitten, two great-grandsons, Connor and Alexander Whitten; and by his sister, Winifred Schumacher of PA.

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Obituary: Kenneth L. Temple, 1918 - 2013

Cellular transport breakthrough earns trio 2013 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine – Video

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Cellular transport breakthrough earns trio 2013 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine
James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas Suedhof announced in Stockholm as joint winners of the 2013 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine.

By: Affect Booble

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Cellular transport breakthrough earns trio 2013 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine - Video

Circuit Training: A Fastrack To Fitness With Perth Exercise Physiology | Call (08) 9444 8729 – Video

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Circuit Training: A Fastrack To Fitness With Perth Exercise Physiology | Call (08) 9444 8729
Circuit Training: A Fastrack To Fitness With Perth Exercise Physiology | Physiotherapy in Perth To know more about Circuit Training, visit i Physio Perth: http://iPhysioPerth.com.au or Call...

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Circuit Training: A Fastrack To Fitness With Perth Exercise Physiology | Call (08) 9444 8729 - Video

“I danced around” – Interview with Randy W. Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine – Video

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"I danced around" - Interview with Randy W. Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
Telephone interview with Randy W. Schekman following the announcement of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The interviewer is Nobelprize.org #39;s ...

By: Nobel Prize

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"I danced around" - Interview with Randy W. Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine - Video

Thomas Südhof wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

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By Krista Conger

Thomas Sudhof won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Neuroscientist Thomas Sdhof, MD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

He shared the prize with James Rothman, PhD, a former Stanford professor of biochemistry, and Randy Schekman, PhD, who earned his doctorate at Stanford under the late Arthur Kornberg, MD, another winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The three were awarded the prize "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells." Rothman is now a professor at Yale University, and Schekman is a professor at UC-Berkeley.

"I'm absolutely surprised," said Sdhof, 57, who was in the remote town of Baeza in Spain to attend a conference and give a lecture. "Every scientist dreams of this. I didn't realize there was chance I would be awarded the prize. I am stunned and really happy to share the prize with James Rothman and Randy Schekman."

Sdhof noted that, although he hasn't directly worked with either of the other winners, their work was complementary and he called the Nobel committee "ingenious" in pairing the three of them. The researchers will share a prize that totals roughly $1.2 million, with about $413,600 going to each.

"Tom Sdhof has done brilliant work that lays a molecular basis for neuroscience and brain chemistry," said Roger Kornberg, PhD, Stanford's Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine. Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006. He is the son of Arthur Kornberg, in whose lab Schekman received his doctorate.

Robert Malenka, MD, Stanford's Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is at the conference in Spain with Sdhof, a close collaborator. "He's dazed, tired and happy," Malenka said by phone. "The only time I've seen him happier was when his children were born."

Sdhof, the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine, received the award for his work in exploring how neurons in the brain communicate with one another across gaps called synapses. Although his work has focused on the minutiae of how molecules interact on the cell membranes, the fundamental questions he's pursuing are large.

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Thomas Südhof wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

"Evaluating the Utility of a Differentially Private Behavioral Science Dataset" (CRCS Seminar) – Video

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"Evaluating the Utility of a Differentially Private Behavioral Science Dataset" (CRCS Seminar)
CRCS Lunch Seminar (Wednesday, October 2, 2013) Speaker: Raquel Hill, Harvard CRCS and Indiana University Title: Evaluating the Utility of a Differentially P...

By: Harvard #39;s CRCS

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"Evaluating the Utility of a Differentially Private Behavioral Science Dataset" (CRCS Seminar) - Video

2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic in cells

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Oct. 7, 2013 The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Sdhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.

Summary

The 2013 Nobel Prize honors three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and chemical signals called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel Laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.

Randy Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. James Rothman unravelled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. Thomas Sdhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.

Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Sdhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.

How cargo is transported in the cell

In a large and busy port, systems are required to ensure that the correct cargo is shipped to the correct destination at the right time. The cell, with its different compartments called organelles, faces a similar problem: cells produce molecules such as hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines and enzymes that have to be delivered to other places inside the cell, or exported out of the cell, at exactly the right moment. Timing and location are everything. Miniature bubble-like vesicles, surrounded by membranes, shuttle the cargo between organelles or fuse with the outer membrane of the cell and release their cargo to the outside. This is of major importance, as it triggers nerve activation in the case of transmitter substances, or controls metabolism in the case of hormones. How do these vesicles know where and when to deliver their cargo?

Traffic congestion reveals genetic controllers

Randy Schekman was fascinated by how the cell organizes its transport system and in the 1970s decided to study its genetic basis by using yeast as a model system. In a genetic screen, he identified yeast cells with defective transport machinery, giving rise to a situation resembling a poorly planned public transport system. Vesicles piled up in certain parts of the cell. He found that the cause of this congestion was genetic and went on to identify the mutated genes. Schekman identified three classes of genes that control different facets of the cells transport system, thereby providing new insights into the tightly regulated machinery that mediates vesicle transport in the cell.

Docking with precision

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2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic in cells

Got beer? Thank a microbiologist

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Beauty and the yeast

Rebecca Newman, quality control manager with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery says the microbiology of yeast is crucial to a beer's taste. (4:02)

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WASHINGTON - A beer drinker looking to quench his thirst might not give a second thought to what microbiologists call "the master ingredient" in beer.

"I think the typical consumer doesn't really think about the yeast, but if it goes wrong they'll definitely know it was a yeast problem," says Rebecca Newman, quality control manager for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

Newman was recruited by Anheuser-Busch right out of college in the mid-'80s, armed with a degree in food science and technology.

She and Charlie Bamforth, Ph.D., Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences, University of California - Davis, will be speaking Thursday evening at the headquarters of the American Society for Microbiology, in an event called "The Microbiology of Beer."

The American Academy of Microbiology produced a report entitled "If the yeast ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

"I look at yeast as being the conductor of an orchestra, with all the ingredients as the instruments that would go into making the different beers," says Newman.

And I look at the yeast as conducting all those ingredients to come up with a final beer flavor," says Newman.

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Got beer? Thank a microbiologist

PathoGenetix Research Shows Rapid Identification of Multiple Salmonella Serovars in Food Samples

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Woburn, MA (PRWEB) October 09, 2013

PathoGenetix, Inc., a commercial-stage developer of an automated system for rapid bacterial identification, will present new research today demonstrating the use of Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology to confirm and identify multiple serovars of Salmonella in enriched food samples in less than five hours. The data, included in a poster presentation at the 4th American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Conference on Salmonella in Boston, add to a growing body of research demonstrating the use of PathoGenetixs proprietary genotyping technology to reliably identify pathogens of public health and food safety significance, including Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STECs).

The study evaluated the use of GSS in molecular serotyping and sub-typing of Salmonella, and as a tool for simultaneous detection of multiple serovars of Salmonella in complex mixtures. The study results show that GSS can be used to infer the serotype of an unknown Salmonella strain, based on the location of the strain on the GSS tree and the identity of its neighbors. The results also demonstrate the ability of GSS to shorten the time to just five hours for pathogen subtyping and serotype determination from an enriched food sample, including those containing multiple serovars.

Because Genome Sequence Scanning is culture independent, and fully automated from sample preparation to final report, the technology greatly reduces the time, complexity and skill required when compared to other molecular and next generation sequencing (NGS) identification approaches. The strain-type information provided by GSS is comparable to pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the current standard for pathogen typing in foodborne outbreak investigation and response. As a result, GSS offers a powerful new tool for epidemiological investigations and outbreak monitoring that can enable quicker decisions affecting food safety and public health. The GSS technology will be commercially available in 2014 in the RESOLUTION Microbial Genotyping System.

According to the American Society of Microbiology, Salmonella infections continue to be a major public health problem in many parts of the world. In the U.S., Salmonella is the leading cause of foodborne illnesses leading to hospitalization and death. The Salmonella genus has more than 2,500 serotypes or serovars, based on the antigens that the organism presents on its surface. In the U.S., Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are the most common serotypes, accounting for half of all Salmonella infections in people.

The 4th ASM Conference on Salmonella brings together scientists from a variety of backgrounds to present the most recent research and discoveries in the field, including new approaches in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infections. PathoGenetixs research, entitled Evaluation of Genome Sequence Scanning technology for molecular (sub)-serotyping of Salmonella and simultaneous detection of multiple Salmonella serovars in complex mixtures is being presented in a poster session on October 9.

The research tested the strain typing capability of GSS using more than 400 strains and genome sequences representing the most frequently encountered Salmonella serovars from food products associated with human illness. The results show that Genome Sequence Scanning clustered Salmonella strains into serovar-specific branches on the GSS tree, clearly demarcating the major serovars from each other. Polyphyletic lineage serovars like S. Newport and S. Saintpaul formed more than one distinctly separated branch on the tree, reflecting the genetic heterogeneity within these serovars. GSS assigned correct serovar designations to strains untypeable by conventional serotyping and to antigenic variants of serovars based on genetic similarity. Genome Sequence Scanning also reliably detected the presence of up to three different serovars of Salmonella in the presence of complex background flora, demonstrating the technologys ability to provide strain information directly from complex mixtures.

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About PathoGenetix, Inc.

PathoGenetix, Inc. is a commercial-stage developer of an automated system for rapid bacterial identification from complex samples. PathoGenetix is a venture-backed company that has received more than $50 million in technology development funding from the Department of Homeland Security. The core Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology analyzes DNA from an enriched biological samplewithout the need for a cultured isolateand provides results in five hours. GSS has broad applicability in food safety, industrial microbiology, and clinical diagnostics and research. The GSS technology will be available in the RESOLUTION Microbial Genotyping System in 2014 for use in food safety testing and foodborne illness outbreak investigations. Learn more at http://www.pathogenetix.com.

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PathoGenetix Research Shows Rapid Identification of Multiple Salmonella Serovars in Food Samples