Washington University Record, February 19, 1998

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Vol. 22 No. 21 Feb. 19, 1998 Agreement foresees new drugs to thwart bacterial resistance ashington University has signed SIGA will develop effective new drugs an agreement with SIGA Phar for the treatment of Gram-negative bac maceuticals Inc.that gives the terial infections using this technology.” Wcompany exclusive rights to new antibac Most of Hultgren’s work has focused terial technology, allowing SIGA to on strains of E. coli that infect the kidney develop an entirely new class of antibiot and bladder. But the same principles ics that are less likely to be sidelined by apply to many other pathogens, including bacterial resistance than current thera those that cause middle-ear infections, pies. The agreement also provides three pneumonia, meningitis and gonorrhea. years of research funding to the Wash “The knowledge that we generated by ington University scientists who are studying the structure and function of involved in this project. microbial attachment has provided a SIGA Pharmaceuticals is a New York- blueprint for the development of novel based drug development company that antimicrobial produces vaccines, antibiotics and novel therapeutics and anti-infectives. The firm also signed tk B strategies” agreements with Medlmmune and Astra, I S S Hultgren said, two biotech companies that previously i- , E. coli is had licensed the technology from the __ H covered with hair- University. ^ 9 qpr tfjggk I’ke structures Scott J. Hultgren, Ph.D., associate called pili. The professor of molecular microbiology at tips of the pili the School of Medicine, developed the carry proteins that technology. Over the past decade, fit into receptors Hultgren’s group has determined how in the kidney or Gram-negative bacteria manufacture the Scott J. Hultgren bladder lining like structures that allow them to cling to keys into locks. human tissues and therefore cause Firmly anchored the bacteria go about disease. Gram-negative bacteria are their business undisturbed. identified by the pink color they take Hultgren’s team has identified the up in a test known as the Gram stain test. major components along the pilus assem “We are delighted to enter into a bly line. They include a protein that relationship with this exciting new chaperones pilus subunits to the outer biopharmaceutical venture,” said bacterial membrane and another that P. Andrew Neighbour, Ph.D., associate extrudes them to the cell surface. The vice chancellor and director for technol researchers also have identified ogy management. “We are optimistic that Continued on page N Max Beckmann’s “Four Artists Around a Table,” which depicts Beckmann (lower right) and three friends hiding from the Nazis, was painted in 1943 after the artist had fled Germany for the United States. The work is currently on loan from the Science historian warns of neo-eugenics Gallery of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition “Exiles and £migr6s: The Flight of European Artists From Hitler.” n an era when the Human Genome people drained the economies of industri Project is considered the “Holy Grail” ous countries and were burdens best Iof modem biology, a historian of eliminated from the gene pool. Expatriation issues threaten art loans, science warns that society runs a risk of Among the ramifications of the eugen becoming too confident that science can ics movement, which was funded by some worry museum curators, Ketner says solve most human problems. of America’s wealthiest industrialists and One possible outcome could be a new philanthropists, were the Immigration ast month’s confiscation o f two On the heels of similar challenges at form of eugenics emerging in our society, Restriction Act of 1924, which restricted paintings from New York’s such high-profile institutions as the Art said Garland E. Allen, Ph.D., professor of immigrants of “inferior biological stock” Museum of Modem Art (MOM A) Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine biology in Arts and Sciences, in a lecture from central European and Mediterranean L delivered Saturday, Feb. 14, at a major countries, and compulsory sterilization has dramatized the dilemma facing mu Arts in Boston and New York’s Metro seum curators dealing with artworks seized politan Museum, the incident has pro national conference. laws in 32 states that led to more than before, during and after World War II. voked much discussion in the interna Eugenics was a social movement preva 60,000 sterilizations of both men and The debate on expatriation has been tional museum world. lent in Western culture from 1900 to 1940 women between 1907 and the mid-1960s. simmering for years but came to a boil “The big, blockbuster-style exhibi that claimed many social, personality and Allen said that simplistic genetic ideas Jan. 7 when New York authorities issued tions are highly dependent on borrow mental traits were hereditary. This claim were a classic trademark of eugenic think a subpoena to prevent two canvases by ing,” explained Joseph D. Ketner, direc led to a belief that “bad heredity” in the ing. For example, in the 1920s, eugeni Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele, on tor of the Gallery of Art, who regularly poor, the working class and certain racial cists classified behavioral problems such loan to MOMA by the Austrian govern authorizes the loan of important works and ethnic groups was the cause of large- as criminality, manic depressive insanity, ment-backed Leopold Foundation, from from the University’s collection. In fact, scale social problems. schizophrenia, pauperism and even returning to Austria. The supoena was two of the gallery’s major holdings — Eugenicists sought to correct these “thalassophilia” (love of the sea) as inher based on a lawsuit filed by American Max Beckmann’s 1943 “Four Artists problems by reducing the birth-rate among ited traits. Critics at the time pointed out that such heirs of collectors from whom the works Around a Table” and Max Ernst’s 1943 those deemed genetically defective and claims lacked any substantial evidence had allegedly been seized by the Nazis “The Eye of Silence” — are currently increasing it among those deemed geneti cally superior. The emphasis on better and were being made irresponsibly. But prior to the war. The paintings now await included in the Los Angeles County human breeding and racial purity became eugenicists ignored criticism and pressed the outcome of a criminal inquiry into Museum of Art’s exhibition “Exiles and part of the stock-in-trade of the Nazi their points in the popular media and the their provenance. Emigres: The Flight of European Artists From Hitler,” which is traveling now to ideology that emerged so dramatically just political arena. Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. “The fear before and during World War II. In viewing the present, Allen sees some In this issue ... is that cases like these will have a damp Allen, delivering the George Sarton similarities to the approach eugenicists ening effect on institutions’ ability to Lecture last weekend at the annual meet took 75 years ago. He cited an array both Overcoming obstacles......2 arrange those sorts of shows.” ing of the American Association for the of behaviors and of social problems rang For Ketner, the issue is of more than Advancement of Science (AAAS), traced ing from depression, risk-taking and homo Addressing older women’s fears professional interest. As the nephew of the history of eugenics and drew parallels sexuality to criminality and substance of mammography might Increase curator Alexander Dorner, a famous early between the early movement and current abuse that many psychiatrists and psy likelihood of getting examinations supporter of so-called “entartete kunst” trends. The lecture was titled “Genetics, chologists today consider to be predomi Change management........3 or “degenerate art,” it is also one of Eugenics and the Medicalization of So nantly genetically based. The evidence for family history. cial Behavior: Lessons from the Past.” such claims, Allen stated is about as Jean Milburn has helped shape “The whole issue of expatriating Eugenics led to concerns for the “bur simplistic as eugenicist claims of the past major change at the John M. Olin culture is very tied up with how my den of the poor,” racial degeneracy and and has little more solid data behind it. School of Business family came to this country,” Ketner said. the call for increased “national effi Garland believes this view is coupled “From 1925 to 1936, my uncle was ciency” in Depression-era America and with a naive notion that the Human ‘fires In the Mirror’ ............6 director of the Landesmusuem in throughout Europe, especially in Ger Genome Project, once completed will A compelling play explores race Hanover, Germany, where he was among many, Allen explained. In arguing for reveal everything about human biology, relations issues rising out of Black- the first to purchase works by artists like increased national efficiency, eugenicists and science will be better able to cope Jtwlsh conflict In New York Continued on page 6 claimed that genetically “deficient” Continued on page 6 2 Washington University Record Medical Update Mammography messages need to be tailored for older women bout half of US. deaths from Women who were not considering breast cancer each year occur getting mammograms were somewhat in women who are 65 years of more likely to believe that breast can Aage or older. Yet older women, espe cer is a young woman’s disease, that cially minorities, get the fewest finding a cancerous lump would likely mammograms. A new School of lead to a mastectomy, and that a woman Medicine study suggests that doctors who protects her breasts from being may help turn this trend around by bumped, bruised or fondled is less addressing women’s fears o f finding a likely to get breast cancer.

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