Albert Schatz (scientist)

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Albert Schatz (scientist) bigraphy, stories - American scientist

Albert Schatz (scientist) : biography

02 February 1922 – 17 January 2005

Albert Schatz (2 February 1920 – 17 January 2005) was the co-discoverer of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy used to treat tuberculosis and a number of other diseases. Originally, the discovery of streptomycin was credited only to Schatz’s supervisor, Selman Waksman who won the 1952 Nobel Prize for the discovery./

Biography

Schatz was born in Norwich, Connecticut on February 2, 1920. His parents were Jewish-Russian and English and he was raised on a farm. After a change of direction from farmer to pedology following a course by Dr. Jacob Joffe, Schatz began graduate school at Rutgers University, at Selman Waksman’s laboratory, and eventually went on to earn his Ph.D. from Rutgers.

With a meager stipend, Schatz lived in a small room in a greenhouse at the university. In early 1942, he was drafted into the Army and served as a laboratory aide at Miami Hospital, where he saw young soldiers die from infections resistant to penicillin. This led him to look for soil bacteria capable of inhibiting the growth of penicillin resistant microbes. He sent some promising strains to Waksman for further testing.

In early 1943, Schatz was discharged from the army due to problems with his back, returned to graduate school, and continued work on soil bacteria in Waksman’s basement laboratory at Cook College in Rutgers University. Waksman was at the last stages of purifying streptomycin, testing it at an external lab in vivo in animals, and formulating the procedures for isolating antibiotic-producing bacteria.

In 1945 Schatz received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

According to co-worker and friend Professor George Pieczenik, of Rutgers University, Schatz was known to sleep in his basement laboratory. When he married his wife Vivian, they had to move a bed into the lab, which was so small that they had to "lean it against the wall just so that it would fit".This needs further checking, following the book and movie. As far as I understand, his wife met him only after the discovery became famous.

Despite these conditions, Schatz took only three months to isolate two strains of Actinobacteria capable of stopping the growth of several penicillin-resistant bacteria, on October 19, 1943. It is important to note that this headline is misleading, since Schatz never publicly claimed that Waksman had no part in the discovery, and in the final agreement, Schatz received 3% while Waksman still received 10% of the prize money.

Schatz was listed second on the patent after Waksman; first on the scientific paper; and, soon after the discovery, published his doctoral thesis on the discovery of streptomycin.

Originally the discovery of streptomycin was credited only to Schatz’s supervisor, Selman Waksman, who would receive a Nobel Prize for this work in 1952. Schatz, however, strongly contested the crediting and in 1950 brought litigation against Waksman, requesting recognition as streptomycin’s co-discoverer and a portion of streptomycin royalties. Schatz’s demands were eventually granted in an out-of-court settlement when he was given 3% of the royalties, to Waksman’s 10%.

Schatz held faculty positions at Brooklyn College; the National Agricultural College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania; and the University of Chile. He joined the Temple University faculty in 1969 and retired in 1981.

Schatz was awarded the Rutgers medal in 1994 for his work on developing streptomycin.

In the 1990s, Schatz supported the research on microbes using co-creative science at the , calling co-creative science "the most important advance in the history of science." Citing the increasing problem of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, he wrote, "We may win battles, but microbes will win the war unless we approach them differently."

Schatz was a socialist, an active environmentalist, and was involved in local welfare, cooperatives, and community recycling projects. As an example of his community involvement, in 2003 Schatz volunteered at the nearby Weavers Way (co-op), sharpening knives. He campaigned against water fluoridation and argued for a "proteolysis-chelation theory" of tooth decay,Wainwright M. (2005). . The Independent. which was criticized as "more philosophic than experimental".

In 2004, author co-wrote the book with Schatz. The book chronicled his discovery of streptomycin and his meeting Auerbacher, a holocaust survivor and recipient of his antibiotic. A documentary of the same title, Finding Dr. Schatz, directed by Richard Colosi of Rochester, New York, was released in 2009.

Schatz died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Philadelphia on 17 January 2005.

Legacy

Albert Schatz’s archives were donated to the Temple University Library.