An Amazing Journey

Abstract

This article describes my early life and the chance events leading to my becoming a microbiologist and then my embarking on a career developing the plasmid biology and genetics of lactococci used in milk fermentations. MY LIFE: THE FIRST 18 YEARSWhy and how did I become a scientist? I attempt to present my background and the series of events that led to a successful career in the area of dairy starter cultures. The latter seemed to be by chance and serendipity. I was born in Oregon in 1943. My Dad never completed the sixth grade, and both my parents had a strong work ethic. By the time I was 10, I could saw wood with a crosscut and handle an ax to split the wood. I also worked picking berries on a farm and could "out pick" everyone except for two adult workers, and I was the only one allowed to pick in special sections with them. In essence, at an early age I, too, acquired a strong work ethic and was motivated to do my best at whatever task I encountered. When I was 11, my parents lost everything. I had come home from school to find a trailer hitched to our car with our household belongings loaded onto it. We moved around and I attended school for a week in one place and a month in another until we moved to Montana. There, my parents purchased a one-room cabin without running water, which was located on a lakefront property approximately 12 miles east of Kalispell. Our family of five lived in that one room for a year before my parents bought a home on an adjacent lot. Because of the move to Montana, I never completed the sixth grade but was allowed to start the seventh grade. The two-room school had four grades in each room and one teacher for each room. I had a stuttering problem and did not want the other kids in the school to know. So, for the first six weeks I would not respond when called on in class. When asked about this at the first parent/teacher conference, my mom answered that I was probably afraid of stuttering. The teacher never pushed the issue, and eventually I was comfortable responding in class. Even then I must have been a determined individual! Although I never stuttered again, this early issue is likely related to my feeling comfortable advising students (see Table 1) one-on-one but not always feeling comfortable speaking to groups of people, unless I am well prepared.For the next six years, living by the lake and mountains was paradise, a dream (swimming, ice skating, fishing, water and snow skiing, hiking in the mountains, and seeing the local wildlife). The home my parents had purchased was a small two-bedroom dwelling, so my brother and I slept in the attic above the garage. We slept there year-round, even though the space was unheated. The Montana winters do indeed get cold, and the coldest night in the five years we slept there was minus 39• C. It must have been good for my health because from the eighth grade to the end of high school I never missed a day of school. After I was in my profession, my mom told me that upon graduating from the eighth grade, the high school counse...

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“…For example, the microbes encoded a variety of cell-surface proteins and structural components (e.g., S-layer proteins, mucus-binding proteins, machinery for synthesis of LTA) implicated in adherence to mucus and epithelial cells and important for signaling to immune and dendritic cells (DCs) of the intestinal mucosa ( Johnson & Klaenhammer 2014, Klaenhammer et al 2002, Lightfoot et al 2015. Moreover, we were able to identify numerous regulatory regions encoding systems vital to the microbes' ability to transport and metabolize carbohydrates, lactose, prebiotics, and glycogen (Goh & Klaenhammer 2014, 2015 and sense and adapt to changes in the environment, notably, acid (Kullen & Klaenhammer 1999) and bile tolerance (Pfeiler & Klaenhammer 2009).…”