Encomium: Theodore puck, a life in biophysics applied to medicine

Abstract

Ted Puck is a unique and outstanding individual. The accompanying autobiography is testament to the amount and variety of significant scientific work he has produced. There is no question that he has made seminal contributions to the understanding of human genetics, molecular biology, and health. As described in his autobiography, from the time he received his Ph.D. in 1940 he has been dedicated to the application of the quantitative principles of the physical sciences to problems of human biology, particularly those involving medicine. As an example of this desire to have an impact on medicine, in 1959 he offered me, a practicing pediatrician, a faculty position in his department. I was the only M.D. in the department, and we have collaborated closely and fruitfully ever since.An unusual thing about Ted is that at his current age of 78 he still continues to work excitedly on major problems of biology which affect medicine. At a time when most molecular biologists are isolating new genes and relating them to specific diseases, important as that is, Ted is trying t o quantitate and define the major problems of mutagenesis, differentiation, and carcinogenesis, all of which have a tremendous influence on human health.One of his most creative insights, which is the basis of what we today call somatic cell genetics, is his development of the "mammalian cell as a micro-organism.'' He has been aptly described as the "inventor of somatic cell genetics" [Editorial, Nature New Biology, 243:65, May 16, 19731. He has been constantly devoted to improving the quality of medical and graduate education. For years he ran a course for medical students in biophysics which conveyed to them the excitement and the rigors of the "new biology" of the 1960s. Both locally and nationally he has constantly pressed for modernizing medical education with greater emphasis on preventive medicine and the use of quantitative understanding rather than empiricism in diagnosis and treatment of disease.