Sailing to Byzantium

Sailing to Byzantium: Eugene P. Kennedy (1919‐2011)

“…On one occasion, Gene needed to carry out refrigerated centrifugation. So true “to the wax‐and‐string school of experiments” (1), he cleared out one of the refrigerators and placed a centrifuge with a long cord to the power plug into this for his centrifugation. The response of Huggins is not recorded.…”

“…1 of ref. (1)] was not discovered in the Kennedy laboratories, hence, the designation as the Kennedy pathway of lipid biogenesis. These studies in animal tissues were complemented by studies of phospholipid movement between organelles and their participation in organelle biogenesis.…”

“…“ to feel that one has contributed to this splendid enterprise, on however small a scale, is reward enough for labor at the end of the day.” E. P. Kennedy wrote this in “Sailing to Byzantium” (1), when commenting on Fritz Lipmann's statement in his Nobel Lecture, “We feel, nevertheless that the drive and urge to explore nature in all its facets is one of the most important functions of humanity.” The first comment is the modest expression of a distinguished scientist and gentleman, whose contributions are landmarks in lipid biochemistry.…”

“…As outlined in detail in his personal memoir (1), Eugene (Gene) Patrick Kennedy was born in Chicago in 1919, the fourth son of Irish immigrants. He began his higher education at De Paul University, having received a scholarship to attend.…”

Filter the Dogs: Microbial Mishaps in Massachusetts

“…In the 1980s, Eugene P. Kennedy figured out why E. coli has trouble in the pond. Kennedy recalls: “Driving home to Brookline from Woods Hole one evening, I [asked] how does a cell detect the osmolarity of the medium in which it is growing (19)? His answer: membrane sugars and lipids permit E. coli to handle the osmotic trauma of leaving our gut to end up in the can (20).…”