Did you know that Philip Leader, founding Chair of the HMS Department of Genetics, would garner the 1987 Lasker Award for his role in the solution of the genetic basis of antibody diversity? He had earlier made central contributions to the elucidation of the genetic code, and his notebooks related to this, stewarded at the Countway’s Center for the History of Medicine, can be examined online.
Countway’s Center for the History of Medicine holds significant manuscript collections that enable researchers to dig into the history of molecular genetics, cancer research, and virology. We invite you visit our online exhibit, Maximizing Microbiology, to learn more about Harvard Longwood Campus contributions, including those of HMS Microbiology and Molecular Genetics professor Harold Amos (bacterial metabolism and animal and bacterial virology), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, emeritus, Myron Essex, (the link between retroviruses and immunosuppressive disease in animals and human beings, including HIV-AIDS), and HMS William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology Dennis L. Kasper (bacterial infections and bacterial carbohydrates, group B Streptococcus).