Microbiology and Immunology

Parkman, Paul Douglas WORLD OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

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Most parasitic infections can be treated by use of med-

ical and surgical procedures. The best manner of controlling

infection, though, is prevention. Scientists have developed and

continue to test a number of drugs that can be taken as a bar-

rier, or prophylaxis, to certain parasites. Other measures of

control include improving sanitary conditions of water and

food sources, proper cooking techniques, education about per-

sonal hygiene, and control of intermediate and vector host

organisms.

PParkman, Paul DouglasARKMAN, PAULDOUGLAS(1932- )

American physician

Paul Parkman isolated the rubella (German measles) virus

and, with Harry Martin Meyer (1928–2001), co-discovered

the first widely applicable test for rubella antibodies and the

vaccineagainst rubella.

Born in Auburn, New York, on May 29, 1932, the son of

Stuart Douglas Parkman, a postal clerk, and his wife Mary née

Klumpp, a homemaker, Parkman graduated from Weedsport,

New York, High School in 1950. His father also served on the

Weedsport Central School Board of Education and raised

turkeys and chickens to help finance his son’s education.

Parkman took advantage of a special three-year premedical

program at St. Lawrence University, majored in biology, and

received both his M.D. from the State University of New York

Upstate Medical Center College of Medicine (now Upstate

Medical University) and his B.S. from St. Lawrence together

in 1957.

After his internship at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital,

Cooperstown, New York, from 1957 to 1958, and his residency

in pediatrics at the Upstate Medical Center Hospitals from

1958 to 1960, Parkman joined the army and was assigned to

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. In 1963,

he began working for the Division of Biologics Standards,

National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a virologist. From 1963

to 1972, he was chief of the Section of General Virologyin the

Laboratory for Viral Immunologyat the Division of Biologics

Standards. In 1973, the Division of Biologics Standards was

transferred to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where

Parkman remained until he retired from federal government

service on July 31, 1990. He served the FDA as director of the

Division of Virology and from 1973 to 1987 in a variety of

roles within the Bureau of Biology and the Center for Drugs

and Biologics. From 1987 to 1990, he was the founding direc-

tor of the Center for Biologics Evaluation. After his retirement,

he remained in Kensington, Maryland, to consult on biological

products, especially vaccines.

At Walter Reed in 1960, Parkman and his associates

Edward Louis Buescher (b. 1925) and Malcolm Stewart

Artenstein (b. 1930) found and used an opportunity to study

rubella, which they noticed was common among military

recruits. Simultaneously working on the same problem were

Thomas Huckle Weller (b. 1915) and Franklin Allen Neva (b.

1922) at Harvard Medical School. In 1962 the two teams inde-

pendently succeeded in isolating the virus, a member of the

Togaviridae family, and each published its results in the same

volume of the Proceedings of the Society of Experimental

Biology and Medicine.

Upon developing the first reliable test for rubella anti-

bodies, thus making accurate diagnosis of the disease possible,

Parkman immediately began to create a vaccine from the

attenuated virus. Meyer, Parkman, and Theodore Constantine

Panos (b. 1915) reported successful clinical trials of their vac-

cine in the New England Journal of Medicinein 1966. The last

major rubella epidemic was in 1964. In the 1970s, the rubella

vaccine became a component of the measles-mumps-rubella

vaccine (MMR), now commonly administered to children at

15 months.

See alsoImmunization; Virology

PASSIVE DIFFUSION• seeCELL MEMBRANE TRANS-

PORT

PPasteur, Louis ASTEUR, LOUIS(1822-1895)

French chemist

Louis Pasteur left a legacy of scientific contributions that

include an understanding of how microorganismscarry on the

biochemical process of fermentation, the establishment of the

causal relationship between microorganisms and disease, and

the concept of destroying microorganisms to halt the trans-

mission of communicable disease. These achievements led

him to be called the founder of microbiology.

After his early education, Pasteur went to Paris to study

at the Sorbonne, then began teaching chemistry while still a

student. After being appointed chemistry professor at a new

university in Lille, France, Pasteur began work on yeastcells

and showed how they produce alcohol and carbon dioxide

from sugar during the process of fermentation. Fermentation is

a form of cellular respirationcarried on by yeast cells, a way

of getting energy for cells when there is no oxygen present.

Pasteur found that fermentation would take place only when

living yeast cells were present.

Establishing himself as a serious, hard-working

chemist, Pasteur was called upon to tackle some of the prob-

lems plaguing the French beverage industry at the time. Of

special concern was the spoiling of wine and beer, which

caused great economic loss, and tarnished France’s reputation

for fine vintage wines. Vintners wanted to know the cause of

l’amer, a condition that was destroying France’s best burgundy

wines. Pasteur looked at wine under the microscopeand

noticed that when aged properly, the liquid contained little

spherical yeast cells. But when the wine turned sour, there was

a proliferation of bacterial cells that produced lactic acid.

Pasteur suggested that heating the wine gently at about 120°F

(49°C) would kill the bacteriathat produced lactic acid and let

the wine age properly. Pasteur’s book Etudes sur le Vin, pub-

lished in 1866, was a testament to two of his great passions—

the scientific method and his love of wine. It caused another

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