Thomas D. Brock
Encyclopedia
Thomas Dale Brock is an American
microbiologist
known for his discovery of hyperthermophile
s living in hot springs
at Yellowstone National Park
.
In the late 1960s, Brock discovered high-temperature bacteria living in the Great Fountain region of Yellowstone, and with his colleague Hudson Freeze, they isolated a sample they named Thermus aquaticus
. "Life at High Temperatures", a 1967 article summarizing his research, was published in the journal Science
and led to the study of extremophiles, organisms that live in extreme environments. By 1976, T. aquaticus was found useful for artificially amplifying DNA segments
. Brock's discoveries led to great progress in biology, contributed to new developments in medicine and agriculture, and helped create the new field of biotechnology
.
on September 10, 1926, the only child of Helen Sophia Ringwald, of Chillicothe, Ohio
, and Thomas Carter Brock, of Toronto
, Canada. Though Cleveland was an industrial city, his home was uniquely situated near a farm and forested park with views of Lake Erie
, so that he grew up in an "idyllic environment", surrounded by nature.
Brock's father, who had never received a formal education, had encouraged Brock to pursue university, and taught Brock how to assemble electrical equipment. At the age of 10, Brock received a chemistry set as a Christmas present, and his father helped him setup a basement laboratory. When Brock was 15, his father became seriously ill, and the family moved back to his mother's home in Ohio. Months later, Brock's father died, leaving the family in a state of poverty. Brock immediately went to work for $0.25 per hour to support himself and his mother in various odd jobs.
Although Brock had decided to attend college and become a chemist
, World War II
was in progress. After graduating from high school, Brock joined the United States Navy
and spent more than a year in their electronics program.
Under the G.I. Bill, Brock began attending Ohio State University
in 1946, initially with aspirations of becoming a writer, yet still drawn to chemistry and science. He earned a B.Sc.
(1949), M.Sc.
(1950), and Ph.D.
(1952)
in botany
, specializing in experimental mycology
and yeast
physiology
. His graduate work centered on the mushroom Morchella esculenta
and the yeast Hansenula anomala
.
, where out of necessity he became self-taught in microbiology
and molecular biology
. By the time he left Upjohn, he had published six papers in respectable journals and become a member of the Society of American Bacteriologists. In 1957, Brock joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Western Reserve University
. In 1960, he accepted the position of assistant professor of bacteriology at Indiana University
, where he was promoted to full professorship in 1964. He moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison
in 1971 and became chairman of the Department of Bacteriology in 1979.
From 1965 through 1975, Brock conducted field and laboratory research on thermophilic microorganisms in Yellowstone National Park, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation
. From a sample of pink bacteria collected from Mushroom Spring, Brock and undergraduate student Hudson Freeze isolated an organism thriving at 70°C (160°F) which they named Thermus aquaticus. The ability of T. aquaticus to tolerate high heat would, 20 years later, make possible the invention of a procedure called polymerase chain reaction
. PCR utilizes an enzyme in T. aquaticus, now known as Taq polymerase
, to speed up DNA replication
. The process, invented by Kary Mullis
, won a Nobel Prize
.
In 1998, Brock helped update and contribute to a new version of René Dubos
' 1960 book, Pasteur and Modern Science. In 1999, he translated and edited Milestones in Microbiology 1546 to 1940, a collection of the most important papers in early microbiology, including work by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur
, Robert Koch
, and Joseph Lister
. Also released in the same year was Brock's Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology, a biography of German physician Robert Koch.
Brock is retired and holds the E.B. Fred Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
. During his career, Brock published more than 250 papers and 20 books, and received numerous science and education awards.
The thermophilic bacterial species, Thermoanaerobacter brockii, is named after Brock.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
microbiologist
Microbiologist
A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...
known for his discovery of hyperthermophile
Hyperthermophile
A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments— from 60 degrees C upwards. An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is above 80°C . Hyperthermophiles are a subset of extremophiles, micro-organisms within the domain Archaea, although some bacteria...
s living in hot springs
Geothermal areas of Yellowstone
The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles...
at Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
.
In the late 1960s, Brock discovered high-temperature bacteria living in the Great Fountain region of Yellowstone, and with his colleague Hudson Freeze, they isolated a sample they named Thermus aquaticus
Thermus aquaticus
Thermus aquaticus is a species of bacterium that can tolerate high temperatures, one of several thermophilic bacteria that belong to the Deinococcus-Thermus group...
. "Life at High Temperatures", a 1967 article summarizing his research, was published in the journal Science
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
and led to the study of extremophiles, organisms that live in extreme environments. By 1976, T. aquaticus was found useful for artificially amplifying DNA segments
Polymerase chain reaction
The polymerase chain reaction is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence....
. Brock's discoveries led to great progress in biology, contributed to new developments in medicine and agriculture, and helped create the new field of biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
.
Early life
Thomas Dale Brock was born in Cleveland, OhioCleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
on September 10, 1926, the only child of Helen Sophia Ringwald, of Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
, and Thomas Carter Brock, of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada. Though Cleveland was an industrial city, his home was uniquely situated near a farm and forested park with views of Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
, so that he grew up in an "idyllic environment", surrounded by nature.
Brock's father, who had never received a formal education, had encouraged Brock to pursue university, and taught Brock how to assemble electrical equipment. At the age of 10, Brock received a chemistry set as a Christmas present, and his father helped him setup a basement laboratory. When Brock was 15, his father became seriously ill, and the family moved back to his mother's home in Ohio. Months later, Brock's father died, leaving the family in a state of poverty. Brock immediately went to work for $0.25 per hour to support himself and his mother in various odd jobs.
Although Brock had decided to attend college and become a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was in progress. After graduating from high school, Brock joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and spent more than a year in their electronics program.
Under the G.I. Bill, Brock began attending Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
in 1946, initially with aspirations of becoming a writer, yet still drawn to chemistry and science. He earned a B.Sc.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
(1949), M.Sc.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
(1950), and Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
(1952)
in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, specializing in experimental mycology
Mycology
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...
and yeast
Yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
. His graduate work centered on the mushroom Morchella esculenta
Morchella esculenta
Morchella esculenta, is a species of fungus in the Morchellaceae family of the Ascomycota. It is one of the most readily recognized of all the edible mushrooms and highly sought after...
and the yeast Hansenula anomala
Pichia
Pichia is a genus of yeasts in the family Saccharomycetaceae with spherical, elliptical or oblong acuminate cells. Pichia is a teleomorph, and forms during sexual reproduction hat-shaped, hemispherical or round ascospores. The anamorphs of some Pichia species are Candida species...
.
Career
After completing his Ph.D, Brock took a position in the antibiotics research department at the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, MichiganKalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...
, where out of necessity he became self-taught in microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
and molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
. By the time he left Upjohn, he had published six papers in respectable journals and become a member of the Society of American Bacteriologists. In 1957, Brock joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
. In 1960, he accepted the position of assistant professor of bacteriology at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, where he was promoted to full professorship in 1964. He moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
in 1971 and became chairman of the Department of Bacteriology in 1979.
From 1965 through 1975, Brock conducted field and laboratory research on thermophilic microorganisms in Yellowstone National Park, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
. From a sample of pink bacteria collected from Mushroom Spring, Brock and undergraduate student Hudson Freeze isolated an organism thriving at 70°C (160°F) which they named Thermus aquaticus. The ability of T. aquaticus to tolerate high heat would, 20 years later, make possible the invention of a procedure called polymerase chain reaction
Polymerase chain reaction
The polymerase chain reaction is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence....
. PCR utilizes an enzyme in T. aquaticus, now known as Taq polymerase
Taq polymerase
thumb|228px|right|Structure of Taq DNA polymerase bound to a DNA octamerTaq polymerase is a thermostable DNA polymerase named after the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus from which it was originally isolated by Thomas D. Brock in 1965...
, to speed up DNA replication
DNA replication
DNA replication is a biological process that occurs in all living organisms and copies their DNA; it is the basis for biological inheritance. The process starts with one double-stranded DNA molecule and produces two identical copies of the molecule...
. The process, invented by Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis
Kary Banks Mullis is a Nobel Prize winning American biochemist, author, and lecturer. In recognition of his improvement of the polymerase chain reaction technique, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and earned the Japan Prize in the same year. The process was first...
, won a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
.
In 1998, Brock helped update and contribute to a new version of René Dubos
René Dubos
René Jules Dubos was a French-born American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, humanist, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book So Human An Animal. He is credited as an author of a maxim "Think globally, act locally"...
' 1960 book, Pasteur and Modern Science. In 1999, he translated and edited Milestones in Microbiology 1546 to 1940, a collection of the most important papers in early microbiology, including work by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
, Robert Koch
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
, and Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, FRS, PC , known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., between 1883 and 1897, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary...
. Also released in the same year was Brock's Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology, a biography of German physician Robert Koch.
Brock is retired and holds the E.B. Fred Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. During his career, Brock published more than 250 papers and 20 books, and received numerous science and education awards.
The thermophilic bacterial species, Thermoanaerobacter brockii, is named after Brock.