The Oswald T. Avery Collection

Title:

Letter from Oswald T. Avery to Joshua Lederberg

Description:

In this response to a request, Avery informed Lederberg that neither he nor Walther Goebel retained any quantity of p-nitrophenol galactoside from their 1929 study. Avery enclosed with this letter a reprint of a 1934 article by Goebel and F. H. Babers that outlined a method for its synthesis. Enclosed article is not in the collection.

Item is a photocopy.

Number of Image Pages:

1 (42,357 Bytes)

Date:

1948-01-20 (January 20, 1948)

Creator:

Avery, Oswald T.

Recipient:

Lederberg, Joshua

Rights:

Courtesy of Joshua Lederberg.

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Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Equipment and Supplies

Exhibit Categories:

The "Sugar-Coated Microbe" and the Search for a Cure for Pneumonia, 1919-1929

Transduction, Plasmids, and the Foundation of Biotechnology

Relation:

Letter from Joshua Lederberg to Oswald T. Avery (January 15, 1948)

Box Number: 1

Folder Number: 2

Unique Identifier:

CCAAFS

Document Type:

Letters (correspondence)

Language:

English

Format:

application/pdf

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Series: Personal and Biographical, 1931-2000

Folder: Additional Materials Relating to O.T. Avery, 1931-1948, 1960-1972, 1987-1999

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2006-12-15

Annotation by Joshua Lederberg:

JL: Comment 1/30/99:
Although O. T. Avery had a cardinal role of intellectual influence on my
life, I had almost no personal contact with him.  Supra is the only item
of correspondence; and I did call on him ca. 1946-47 -- perhaps there will
be some record of that in my correspondence with Harriett  Taylor, who was
working with him at the time.

The literature reference is:

Goebel WF; Avery OT
Chemo-immunological studies on conjugated carbohydrate-proteins.  1. The
synthesis of p-aminophenol beta-glucoside, p-aminophenol beta-galactoside,
and their coupling with serum globulin.  Journal of Experimental Medicine
50: 521-531  1929
--------------
This has to do with my quest for chromogenic substrates to be used in the
assay of B-galactosidase, in particular for the nitrophenyl galactoside. 
This was an intermediate in the synthesis of the aminophenyl compounds
used in the Avery/Goebel and Landsteiner immunochemical studies.  Somewhat
later, I elicited the interest of Karl Paul Link at Wisconsin, and his
student Martin Seidman worked out an excellent synthesis.  See P-21.

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