Title:

Letter from Oswald T. Avery to Joshua Lederberg

Creator:

Avery, Oswald Theodore, 1877-1955

Recipient:

Lederberg, Joshua

Date:

20 January 1948

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.

Location:

Box: 1. Folder: 2

Rights:

Courtesy of Joshua Lederberg.

Disclaimer:

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Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Subject:

Equipment and Supplies

Format:

Text

Extent:

1 pages

Relation:

Letter from Joshua Lederberg to Oswald T. Avery, 1948

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

CCAAFS

NLM ID:

101584575X132

Profiles Collection:

The Oswald T. Avery Collection

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584575X132

Annotation:

Author: Joshua Lederberg. Date Written: February 8, 1999. 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.

Story Section:

Transduction, Plasmids, and the Foundation of Biotechnology