"Cancer Virus Hunters" by Gregory J. Morgan

That seven Nobel Prizes were awarded directly or indirectly for work in tumor virology illustrates the impact of the field on biomedical understanding. (p. 273)

We've entered a new era in the field of molecular biology. Almost all of the emphasis and excitement these days is based on studies of mammals, especially humans. Most of the big bucks are for studying some aspect of medicine so that even if you are interested in basic science you have to slant it toward curing some disease.

It's a new era because modern scientists seem to be unaware of the history of molecular biology and all the work that was done with bacteria and phage to work out the fundamentals of regulation, transcription, translation, and DNA replication. None of that stuff is taught in undergraduate courses any more and this is not a good thing.

In his book Cancer Virus Hunters, Gregory Morgan reminds us that there's another aspect of that history that we've forgotten. An offshoot of the 'phage group concentrated on mammalian viruses in order to understand how the fundamental principles seen in bacteria and 'phage applied to complex eukaryotes. This was a different approach from those who decided to work with simple eukaryote organisms such as yeast, Drosophila, and Caenorhabditis elegans.

Morgan covers the deliberate strategy of moving into mammalian viruses by creating centers devoted to their study, especially the groups at Cold Spring Harbor that were set up by Jim Watson. The administrative decision to invest in certain fields instead of others is an aspect of science history that's often ignored and it's nice to see it described in this book.

Throughout the book he describes the personalities and the background of the scientists who did the work. Unlike some other books, this isn't just "fluff" designed to soften the impact of the hard science that forms the main part of the book. Morgan uses these descriptions to help us understand why these scientists took the direction they did and why they were prepared to recognize new discoveries. I knew some of those scientists and I can confirm that his descriptions are accurate, although he does tend to be a bit lenient on some of them who, in my opinion, deserve harsher treatment. Of the ones I met, most, but not all, were very nice people

One of the more fascinating stories concerns the discovery of introns and splicing. Few people know that this came out of work on gene expression in cells infected with adenovirus. Morgan describes the initial work of Phil Sharp at MIT and the discovery of a mature mRNA that appeared to be processed from a larger transcript by removing internal sequences. He also covers the work done at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CHSL) by groups headed by Richard ("Rich") Roberts, and separate groups headed by Tom Broker and Louise Chow. (Broker and Chow were married.) If you've ever wondered who did the important work and who got credit—not necessarily the same people—then this is the place to find out.

The chapters on the discovery of oncogenes are fascinating. I hadn't realized that there were so many laboratories working on the same problem; namely, the identification of cellular DNA that could transform cells into cancer cells. There were four or five labs that published within months of each other. I also didn't realize that the mutation that converts the normal cellular version of ras into the oncogene was discovered in 1982.

The story about the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—the virus that causes AIDS—is fascinating. Morgan covers the collaboration and the conflict between Robert Gallo's lab in the United States and Luc Montagnier's lab in France. He tells you whose cultures were contaminated, who was right about the identify of the virus, and whether Gallo really was guilty of scientific misconduct. Montagnier got the Nobel Prize in 2008¹ and Gallo didn't. Was that fair? You'll have to read the book to find out!

... those ignorant of history are not condemned to repeat it; they are merely destined to be confused. Stephen Jay Gould Ontogeny and Phylogeny (1977)The history of HIV has been covered many times but I like the way it's described here in Chapter 14. Morgan is very objective ("just the facts") and he avoids proselytizing. I recommend buying his book for this chapter alone.

There's a chapter on the discovery of human papillomavirus (HPV) that's just as fascinating as all the others. I like the fact that Morgan covers the work of many scientists in different labs and describes both their collaboration and their competition. When it comes to final credit—in this case a Nobel Prize for Harald zur Hausen—the award seems appropriate when Morgan describes it.

The role of patents, vaccines, and getting rich is an unfortunate part of the history of cancer virology and Morgan covers several examples. The patent debates and the lawsuits over the papillomavirus vaccine is just one example in this book. It's not a very flattering account of the behavior of the scientists who did the work but it serves as an illustration of how "pure" science can be easily contaminated when money and drug companies get involved.

The final chapter covers the overall impact of tumor virology on basic science and on the treatment of cancer. Morgan explains how this research impacted science in many ways that aren't all that obvious at first glance. It made me realize that I had not fully appreciated or understood the role of the cancer virus hunters. I do now.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the history of molecular biology. You don't have to know the history of every discovery in your field but if you are going to refer to it in the introduction to your papers then you'd better be sure you get it right.

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1. With Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.