History

courtesy of Dr. Robert L. Wixom, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry

The University of Missouri was the first public university west of the Mississippi River (founded in 1839), and it developed the first two-year Medical Department, later called the School of Medicine (1842-1953) west of the Mississippi. In 1953, the two-year program of study was expanded to the present four-years. A course in Physiological Chemistry was introduced in 1907; subsequent growth led to the 1921 formation of the Department of Physiological Chemistry, which in 1954 became the Department of Biochemistry.

The young University of Missouri founded a College of Agriculture in 1862. Agricultural Chemistry was taught in the College in the 1880's and led to the 1894 formation of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry. After considerable discussion and planning in the late 1960's and early 1970's, the Department of Agricultural Chemistry merged in 1974 with the Department of Biochemistry to form the present-day Department of Biochemistry.

During the years 1923-1955, the Agricultural Chemistry department was chaired by Albert G. Hogan, and the emphasis of the program was on nutritional biochemistry. During the years between 1954 and 1978, under the chairmanship of Thomas D. Lucky, the medical school Biochemistry Department was noted for its research on metabolic biochemistry.

Biographical Sketches of Early Department Chairs:

Dr. Albert Garland Hogan (12/31/1884 - 1/25/1961) by Dr. Boyd O'Dell, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry

Dr. Hogan was appointed Professor of Animal Nutrition in Animal Husbandry at University of Missouri in 1920 and was named chair of Agricultural Chemistry in 1923. He held both positions until his retirement in 1955. As professor emeritus he continued an active professional career of writing and consulting in the area of his expertise until his death in 1961.

Dr. Hogan was a native Missourian; he was born near Maryville and received an A.B. degree from the University of Missouri with a major in English in 1907. He later received a B.S. degree in Agriculture and a M.A. degree in Agricultural Chemistry. His masters research involved chemical analysis of a full-term bovine fetus. With this broad educational background he pursued the Ph.D. degree under the tutelage of L.B. Mendel, considered the father of American nutrition, at Yale University where he also worked in the laboratory of T.B. Osborne. He thus became part of the well-known Osborne-Mendel tradition.

Following receipt of the doctoral degree in physiological chemistry, Dr. Hogan spent 1914-1917 at Kansas State University where he taught chemistry and did research on the nutritive value of corn and kafir protein. After two years in the Army during World War I, he accepted a position as professor of physiological chemistry at Alabama University Medical School. It was during this period that he met and married Theodosia Cobb who later came with him to Columbia and cooperated in family affairs and the rearing of their three daughters. Dr. Hogan's wide-ranging academic experiences prepared him well for the challenges of a faculty position at the University of Missouri, where he was asked to teach the science of feeds and feeding to agricultural students and chose to carry out research to determine the nutrients required to sustain the life cycles of animals.

Dr. Hogan's research covered a broad spectrum of nutrition-related topics, including both applied and basic aspects of nutrition, for which he was internationally recognized. Evidence of this recognition are the numerous awards he received: the Mead Johnson Award in 1944 for vitamin research, the Morrison Award in 1951 for domestic animal nutrition, the Borden Award in 1955 primarily for his work with folic acid, and the Osborne-Mendel Award in 1956. The Citation of the last read, "for his development of synthetic rations for use in nutritional studies and for his original investigation in the field of biochemistry and nutrition which made him one of the greatest contributors to the development of our recent knowledge of animal nutrition." Dr. Hogan's research contributed to knowledge of the nutritional requirements of several species, including swine, poultry, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, and pigeons, to the separation and definition of the vitamin B complete, and to the relation of maternal nutrition to the development of congenital malformations in the offspring. Clearly, many of his discoveries had a direct bearing on human nutrition and welfare in as much as they were basic in nature.

One of Dr. Hogan's seminal contributions to the science of nutrition was the discovery in 1939 of a vitamin that prevented a macrocytic anemia in the chicken. This nutrient he named vitamin B_c, now known as folic acid. He developed an assay and procedures that contributed to its eventual isolation and characterization. During the latter phases of folic acid isolation, he cooperated with a research group at Parke Davis and Co. in Detroit where crystallization of the vitamin was achieved. Although folic acid did not prove to be the antipernicous anemia factor as Dr. Hogan had hoped, its biochemical function turned out to be closely related to that of vitamin B₁₂. When these vitamins became available in crystalline form, Dr. Hogan showed that a deficiency of folic acid, and of B₁₂ in the maternal diet led to hydrocephalus and related congenital defects in newborn rats. Thus, the importance of folic acid in fetal development and prevention of neural tube defects was recognized in the 1940s, and the research had important implications for human health, a point that Dr. Hogan fully appreciated. Because of his perceptive intellect and broad interest, he also recognized the potential human health significance of a genetic hemophilia that arose in the University swine herd, and he pursued it biochemical and physiological basis. His work with nutrition and congenital malformations led to the first NIH grant at the University of Missouri, in November 1949. The annual funding rate was $7,500, an average amount for all grants in 1949 when the grant size ranged from $500 to $35,000.

In total, Dr. Hogan published more than 160 papers and reviews in research journals and Experiment Station Bulletins. During the course of his professional career, he supervised 20 PhD candidates and more than 40 Masters degree students. This mentoring of largely native Missouri students lead to a large group of distinguished professors and industrial researchers in the generation following Dr. Hogan's career. Besides his contributions to research and education, Dr. Hogan performed many leadership role at the national level. Not only was he a charter member at the American Institute of Nutrition, but he also served as president of the organization in 1941. At that time he also served as president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. His expertise was sought widely, and he served on numerous editorial and advisory boards.

As chair of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Dr. Hogan was an effective administrator who took pride in accomplishing his goals with a minimal budget, as he commonly said, by the use of "bailing wire and binder twine". Prior to Dr. Hogan's tenure the department was involved primarily in the analysis of animal products, as part of the Missouri Experiment Station. These efforts reflected the interest and focus of the first chair, Paul Schweitzer, an analytical chemist who applied his expertise to the analysis of agricultural products in general. Dr. Hogan's tenure as chair saw the evolution of the Department from one involved primarily in analytical chemistry to one emphasizing the study of nutritional biochemistry.

Dr. Addison Gulick (4/2/1882 - 9/28/1969) by Dr. Richard Dallam

Professor Gulick was appointed Instructor of Physiology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in 1912 and was promoted to Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and in 1921 was appointed Professor of Physiology. In 1931, the Department of Physiological Chemistry was established, and Professor Gulick was selected to be its Chairman. he was Professor and Chairman of Physiological Chemistry until his retirement in 1952 at which time he was given the title of Professor Emeritus of Physiological Chemistry. Professor and Mrs. Gulick retired to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Professor Gulick was born in Osaka, Japan. His parents were both Congregational Missionaries whose mission was largely educational, working with young Japanese boys and girls, and among the scholarly class. He was home schooled by his mother until his parents were move to Hawaii, where he attended high school for two years before finishing at The Oberlin Academy, which was affiliated with Oberlin College in Ohio.

Professor Gulick received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1904, with a major in Biology. He receive a Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1905, with a major in Zoology. He did graduate work in Physiological Chemistry at the University of Strassbourg (Alsace) for two years before receiving his Ph.D."summa cum laude" as a Royal Society of Arts Fellow from the University of Wurzburg (Germany) in 1910, with a major in Zoology.

Professor Gulick was a Teaching Fellow for one year at the University of Toronto, (Canada), 1910-1911, and was appointed Instructor in Physiological Chemistry for one year at the University of Minnesota, 1911-1912.

Professor Gulick was the only member of the Department of Physiology with formal training in chemistry, and was assigned to teach courses offered in not only the Medical School but also in the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Sciences (with the occasional assistance of a Teaching Fellow). Courses he was responsible for during his career included General Physiological Chemistry, Advanced Physiological Chemistry, Toxicology, Advanced Physiology, Research and Journal Club. Following the establishment of the Department of Physiological Chemistry, it wasn't until 1937 that another full time faculty member was appointed in the department.

Professor Gulick's scientific and scholarly interests were influenced to a large extent by his father, the Reverend John Thomas Gulick, Ph.D. Sc.D.. Reverend Gulick was a pioneer missionary to China and the Japan. During all his years of missionary work, his recreation and relaxation came from nature and the prosecution of his scientific studies on the divergent development of the Hawaiian land snails. His results and conclusions were published in a variety of scientific journals and even though he accepted Darwin's point of view of natural selection in general, his own independent researches caused him to challenge Darwin's concept of the working of natural selection. His research compared the effect of inheritable traits and the influence of the environment on biological systems.

There is little doubt that all of his fathers interest in science and religion has an impact on Professor Gulick scholarly endeavors. As a student and throughout his tenure at the University he studied and published in several areas, however, his scientific interests were indirectly or directly focused around projects dealing with genetics, heredity and evolution! As a Ph.D. student, he transferred from the University of Strassbourg only because the research being carried out at the University of Wurzburg was closer to his interests. His Ph.D. thesis was titled Uber die Geschlechtschromosomen bei einigen Nematoden nebst Bemerkungen uber die Bedeuting dieser chromosoman which literally translated is "About the Sex (X and Y) Chromosomes of some Nematodes including a Discussion of the Importance of these Studies." This work was published in Arch. Fur Zellforschung, 6 Band 3 Heft, 1911. During a period when funds for research in biological science was almost non-existent, Professor Gulick turned his research endeavors to studies concerned with how changes in the composition of diets affected the basal metabolism of rats and humans, which had genetic implications. One very extensive non-rat study involved, "A Study of Weight Regulation In The Adult Human Body During Over-Nutrition, " which was published in the American Journal of Physiology 60, 371-395 1922. His question was, "what mechanism (s) is there to prevent the unlimited accumulation of potential energy in the form of an overload of adipose tissue during periods of over-nutrition?" His own heredity constitution indicated that he was derived largely from nonfattening strains, as apposed to the easily fattening type, and therefore, he use himself as the subject, to study basal metabolic changes when on diets of varying composition and calories.

After adhering to a particular diet and a controlled exercise program, periodically he would travel to the Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, where the internationally recognized nutritionist, Dr. F. G. Benedict would have his BMR measured in a chamber that was specifically designed to measure The BMR of humans. His results indicated that even though his caloric intake should have resulted in weight gain, as others had shown with subjects of the easily fattening type, Professor Gulick concluded that there must be genetic factors that regulate how nutrients are utilized in the body. Many years later, Professor Gulick reminisced about this investigation and jokingly stated that the title of the manuscript should have been, "Why I Can't Get Fat!"

During his career, Professor Gulick was recognized nationally, as an intellectual and a scholar (he was capable of reading and translating articles in Sanskrit, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, German, French, Japanese and Spanish into English) and he gained the reputation as an authority on the biochemistry of genetics and evolution. In the 1930's and 1940's he was invited to participate in many symposia, e.g., a Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Nucleic Acids, and was asked to write review articles on "Genes" and "Chromosomes." One such review was entitled "What are Genes I. The Genetic and Evolutionary Picture. II. The Physico-Chemical Picture; Conclusions, "which was published in the Quart. Rev. Biol. 13(1): 1-18; (2): 140-168 1938. These two papers endeavored to place the problem on genes briefly under combined elucidation from the diverse slants of cytology, genetics, biochemistry, and portions of the evolutionary field of study. He summarized "that even though the structure the gene in unknown, they must be made up of a action and an enzyme-like action which may at time exert hormone-like actions." Another review was "The Chemistry of The Chromosomes," which appeared in Bot. Rev., 7: 433-457, 1941. His exhaustive interpretation of the microchemical reactions, and the nature and configuration of the proteins and nucleic acids of chromosomes. One of his most thorough reviews, "The Chemical Formulation of Gene Structure and Gene Action," appeared in Advances of Enzymology, 4: 1-39, 1944, in which he reviewed 225 articles. His summary of gene structure and gene action included a discussion of protein molecules, autosynthetic molecules, the autosynthetic process, chromatin chemistry, genes as chemical mechanisms, chemical evolution, and chemical paleontological concepts. During this time period in the development of biochemical genetics, Professor Gulick truly was recognized as one of the few that had a grasp of the big picture, which by only a few years, proceeded Avery's discovery of DNA as the true genetic material and of Watson and Crick's deciphering of the structure of DNA.

When funds became available for research, Professor Gulick proceeded to the investigation the biochemistry of isolation nuclei, primarily for liver and thymus. her served as preceptor for the first two doctoral students in the Department, both of whom worked on proteins and minerals of isolated cell nuclei. Dennis T. Mayer (Ph.D. 1938) studied "The Nature of Proteins of Cellular Nuclei" Journal of Biological Chemistry 146, 433-440, 1942. Martin B. Williamson (Ph.D. 1942) investigated "The Calcium and Magnesium of Mammalian Cell Nuclei," Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, 23, 77-82 1944. The research in the department for several years continued to focus on The Acidic Proteins of Cell Nuclei and other aspects of The Chemical Composition of Isolated Cell Nuclei.

During his retirement years, Professor Gulick, frequented the libraries of MIT and Harvard as he continued his keen interest in the developments in Molecular Biology and Genetics; once a scholar always a scholar.