...
Div | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
|
Both young doctors arrived in Bethesda in 1970 and in the years they spent with the Reproductive Research Branch—first at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and then at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)—they found an active community for the study of reproductive endocrinology. Because of the newness of the field, they could practically publish a paper from every result.
JV: [The NIH] was one of the few places in the country where one could do reproductive endocrinology. It was a new field. And the thing was that no matter what we did, it was brand new, so everything was publishable.
JV: It was Building 10, 10B09. It was in a small laboratory, and for periods of months, there would be about 10 of us working in that space. I used to get over there about six o’clock in the morning and not leave till eleven o’clock at night. There were quite a few that worked long hours. The second or third year I was here, I think I published 28 papers in one year. They weren’t piddling kinds of things. I mean, there were so many things that one could do if you decided to think it through to understand what in the world’s going on. It was the way research should be
...
class | usa-width-one-third |
---|
...
.
...
Div | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
|
GB: Griff and I spoke. “Wouldn’t it be great to develop a new assay for hCG.” At that time Judy Vaitukaitis was immunizing rabbits with subunits of hCG and harvesting antibodies.
Vaitukaitis was working at separating the subunits of hCG and determining their biological function and characteristics. In 1970 and 1971 she worked on generating an antibody that would be specific to the beta-subunit of hCG and that could therefore be used in a radioimmunoassay—so called because the process used radioactive labels in the immunoassay—and would not cross-react with other hormones in the body. In 1972, she found it. The first rabbit to produce the antibody was called “SB6” and became the baseline for future experiments.
JV: We were looking at structure-function studies of human chorionic gonadotropin. Was there biologic activity in the isolated subunit? What was it about the molecule that was responsible for the unique immunologic and biologic activity? Then we realized that the biologic effect of the hormone resided in the beta unit of hCG. So in doing these structure-function studies to understand where the immunologic and biologic specificity resided, it became obvious that you could really take advantage of the relative specificity of the antiserum.
JV: It was critical for [NICHD’s] John Robbins to be involved with this because he had the immunology background. Actually, we tried two doses of immunogen [to make the antibody], 10 and 50 micrograms, and so the animal that had the first dose of 50 micrograms of immunogen was labeled SB6, since it was the sixth rabbit. There were five rabbits immunized with 10 micrograms, and we were told they would never make antibody at 10. I said, “Let’s see.” We went down subsequently to 2 and showed it would respond at that, too. So the first animal that was immunized with 50 micrograms, SB6, became the classic antiserum that had the best relative specificity that was used for years, and we provided it all over the place
...
class | usa-width-one-third |
---|
...
.
...
Div | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
|
Research at NIH, as elsewhere, is a collaborative experience. Griff Ross’ group needed some basic research tools to do their studies, including, among other things, purified hormone and urine from post-menopausal women. These substances would be used for experiments as the scientists learned more about hormones and the human body. The group used hCG purified by NICHD grantee Robert Canfield, known as the CR preparation of hCG, for “Canfield-Ross.” For other research supplies, they turned to some unusual sources.
JV: Canfield’s laboratory was isolating the human chorionic gonadotropin from the pregnancy urine, and he had isolated it and broken it down to two subunits. That was back in the days where you had to do things by hand, and so the throughput was very slow and tedious.
JV: We were doing studies on follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH]. It was like hCG but it has a different biologic effect. We wanted to study the biologic effect of FSH, so we contacted a retirement home for nuns and arranged with the nuns to collect their urine and put it in these big plastic containers. [We would] go over there once a month with somebody who was strong enough to lift these bottles. I would say probably each plastic container held probably about 15 gallons of urine. We would take it back and then process it to isolate the FSH from it, [and] then use that to study what the effect of sialic acid was on hormone action. It was unbelievable, but we got a lot of stuff done with that. I would never want to do it again!
Div | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width-one-third||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Div | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
In the 1970s, the researchers went on to other subjects. Vaitukaitis returned to Boston to spend a decade at the Boston University School of Medicine before returning to the NIH in 1986 to work with the division that would become the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). She has served as Director of NCRR since 1993. Glenn Braunstein went to California, where he continues research on hCG and other reproductive hormones at Cedar-Sinai Medical Institute in Los Angeles. In his long and illustrious career at NIH, Griff Ross would attain the posts of chief of the Endocrinology and Reproduction Research Branch, clinical director of NICHD, scientific director of NICHD, and associate director of the Clinical Center.
In 2003, as NICHD celebrated its fortieth anniversary, Institute Director Dr. Duane Alexander singled out the pregnancy test research as some of the most seminal work done by the Institute over its four decades. Judith Vaitukaitis was inducted into the NICHD Hall of Honor “for discovery of the beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin and identifying it as the earliest marker of pregnancy, leading to its development as the standard pregnancy test and as a monitor for response to cancer treatment.”
Note: Quotations labeled “JV” are from an interview with Judith Vaitukaitis, August 18, 2003. Quotations labeled “GB” are from a telephone conversation with Glenn Braunstein, October 3, 2003.
...
class | usa-width-one-third |
---|
...