Barker had learned microbiology from Cornelis B. van Niel at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Van Niel had worked as Kluyver's assistant at Delft. Barker had also spent a postdoctoral year in Kluyver's laboratory before obtaining a teaching job at Berkeley in 1936.
One species of bacteria that Barker had isolated from Delft canal mud was particularly important for Earl's research. It was Clostridium kluyveri, an organism named after Kluyver. This anaerobic bacterium catalyzed the conversion of ethyl alcohol into fatty acids. Fatty acid synthesis was Earl's area of research during his years of graduate study.
Just as Delft canal mud was a rich source of microorganisms for Earl, the odoriferous black mud of San Francisco Bay became an excellent source of microorganisms for Thressa. Thressa wrote her doctoral thesis on the morphology and biochemical properties of Methanococcus vannielii, a methane-producing bacterium she isolated from the mud. Thressa and Barker named this anaerobic bacterium in honor of van Niel. Thressa also discovered another anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium sticklandii, which she named in honor of the microbiologist L. H. Stickland. Both M. vannielii and C. sticklandii proved to be rich sources of several vitamin B12 dependent and selenium dependent enzymes, research topics that would become important in her later career.
"My daughter Alice is a student in High School. One of the prescribed courses is General Science. The section on Bacteria left her with a vague impression of a world teeming with deadly germs awaiting an opportunity to infect mankind. It seems probable that this malignant conception of bacteria is very generally held. In reality civilization owes much to the microbe."
(Quoted in Albert J. Kluver's article, "Unity and diversity in the metabolism of micro-organisms," in 1924)
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Scientific Genealogy of Microbial Biochemists
Martinus W. Beijerinck
Martinus W. Beijerinck (1851-1931) Professor of Microbiology, Technical School in Delft, The Netherlands
Albert J. Kluyver
Albert J. Kluyver (1888-1956) Beijerinck's successor at Delft
Cornelis B. van Niel
Cornelis B. van Niel (1897-1985) Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove
Horace A. Barker (1907-2000)
Horace A. Barker (1907-2000) Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Earl and Thressa Stadtman
Earl R. Stadtman (b. 1919) and Thressa C. Stadtman (b. 1920) Laboratory of Biochemistry, NHLBI, Bethesda
