Introduction
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Fluorescence in medicine has enabled researchers to see the invisible.
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In the 1950s the NIH's Dr. Robert Bowman developed a sensitive instrument-called the spectrophotofluorometer, or "SPF"-that allowed scientists to use fluorescence as a way to identify and measure tiny amounts of substances in the body. This scientific breakthrough, invented almost half a century ago, is still used today in AIDS research and the Human Genome Project.
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History: Fluorescence to the Rescue (1941-1945)
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The Move to the NIH (1949)
In 1949 Dr. James Shannon, leader of the antimalarial research effort at Goldwater, was named director of the laboratories and clinics of the newly created National Heart Institute (NHI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He recruited researchers from Goldwater, including lab technician Julius Axelrod and Drs. Bernard Brodie, Sidney Udenfriend, Robert Berliner, and Robert Bowman. Because of their interest in fluorescence in medicine that originated with antimalarial drug research, one of the group's early projects was the development of a new instrument that could help them learn more about how fluorescence could be utilized in scientific research.
Dr. Robert Bowman of the Laboratory of Technical Development took the lead on the project in the early 1950s.
He was known for his talent in instrument-making, an indispensable skill in a research environment where scientists need good tools with which to test their theories and to lead them to new ideas.