Back in the 1970s I managed to start my career in Ann Arbor with my first position in the Anatomy Department at theUniversity of Michigan Medical School. As a biologist, I would like to think that my background was the reason for hiring me. Well it wasn’t. As it turned out it was my background in chemistry and anthropology that got me there. I had a lot of coursework in both organic chemistry and biochemistry., and a background of working with and handling monkeys. My new position was as a histochemist and monkey handler. Most people are confused with the concept of histochemistry. While they understand what histology and chemistry are, the combination is confusing. Essentially I did enzymatic reactions on histological sections, thus histochemistry.
Not only were my duties involving lab work, but also maintaining the labs monkey colony and assisting in surgeries. During my time there I started collecting muscle biopsy specimens from other species of monkeys. That is how I became acquainted with researchers throughout the university.
Time passed, but my life as a Research Assistant continued. During those years I had started my own Natural History tour company and worked as a writer. Around 1990 I was a Senior Research Associate in the Reproductive Sciences Program (RSP), again due to my background and experience in chemistry. I had now attained the highest position I could without a PhD at the University. But it was at RSP that hit my greatest potential as a chemist. I was doing radio-iodination of a variety of molecules, radio-immuno assays (RIAs), Hi-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Column chromatography. Since I was half-time I was able to work, lead tours, write and provide health insurance for my family. One of the great joys of working at RSP was working with Reese Midgley who was the Director of the program. Not only was he a joy to work with, but he was the 18th most cited scientist in the world. When I would see him walking down the hall, his lab coat trailing in the breeze of his wake, I knew that something exciting was about to happen. One day I was outside of the lab, drinking coffee when he appeared in the distance heading for the “hot lab” where I was working. I figured that he wanted some strange molecule radio-labled, as he had asked in the past. But this time was different. He was searching for a specific bottle of a very rare antibody. I was able to quickly find it in the appropriate ultra-cold freezer. I was surprised at it was a large bottle holding some 300 ml. There was a lot of antibody in there. He asked how long it would take to purify the bottle. I told him that it would take the better part of a day. Good, he replied, it needs to be done ASAP. Purify it, but it into smaller bottles (10-25 ml, or smaller vials) and refreeze it. It turned out that most of this was to be shipped to the WHO, but we would keep some for our own assays. He wanted enough for a specific numbers of RIAs per vial. But also that I was re-purifying it, it had been done once years earlier. When I calculated that there was enough antibody here for 60 million tests, what at $40 per test I realized that I was holding close to $250 million in my hands. Then I started to get nervous. But that was the excitement of working with Reese and RSP.
But during my years at RSP I was starting to accumulate radioactivity. We all feared the day when our radiation badges hit their max exposure, that meant we were done working with anything radioactive. During my years there, every two weeks I had a scheduled appoint to my my thyroid scanned. Since the majority of what I worked with was radioactive iodine it accumulated in the thyroid. The scans were tedious, time consuming and unnerving. I would sit there, thinking about the damage being done to my thyroid, as the geiger counter ticked ways in front of me. At some point I decided to leave RSP. Susan now was providing us with health insurance and my health was was important for all of us. So at that point my career temporarily ended at the University of Michigan.
A couple of years later i was asked to come and teach in the Biology Department at Eastern Michigan University, where I would finally put my background in biology to good use. Then after 23 years as a faculty member in the Biology Department I retired, having spent 43 years in the sciences.
More later…
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