Alan Weyl Bernheimer Sr. (December 9, 1913, Philadelphia – January 3, 2006, New York City) was an American microbiologist, known as a pioneer of modern bacterial
toxinology.[1]
Biography
Bernheimer graduated with a B.S. in 1935 and an A.M. in 1937 from
Temple University, where he worked as an assistant in biology from 1935 to 1937. In 1942, he received his Ph.D. in medical sciences from the
University of Pennsylvania.[2] His Ph.D. thesis is entitled Studies on the antigenic specificity of Paramecium and studies on the massive cultivation of Streptococcus pyogenes.[3] From 1937 to 1938 he was an instructor in bacteriology at Pennsylvania State College of Optometry (now called
Salus University). In the department of microbiology of (what is now called) the
New York University Grossman School of Medicine, he was an instructor from 1941 to 1945,[2] an assistant professor from 1945 to 1952, an associate professor from 1952 to 1958, and a full professor from 1958 to 1984, when he retired as professor emeritus. At the NYU medical school, he was the chair of Basic Medical Sciences from 1969 to 1974. From 1957 to 1960, Bernheimer served as a consultant to the
Office of the Surgeon General of the United States. From 1963 to 1968, he was a trustee of the
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He was often a summer investigator at Cold Spring Harbor as well as at the
Marine Biological Laboratory in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts.[4]
During WW II, Bernheimer contributed to the development of a vaccine against
gas gangrene. Throughout his career, he was dedicated to laboratory work. He and his co-workers compared toxins produced by a wide variety of organisms. He did research on venoms from insects, spiders, snakes,
sea jellies, and
sea anemones, and demonstrated how such venoms sometimes share biochemical and serological properties with bacterial toxins.[4] In 1985 Bernheimer and two colleagues published their discovery that cytotoxic
phospholipases D are present in the venom of the brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) and in cultures of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. The two enzymatic toxins have different evolutionary origins but are similar in molecular weight, charge, substrate specificity, and in several biological activities.[5] In studies of cholesterol oxidase, a bacterial cytotoxin derived from Rhodococcus equi, Bernheimer and his colleagues showed that a cytotoxin was rendered lethal to rabbits made hypercholesterolemic by diet.[6] Bernheimer was the author or co-author of more than 150 scientific papers and the editor of several books.[4]
Bernheimer, Alan W., ed. (1976). Mechanisms in bacterial toxinology. Developments in medical microbiology and infectious diseases. New York: Wiley.
ISBN0471071056.
LCCN76008274.[15]
Bernheimer, Alan W., ed. (1977). Perspectives in toxinology. Developments in medical microbiology and infectious diseases. New York: Wiley.
ISBN0471018554.
LCCN77008849.
^Bernheimer, Alan W.; Campbell, Benedict J.; Forrester, Lawrence J. (3 May 1985). "Comparative Toxinology of Loxosceles reclusa and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis". Science. 228 (4699): 590–591.
doi:
10.1126/science.3983643.
PMID3983643.
^ Bernheimer, Robinson, et al. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. v. 148, 260-266 (1987)