Bruce "Carcinogen" Ames Dead
October 24, 2024 2:51 PM   Subscribe

. . . in the fullness of his years (1928-2024) after a fall. In the 1970s, he developed a cheap and cheerful Petri dish test for whether 'chemicals' mutated bacterial DNA. That indicated that they might cause cancer in humans. "To Ames and Gold, that meant that the public should understand that a synthetic carcinogen is not always worth worrying about, compared to ones present in natural products. Ames’ Italian wife and research colleague, Giovanna Ferro-Luzzi Ames, said she forbade him to subject espresso to the test." The FDA requires Ames tests today in Phase 1 clinical tests of potential drugs. MetaPrev 2013.

Educated in stellar company at The Bronx High School of Science. Arlene Blum, working with Ames in 1977, discovered the toxicity of TrisBP a flame-retardant routinely applied to children's nightclothes. Blum climbs mountains (30m BBC podcast)
posted by BobTheScientist (7 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
“Bruce was unique in making his test protocol and bacterial mutant strains available to anyone, commercial or academic, with no expectation of profit — frankly unheard of these days,” Schekman said.

As did Jonas Salk, and I am sure many others. Sigh…
posted by TedW at 5:55 PM on October 24 [1 favorite]


My first job in a lab as an undergrad included running modified Ames tests. We used it in work that we eventually published in the journal Mutation Research.

I had a chance to see Bruce Ames give a keynote at a conference during that same period. The person introducing him went on a bit too long in praise of him. When he took the lectern, he wryly said (quoting LBJ, though I didn’t realize it at the time), that it was an introduction that his father would have enjoyed, and his mother would have believed…

Thanks, Bruce - your work improved so many lives.
posted by Jorus at 5:57 PM on October 24 [1 favorite]


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posted by JoeXIII007 at 6:47 PM on October 24


🧫🧬👎? 💯

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posted by lalochezia at 6:52 PM on October 24


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posted by Schmucko at 7:35 PM on October 24


As well as a) plating out the bacteria on the nutrient-deficient petri-dish and b) plating out the bacteria and a potential mutagen on the nutrient-deficient petri-dish [controlled experiment !]; the Ames Test had an additional layer of complexity.
It acknowledged that the liver is the metabolic kitchen of the mammalian body. Loaded with enzymes to cleave this and add that and detoxify the other, the liver will process pretty much any chemical and reduce it to its component parts or at least change it into something different. It could be that some perfectly innocuous additive to Purina Cat Chow was converted into a potent toxin by the cat's liver and it harms consumers. So there was a third option in the full Ames test: c) plating out the bacteria and a potential mutagen and an extract of rat liver on the nobbled petri-dish.

Like Jorus above, one of the most startling events of my undergraduate career was adding a drop of own brand supermarket Lemon-Lime shampoo to the Ames test and two days later seeing a constellation of bacterial colonies scattered across the Petri dish. That shampoo was a fluorescent lime-green in colour that shouted -!mutagen!- quite loudly - which was why we tested it. It was just great - we were doing real science - nobody had done that experiment before and they probably should have.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:59 PM on October 24 [1 favorite]


"she forbade him to subject espresso to the test."

So... Did anyone *else* subject espresso to the test?
posted by Snowflake at 1:53 PM on October 25


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