3: Accelerating Projects
to Chapter 3
A FAMILY AFFAIR
William Lawson (Bill) Russell
and Liane Brauch (Lee) Russell, the eminent husband-and-wife team who
have studied mammalian genetics for 45 years at ORNL's Biology Division,
have much in common. Both received the International Roentgen Medal, both
earned Ph.D. degrees in zoology and genetics from the University of Chicago,
and both worked at the Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine,
before coming to the Laboratory, where they have headed
genetics research in the Biology Division. Also, both were elected
to the National Academy of Sciences, one of only 11 couples so honored.
Bill Russell, the former scientific
director of the Mammalian Genetics Section in the Biology Division and
now an ORNL consultant, is a native of Newhaven, England, with a B.A.
degree in zoology from Oxford University. Lee, head
of the Mammalian and Genetics Development Section of the Biology Division
since 1975, is a native of Vienna, Austria, with a B.A. degree in chemistry
from Hunter College in New York City.
|The Russells have made significant discoveries about mammalian genetics
through experiments on mice using radiation and chemicals.
In 1947, Bill wanted to leave Jackson
Memorial Laboratory but would only accept a new position if Lee were offered
one, too. Alexander Hollaender, director of the new Biology Division at
Clinton Laboratories, came through with such an offer, and Bill and Lee
came to Oak Ridge in November 1947 shortly after Jackson Memorial Laboratory
burned to the ground.
Bill's first achievement in
Oak Ridge was to develop efficient and reliable genetic methods to determine
the rate at which mouse genes are mutated by different types and levels
of radiation. But, to do this, he had to set up the Mouse House, a national
resource that contains more than a quarter million mice, for which he
designed cages, food containers, racks, and machines for washing bottles
and cages. Soon after experiments got under way, he found that the mutation
rate in the mouse was 15 times that in the fruit fly. As a result, the
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements reduced the
permissible levels for occupational exposure to radiation.
In 1952, as a result of Lee's
studies of the vulnerability of early embryos of irradiated mice, the
Russells recommended that physicians use diagnostic X rays on the pelvic
regions of childbearing women only during that part of the menstrual cycle
when pregnancy cannot occur.
In 1958, the Russells and Elizabeth Kelly discovered that the mutation
rate in mice exposed to chronic radiation (spread over time) was
between one-third and one-fourth the mutation rate in mice
exposed to acute radiation (delivered in a matter of minutes). It was
a significant finding because no dose-rate effect had been found in fruit-fly
studies and because it suggested that a genetic repair mechanism corrects
minor damage caused by low doses of radiation. By the mid-1960s the Russells
had proved that sensitivity to radiation differs not only between mice
and fruit flies but also between male and female mice.
They then started a new area
of investigation: determining the genetic effects on mice of chemicals
from drugs, fuels, and wastes. In 1971, Bill and his associates published
a paper recommending that, based on mouse studies, the
drug hycanthone should continue to be used as a therapeutic drug for schistosomiasis,
a debilitating parasitic disease common in the Third World. In 1975,
Lee developed a fur-spot test for identifying chemicals likely to be mutagenic
in reproductive cells. In 1979, Bill found that the laboratory chemical
ethylnitrosourea (ENU) is the most potent mutagen ever
tested in mice, making it a prime tool for studying mechanisms of mutagenesis.
In the 1980s, while continuing her research on the effects of chemicals
on mice, Lee enlarged her genetic studies on the nature of mutational
lesions caused by different treatments. Under her leadership,
her section has increased in scientific staff and moved into areas of
modern molecular genetics, including insertional mutagenesis and targeted
mutagenesis--techniques that alter random or selected mouse genes.
The research may unlock the secrets of human DNA by locating specific
genes responsible for specific functions or malfunctions, such as diseased
kidneys. DOE has recently recognized the section's unique
capability for adding to the genome research effort.
In 1991, the international
journal Mutation Research dedicated a special issue to Bill on his 80th
birthday. In their introduction, the journal's editors stated, "No single
person has contributed more to the field of mammalian mutagenesis,
and thus to genetic risk assessment in man, than Dr. W. L. Russell." They
might have added that his accomplishments likely would have been half
as impressive without the scientific research conducted
by his wife. Together, the Russells have formed one of the most fruitful
collaborations in the annals of American science.
Other ORNL History