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Stanford University, Class of
1954
Internist, Omaha
Few medical researchers are
fortunate enough to find an important biological process that is
linked to a wide range of human diseases. With the discovery of
the significance of free-radical damage in biological systems,
Denham Harman initiated an avalanche of discoveries about myriad
disease processes and therapies to alleviate them.
Early in his career, Harman
seemed destined for honors in another scientific field. After
earning a BS and Ph.D. from the College of Chemistry at the
University of California, Berkeley, in 1943, Harman joined the
research arm of Shell Oil in Emeryville, California. Over the
next six years working as a research chemist, he was granted 35
patents; the compound of one was used in the "Shell Strip" - a
plastic strip to catch flies.
Harman’s work at Shell
increased his interest in biology as well as in the cause of
aging, and he decided to apply for medical school. University of
California administrators, took a dim view of accepting Harman,
however, since taxpayers had already helped pay for his
chemistry training. Luckily for medical science Stanford took a
more enlightened view and admitted him in 1949.
In 1954, between his
internship and residency in internal medicine, Harman became a
research associate at UC Berkeley’s Donner Laboratory of Medical
Physics. There he had to pursue his long-time interest in the
cause of aging. "The first four months was a period of
progressively increasing frustration, " Harman says. "Then
one-morning free radicals crossed my mind, and I knew I had the
answer, even if I didn’t know the details yet. "Free radicals
are highly reactive chemical subspecies that can tear apart the
molecules needed for life’s normal processes, including those of
the mitochondria, the cellular power-houses that largely
determine an individual’s life span. For 10 years, Harman
investigated his idea - "the free-radical theory of aging" -
while most scientists ignored the concept or ridiculed it.
By the mid-1960s, however,
other scientists were beginning to see the potential of the
free radical concept. The next decades of research showed
that free-radical concept. The next decades of research showed
that free-radical reactions were involved in many diseases,
including cancer, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. In
recent years, scientists have even come to see the connection
between free radicals and the aging process. Harman’s model has
led to many studies of the benefits of using antioxidants like
vitamins C and E to curb free-radical damage.
Harman became chair of
cardiovascular research at the University of Nebraska College of
Medicine in 1958. He has continued his efforts to minimize
disease processes and to increase the span of healthy, useful
life. Currently, he is investigating how free-radical damage
might be connected to neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer’s
disease.
This reprint published by
Stanford University |
