Genetics, FACS, Immunology, and Redox: A Tale of Two Lives Intertwined

The early history of Stanford Immunology

“…The history of the development of flow cytometry at Stanford in the 1960s, and the formative role of the Herzenberg group in this development, has been told often and at length [15][16][17][18]. However, the telling of this tale does not perhaps do justice to the key contributions that Stanford immunologists have made over the years to the development of the technology.…”

Our NIH Years: A Confluence of Beginnings

“…3-7) (2, 15-17). 2 It would take several more years before the idea (and the enabling technology) matured to the point where the FACS could even crystallize as a concept (2). In the meantime, I adapted my working mode in the Eagle laboratory to longer experiment cycles (one week instead of one day to grow a culture and test an idea) and got used to squinting through a microscope and trying to make judgments about cells growing on glass or plastic, very frustrating for someone whose vision was (and still is) as poor as mine.…”

“…Transplanted from the Monod laboratory at the core of the Escherichia coli microbial genetics revolution in Paris, we tumbled unceremoniously into the NIH melting pot. There, we began a lifelong love affair with mammalian cells and genes and the mechanisms that regulate gene expression (1,2). In this brief joint autobiography, we try to capture a little of the excitement of the time and the interactions among scientists whose influences we still treasure.…”

The Tortuous Journey of a Biochemist to Immunoland and What He Found There

“…During this period, two extremely important immunological tools were introduced, the generation of monoclonal antibodies by George Kohler and Cesar Milstein (103) and the development of the fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) by Leonard Herzenberg (104). Without these inventions, progress would have been much, much slower.…”