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Biographical Article

Lemuel Dary Wright (March 1, 1913–May 12, 1995)

Malden C. Nesheim^*,1 and Donald B. McCormick

^* Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, U.S. and Department of Biochemistry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, U.S.

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed at 376 Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. E-mail: mcn2{at}cornell.edu

The period from 1940 to the mid 1950s was one of the most exciting eras in nutritional science. New growth factors were discovered, several were established as vitamins, their structures were determined, and synthetic pathways were developed. As metabolic pathways were discovered, the central role of vitamins in intermediary metabolism became known. Research groups put together by many of the major pharmaceutical companies were central to these discoveries, as they engaged in a race to discover these important compounds and to gain the benefits of potential patents and markets that would develop. Researchers at these companies, such as Thomas Jukes, Karl Folkers, Bob Stokstad, Harry Broquist, and Lemuel D. Wright, along with others, were central in adding so much to our present knowledge of vitamins and their metabolic roles. As the era of vitamin discovery wound down, these industrial laboratories turned to new pursuits, and many of these scientists continued their metabolic studies in an academic setting. Lem Wright was one of these scientists who contributed so much to this golden era of discovery.

View larger version (127K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1.

Lem received a B.S. degree in 1935 and an M.S. degree in 1936 in chemistry at the University of New Hampshire. He spent a year at Pennsylvania State University in 1936–37 as a graduate assistant in agricultural biochemistry, but he completed his graduate work at Oregon State College, where he received his Ph.D. in 1940. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled "The Role of Cystine and Methionine in Lactation." With a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, Lem was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas under R. J. Williams and Esmond Snell. This period at Texas had a major influence on his future research interest in the B-vitamins and an even greater influence on his personal life. While in Austin, he met and married Ernestine Quarles, who was technical assistant to R. R. Williams. Lem and Ernestine had five daughters, Carolyn, Martha, Priscilla, Barbara, and Nancy. The extended family eventually included 10 grandchildren. Ernestine became a highly respected mathematics and science teacher in the Ithaca City School System.

It was at Texas where Lem Wright began his work on micronutrients that are needed for the growth of yeast and bacteria. This research approach was important in the eventual isolation and characterization of many of the B-complex vitamins. With E. E. Snell, he published a microbiological assay for nicotinic acid as the topic of his first paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (Snell and Wright 1941 ). His first academic appointment was in the Department of Microbiology at the Medical School of the University of West Virginia in Morgantown. In recalling his days at West Virginia, he would describe the frustrations of beginning a research program around a single shared autoclave, which led to his accepting an appointment at Sharpe and Dohme laboratories in Glenolden, Pennsylvania, in 1942. He held positions of biochemist, director of microbiological research, and assistant director of pharmaceutical research while at Sharpe and Dohme.

He worked at Sharpe and Dohme during an exciting and extremely competitive period of identification, characterization, and synthesis of microbiological growth factors, many of which were identified as essential vitamins for animals and humans. He published extensively during his days at Sharpe and Dohme on folic acid, pantothenic acid, biotin, -amino benzoic acid, and orotic acid. He also published several papers on the renal clearance of amino acids by rats, again using his microbiological methods for amino acid analysis.

In 1951, he and his Sharpe and Dohme colleagues published a paper in Science (Wright et al. 1951 ) describing biocytin (-N-biotonyl-L-lysine), which was later found by Harlan Woods and others to be the turnover product of carboxylases, that contained covalently bound biotin. Lem and his coworkers later described the isolation of biocytin from yeast extract and carried out studies on its biological activity. He carried out extensive studies on biotin metabolism, along with work on biocytin.

In the mid 1950s Lem and his colleagues at Sharpe and Dohme began to characterize a new acetate-replacing factor which eventually led to the discovery of mevalonic acid, (Wright et al. 1956 ) a critical derivative in sterol biosynthesis.

In 1956, Lem's boss at Sharpe and Dohme, Dr. Richard H. Barnes, moved to Cornell to become dean of the graduate school of nutrition, replacing L. A. Maynard. Lem moved to Cornell with Dr. Barnes to become professor of biochemistry and nutrition. In recognition of his highly productive career, he was awarded a research career award from the National Institutes of Health, that supported his position until he retired from Cornell in 1978. At Cornell, Lem became part of a biochemistry group in the graduate school of nutrition that included two young biochemists beginning their academic careers, Donald McCormick and James Gaylor. Later Donald Zilversmit also joined the group of biochemists in the school. The graduate school of nutrition was incorporated into the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell in 1974.

At Cornell, Lem continued his work on mevalonic acid, and he became interested in aspects of cholesterol biosynthesis. He also carried out studies of cholesterol solubility in model systems. Along with Don McCormick, he continued his work on biotin metabolism in animals and microorganisms. He directed the work of a number of graduate students at Cornell. In addition to the students he advised as major professor, he advised many minors in biochemistry from numerous fields on the campus. He spent a sabbatical leave from Cornell in 1968 at the Max-Planck Institute in Munich, Germany.

He published more than 200 papers during his active research career, and he contributed extensively to reviews dealing with microbiological methods and vitamin determination in a number of edited volumes in this area. Along with Don McCormick, Lem edited the first 6 of 12 volumes of "Vitamins and Coenzymes" in the series Methods in Enzymology. He was active in many societies including the American Society of Biological Chemists, The American Institute of Nutrition, and The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine and was a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served on many editorial boards of journals and on study sections of the National Institutes of Health.

In 1958, Lem received the Borden Award from the American Institute of Nutrition. The award was for his outstanding studies in microbiological chemistry, including his studies on biocytin, on microbiological assay procedures, and for the discovery and synthesis of mevalonic acid as an important intermediate in cholesterol biosynthesis. He received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the College of Technology of the University of New Hampshire in 1969, and an Alumni Association Certificate of Recognition from Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1978. He was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition in 1983.

Upon his retirement in 1978, Lem was elected an emeritus professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell. He obtained a certificate in clinical chemistry from the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in 1880, and he spent some time working in the laboratory of the Tompkins County Hospital. Upon retirement, his most important activity was his election as graduate faculty representative for the graduate field of nutrition at Cornell. In this position he managed the graduate student admissions process for the field. This responsibility gave Lem a great deal of satisfaction, as he loved the contact with graduate students, and he took great pride in the students that were admitted. He not only managed the admissions process, but he was also active in recruiting students and encouraging them to come to Cornell after they had been accepted to the graduate program. In spite of his normally reserved manner, he gave advice to graduate students freely and often provided a sympathetic ear to their problems. He was not overly sympathetic; however, he had a "crying towel" in his office that he offered to students who had complaints he thought were not well-justified. A cohort of former graduate students at Cornell has fond memories of Lem Wright as an important figure in their graduate student days. He became ill and had a stroke in 1985 that impaired his ability to carry on his work with graduate students. His family indicates that this loss of ability to carry on this work was to him one of the most devastating effects of his illness.

Lem was in many ways the quintessential New Englander, with his rock-solid integrity, dry wit and taciturn ways. For the younger faculty who often tried to penetrate his Yankee reserve with pranks, he was a fun colleague. He loved apples and would eat them core, seeds and all. He also loved pickles, and one day his colleagues added an enormous amount of salt to his plate of pickles when Lem was looking elsewhere. To the amazement of his luncheon partners, he ate the pickles without a word or change in expression. His New England common sense and reserve also were stabilizing influences on his younger colleagues during the difficult years of student unrest at Cornell in the late 1960s.

Lem enjoyed skiing, especially on Mount Hood when he was a student at Oregon State, and he loved climbing in the New Hampshire Mountains. He played a baritone in a National Guard band in his early years, and he later played the flute in a community band. He was also an accomplished photographer who used his laboratory skills to develop and print his own pictures. His most important hobby, however, was ham radio. During the Vietnam war, he was a member of the Navy Military Affiliate Radio System, that relayed messages to servicemen in Vietnam through a telephone patch to his radio. In 1972, he spent more than a week in Elmira, New York, during a major flood to help coordinate emergency services.

He was a major contributor to nutritional science at a time of great excitement when the identification of essential nutrients was the central theme of research. His work as a microbiologist and as a nutritional biochemist made him one of the major figures of the field. He was admired for his unselfishness and scientific integrity. He insisted on high academic standards. His qualities as a scientist, family man, and thoughtful advisor made him an admired colleague and friend who enriched the nutritional science community.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful for the information and helpful suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript provided by Carolyn (Wright) Corson.

REFERENCES

1. Snell E. E., Wright L. D. A microbiological method for the determination of nicotinic acid. J. Biol. Chem. 1941;139:675-686[Free Full Text]

2. Wright L. D., Cresson E. L., Skeggs H. R., Peck R. L., Wolf D. E., Wood T. R., Vallient J., Folkers K. The elucidation of biocytin. Science 1951;114:635-636[Free Full Text]

3. Wright L. D., Cresson E. L., Skeggs H. R., MacRae G. D. E., Hoffman C. H., Wolf D. E., Folkers K. Isolation of a new acetate replacing factor. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1956;78:5273

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