Biochemist, biophysicist, inventor, educator, patriot, Olympian - all these designations accurately describe Britton Chance. The University of Pennsylvania emeritus professor is a groundbreaking scientist, an avid sailor, and he's currently conducting research in both hemispheres of the globe. He is also 94 years old and has a unique perspective on the development of the Greater Philadelphia region as a center for life sciences.
Chance has lived most of his life in or near Philadelphia. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1913 and attended Penn for college and graduate studies. At the time, scientists were attempting to discover how enzymes worked. Chance invented a rapid-flow apparatus to assay rapid enzyme kinetics, incorporating features from an automatic photoelectric ship-steering device he designed as a teenager.
In 1938 Chance crossed the Atlantic to study with Glenn Millikan and F.J.W. Roughton at Cambridge University, refining his microflow apparatus and linking the device to electronics. When World War II began rumbling through Europe, Chance returned to Penn to earn a PhD in physical chemistry in 1940, and in 1941 he was appointed assistant professor of biophysics and physical biochemistry at the Penn School of Medicine.
Almost immediately afterward Chance left Penn to participate in secret research and development at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Lab scientists from all over the world purposefully united in an effort similar to the Manhattan Project. The name was intentionally misleading - the lab's real focus was to design and develop radar. "Of course, it wasn't called radar," says Chance. "It wasn't called anything in 1941, because that was even before Pearl Harbor." He left the Rad Lab in 1945 to work with Hugo Theorell at the Karolinska Institute, where they elucidated the role of NAD as a coenzyme in the oxidation of alcohol in cellular respiration, named the Theorell-Chance mechanism.
Chance finally returned to Philadelphia in 1947. "Penn was good enough to keep me listed as a faculty member," he says. Takashi Yonetani, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Penn, remembers: "The exciting and stimulating research environment which Dr. Chance created at the Johnson Research Foundation is the primary reason why my visit to the Foundation in 1958, planned for one year, has been extended now to 49 years."
The major focus of Chance's research was the elucidation of enzyme kinetics. "I had already done experiments in Stockholm and Cambridge before the war that for the first time identified the chemistry involved in how an enzyme worked," he says. As a result of his invention of the dual-wavelength spectrophotometer (built and sold by Aminco), he revealed the role of coenzymes in oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria. Other discoveries formed the basis for the glucosometers in use today. Over the years he continued his interest in electro-optical technology for biomedical applications, including noninvasive imaging of the brain, breast cancer, and cardiac muscle.
"Dr. Chance is a tireless, hard-working experimentalist," says Yonetani. "In his presence, I, even at an advanced age, am still awed to feel like a young postdoctoral researcher and to be encouraged to maintain scientific curiosity and active research activities, though almost all of my classmates and former postdoctoral researchers have retired a long time ago."
Chance is currently pursuing his research interests at the Biopolis in Singapore, a newly built biomedical center for research activities and clinical development. He will reside there until the spring of 2008. "My main project here is to discover how insulin is secreted in the human body, which of course is the key to the diabetes problem," says Chance.
"I have not left behind my love of cancer research," Chance says. In recent years he collaborated with Ata Akin at Drexel University to invent a personal hand-held device dubbed "iFind" for detecting breast cancer, which is currently in clinical testing. Chance adds, "I have many projects under application to granting agencies: to establish a laboratory in Singapore and a laboratory at Drexel University, and to increase my activity at Penn."
"I love Philly," declares Chance. The city offers many opportunities for interactions with colleagues, which is very important to him. One of his favorite organizations is the American Philosophical Society, formed in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin. He says, "It meets twice a year and many of my best friends and colleagues are members. It was formed for the promulgation of useful knowledge, and it has many excellent scientists and meets in lovely old buildings near Independence Hall."
Chance's other great passion is sailing. He spent summers when he was young sailing in the Caribbean and off the coast of Panama. In 1952 he was part of the three-man US team that won an Olympic gold medal in 5-meter class sailing at Helsinki. Chance still sails near Singapore and Philadelphia. He says, "I sail whenever I can. I still have a boat, ready to go. I wouldn't be without sailing; that would be unendurable for me."
In summarizing his impression of the progress of biomedical research in the Philadelphia area, Chance observes, "I think you can see that Philadelphia in the late 1940s was just coming into its own in science. Many changes happened, many new research endeavors, many buildings were erected. In fact, there is one called Stellar-Chance. So I would say that Philly got a late start, but it is now at the head."