Microbiologists Argue Threat to Future

ATLANTA—Are academic microbiology departments suffering from the increased attention being paid to molecular biology and related disciplines? Scientists at the recent annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology here could not agree if the issue was simply a semantic argument or a symptom of a genuine crisis. "A number of forces are converging to create a problem … and together they may deal us a blow that could be lethal" to the future of microbiology, suggested M. Michael Sigel, chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of South Carolina. Sigel lamented the lack of "momentum, interest, commitment, people and funding" in microbiology departments at medical schools and universities nationwide, and said departments were "losing their identities" to other fields in biology. But Richard A. Finkeistein, chairman of the microbiology department at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, claimed that the evidence for such a problem is suspect. "Two or three people have noticed that a half dozen departments of microbiology have changed their names or been merged with other departments in the last couple of years," he noted. "I'd hardly call that a trend [showing] that microbiology departments are dying." But Sigel insisted microbiology departments are in trouble. The merger of microbiology with pathology at the University of Nebraska, for example, "sounds OK," he said. "It saves money and it conserves space. But pathologists like to dominate microbiologists. And if there are no graduate students seeking degrees in microbiology" because of the emphasis on pathology, "who's going to be teaching or chairing microbiology departments in 10 or 20 years?" A Royal Attack Sigel said molecular biology has become "the queen of the realm," attracting more and more young scientists at the expense of its parent. "We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that microbiology was the mother giving birth to molecular biology," he said. "There are so many people swinging toward the molecular aspects [of biology] that there's hardly any interest in the clinical" aspects of microbiology. "The molecular specializations are too narrow to provide a broad education for future generations of researchers." But the interest in merging microbiology and molecular biology is not necessarily a problem, responded James R. Walker, chairman of the microbiology department at the University of Texas in Austin. "For example, the expression of animal genes is studied very well using the animal virus as a model," he said. "And the transformation of animal cells by tumorigenic viruses is something that is studied very well by molecular biologists and microbiologists." Biologists are using molecular techniques to "solve questions that could not be solved 10 or 15 years ago," Walker continued. "Unless biologists in general use those molecular techniques, they cannot keep up." Philip Y. Paterson, chairman of the microbiology department at Northwestern University, said microbiology should be a "freestanding department" in medical schools. "Molecular biology is a technique—it's not a scientific discipline," he said. Microbiology should have a "unique mission for teaching and training in a medical school of future physicians." Alive and Well Finkelstein believes that attitude is too narrow. "We used to say that immunology was a technique spawned by microbiology, and now immunology has undoubtedly risen to be a separate discipline," he said. "Molecular biology is just about on the same level now" as immunology used to be, and "it's certainly a tool" for other disciplines. "We can answer our questions in microbiology using molecular biology techniques much more quickly and powerfully than we ever could before," he noted. Finkeistein said that his recent survey of 80 U.S. medical microbiology departments found them to be "alive and well. The average faculty person—including the nonproductive ones—said they bring in nearly $90,000 in grant money every year. That in itself should show that medical technology is not under any threat." However, Sigel said he foresees a "significant deficit" in microbiologists in the future, and the overemphasis on molecular biology at many colleges. "We need [molecular biology] in our sciences," he said. "But I hate to think of a microbiologist going up for his Ph.D. degree in 10 years knowing all about genes in esoteric organisms, u and not being able to make a gram stain or even know what one is." Finkelstein dismisses that fear. "From my viewpoint, medical microbiology is stronger than it's ever been," he said. "We've gotten ten new diseases since 1976 to solve, including AIDS, Legionella, Lyme disease, infant botulism, Campylobacter, and hemorrhagic E. coli. Those are diseases that will keep microbiologists busy for generations." Waidron is editor of the newsletter Hospital Infection Control in Atlanta.

Microbiologists Argue Threat to Future

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