La Jolla Researchers: An Argument Inspired Them

LA JOLLA, CALIF.—Donald Mosier and Darcy Wilson credit their latest success to what they call “interactive science,” which occurs when experienced researchers with fertile ‘minds get together and new concepts and approaches arise spontaneously. It even occurs, they add, when ideas are exchanged by scientists who do not agree. In fact, as the result of a serendipitous argument, Wilson and Mosier recently made the front page of the New York Times and dozens of other newspapers. What caused journalists to resonate was their report in Nature (Sept. 15, 1988, page 256) that they had trans- planted a human immune system into a rare strain of immune-deficient mice simply by injecting white blood cells into the mice. That Wilson and Mosier, both of the Medical Biology Institute, La Jolla, Calif., paired for a little project that became a big success is an ideal example of how well interactive science can work, they say. Their research grew out of a discussion between the two scientists while they were on a teaching assignment at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., in the summer of 1987. “Part of the fun of [MBI] is we spend a lot of time arguing,” Wilson says. “We were sitting around, I think with a glass of bourbon, trying to argue about what were the appropriate kinds of animal models to be thinking about for research on HIM We decided to try this very simple experiment fully expecting it wouldn’t work.” The experiment called for the scientists to inject human white blood cells into mice suffering from severe combined immune deficiency (SClD). Existing knowledge suggested that the human cells would attack their host in a bout of graft-versus-host disease. “If you polled 100 immunologists before we did this experiment, 99 would have said we were going to kill the mice,” says Mosier. Yet Wilson believed the mice might survive and adopt the human system because the transplant was between different species. On January 6, by now back at their California lab, Mosier and Wilson separated white blood cells from a small amount of human blood. Then they injected the purified human lymphocytes into the tail veins of several of the SCID mice. Almost immediately, the mice started dying. The human lymphocytes were clotting instead of separating and circulating through the hosts’ blood systems. Mosier decided to try a different path and injected the cells into the abdominal cavities of a new set of SCID mice. This time, the human cells sat in the abdominal cavity, as though adapting to their new environ- ment, before they began entering the mouse bloodstream. “We still don’t know the full explanation for that,” Wilson says. “We’ve got a lot of biology to work on.” But at that moment, Mosier and Wilson weren’t ready to pursue novel theories; they were seeing exciting results. They ran an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test on the blood of the mice after about two weeks and found that the human immune cells were circulating and apparently replicating. Later, the scien- tists injected a tetanus vaccine into some of the experimental mice and found that their transformed systems reacted by producing antibodies, just as a human immune system would. The implications are enormous. The model, they believe, will allow scientists to conduct experiments on the human immune system that would be considered unethical to conduct on living human beings, and could lead to a better understanding of conditions such as AIDS and cancer. “It was not a clever experiment,” Wilson says. “What it was was a lucky break that said this model is going to work, so now we can do some clever experiments.” Today, Wilson and Mosier each do clever experiments as heads of their own research teams at MBI. They seem to have a dedicated crew. Rick Gulizia, who was a key technician in the mouse experiment, is a 25-year-old University of Nebraska graduate who rejected admission to medical school to continue working for Mosier. Things at the lab just seemed too interesting and exciting to interrupt, Gulizia explains. Indeed, Gulizia’s attitude reflects the camaraderie in the lab that Mosier and Wilson encourage. The 80-member lab at MBI is “small, highly interactive,” Mosier says. “If there is a good person sitting on the other side of my lab or downstairs, it makes an impact on my research because I talk to him everyday.” Wilson, who as scientific director is key in setting the tone at MBI, was head of the Division of Research Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania when MBI founder David Katz—himself a research physician—lured him to California four years ago. A few months later, Wilson lured Mosier from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia to head MBI’s division of immunology. The two are committed to the idea of interactivity. Wilson reports that the physical layout of the MBI labs was designed to force scientists to share ideas and skills. “There are 21 lab benches here with no walls. It means you have to run into your neighbor.” The next step for this La Jolla team is to test how their transformed mice react to injections of the human immunodeficiency virus. If the mice develop symptoms of AIDS, then the goal set during a serendipitous argument one summer day over bourbon will have been reached. And interactive science will have succeeded.

La Jolla Researchers: An Argument Inspired Them

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of