University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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POLIO VIRUS CRYSTALLIZED A week after the announcement of the virus synthesis the University of California Virus laboratory revealed still another first in the progress of science. Speaking before the National Academy of Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, C. E. Scltwerdt, associate research biochemist, and F. L. Schaffer, Research fellow, reported the successful crystallization of purified poliomyelitis virus. Crystallization of plant-infecting viruses dates back to 1935 and the experimentation of Wendell M. Stanley, the present director of the Virus laboratory ; Stanley received the Nobel Prize for his work. This, however, is the first time an animal-infecting or human-infecting virus has been crystallized. Crystallization is an important criterion for purity ; as a result the virus crystallized by the two scientists at Berkeley is one of the purest samples of animal virus ever made. This step is very important ill polio research, because now scientists can be sure that no contaminating body will be included in the virus particles used for research. The entire mass of virus, extracted from the tissue culture fluid of a monkey ' s kidney, weighed only one thousandth of a gram. To produce a pound of virus crystals, sufficient for a billion doses of vaccine, would cost about $500 mil- lion. But, regardless of cost, another step has been taken toward the elimination of polio. r

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VIRUS SYNTHESIS The 512 pieces of the tobacco mosaic virus have been taken apart and reassembled. Simple as this sounds to the layman, it marks a great step in biological research and another first for the University of California. The intricate experimentation which led to the partial synthesis was conducted by Heinz L. Fraenkel-Conrat. associate research biochemist, and Robley Williams, professor of biophysics, both of the University Virus laboratory. Partial synthesis has been clone with many other compounds, but this is the first time it has been done with a self-duplicating system like a virus. This step may lead in the future to the formation of new viruses or the recombination of exi:tinir one:. esisigs•••• ' ... Such an advance in the fiekl of viruses gives hope of similar steps in the field of genes and chromosomes. the agents of heredity; viruses and genes are the same size and composed of the same materials. It may be possible in the future to synthesize viruses which give immunity. but are incapable of carrying disease. It seems to reduce the study of viruses to the level of a complicated chemical problem. %Vitale new fields of research have been opened up, as the mystery of viruses has been diminished. Th scic inc: ent flui of for hoz to

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BIG GAME WEEK Since 1892 the University of California Golden Bears and the Stanford University Indians have battled it out during the Big Game. This year the week preceding the game was combined with Homecoming. Rain very nearly washed out many of the functions and stunts but the hard-working Homecoming committee members insisted that rain or shine the show will go on. The week started off as usual with Blue Monday. Large crowds of students gathered around the kangaroo court in Eshleman Court to watch the unfortunates receive judgment and punishment for wearing red. Blue Monday, formerly called I hate red day started in 1948 and is the newest tradition to invade our campus. All people wearing red are sought all over the campus and brought back to be placed in the Eshleman jail and then tried. re ' Some students objected to being imprisoned and were released without fines or punishments. but the weaker students who could not convince the court otherwise were asked to perform various feats of skill before they could be released. Another Big Game tradition is the crowning of the Homecoming Queen and her attend- ants. The Quern and her court are chosen by a panel of five. and the combined appearance of Sammy Davis, Jr. and the queens drew a large crowd. While the judges tabulated their results Sammy Davis entertained.