Theodore T. Puck discovered somatic-cell genetics, the ability to grow substantial numbers of human cells in a petri dish.
This empirical innovation earned Puck the 1958 Albert Lasker Award for basic medical research, the U.S. version of the Nobel Prize.
“That was the beginning. He developed the whole field of somatic-cell genetics over the next years,” said friend and protégé David Patterson, who joined Puck at the University of Denver as a post-doctoral fellow in 1971.
Puck, a pioneering Colorado genetics researcher, died in Denver on Sunday at age 89.
With a jaunty bow tie perched between the lapels of his white lab coat, Puck looked like a scientist from central casting.
Puck’s discovery of somatic-cell genetics – a phrase he coined to refer to genetics based on any body cell – made it possible to grow human cells outside the body.
The technique led to dramatic genetic breakthroughs, including the development of amniocentesis to detect genetic defects in the unborn.
Throughout his 65-year biomedical-research career, Puck established that the human genome contains 46 chromosomes and resolved the contentious dispute about how many pairs of chromosomes exist in a human (23). Puck created the Denver classification system used internationally to classify and study chromosomes.
His 1950s research in X-ray technology led a huge leap in oncology. Puck determined the precise doses required to destroy human cells, a breakthrough that revolutionized the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy in cancer patients.
Researchers at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, which Puck founded in 1961, went on to identify the first gene responsible for Alzheimer’s disease, along with identifying the genes involved in Lou Gehrig’s disease, immune function, and kidney and colon cancer.
Born in Chicago, Puck earned undergraduate and post-doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, studying under Nobel Prize winner James Franck.
In the early 1940s, when the U.S. government attempted to recruit Puck for the atomic-bomb development project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Franck intervened, allowing Puck to continue working on airborne infectious diseases. Puck consequently developed an interest in encouraging scientists to leaven their studies with compassion.
“We’ve got to teach people to be more human,” he said in a 2003 Denver Post interview.
He never retired, working in the lab until he fell and broke his hip in late October. Puck died of complications associated with hip surgery.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Puck of Denver; daughters Stirling Puck of Santa Fe and Laurel Northup and Jennifer Puck, both of Bethesda, Md.; and seven grandchildren.
Services are pending.
The family suggests memorial donations to the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, 1899 Gaylord St., Denver, CO 80206.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
