- Email: [email protected]
Jan Moor-Jankowski
Obituary
Jan Moor-Jankowski Primatologist and immunologist who founded New York University’s Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates. He was born on Feb 5, 1924, in Warsaw, Poland, and died of a stroke on Aug 27, 2005, in New York, USA, aged 81 years. Jan Moor-Jankowski, director of New York University’s Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) between 1965 and 1995, believed strongly that animal research should be done openly. “It is not necessary to hide [animal research]”, he told Scientific American in 1996. “I find that open discussion in a democracy is a basis for formulating judgment.” On that principle, recalls Louis Dinetz, who served as assistant director of LEMSIP in the early 1990s, Moor-Jankowski was committed to having a totally open research facility, “with a standing invitation to animal rights organisations to visit LEMSIP and observe how the research animals were treated”. James Mahoney, who worked with Moor-Jankowski for 20 years at LEMSIP, puts it this way: “He was an animal researcher and he used primates for research; but although he was committed to that, he had a great sympathy for those who were appalled by such use, and tried to meet them half way.” Moor-Jankowski’s professional life was marked by several hard-fought battles. In 1983, as chief editor and founder of the Journal of Medical Primatology, he published a letter from Shirley McGreal, chairwoman of the International Primate Protection League, which criticised an Austrian drug company’s plans to capture wild chimps for hepatitis research. The publication of the letter prompted the firm, Immuno AG, to sue for libel against Moor-Jankowski, the journal publisher, McGreal, and the publisher of New Scientist, which had written a news story about the plan. The suit triggered a 7-year legal battle that was eventually thrown out in a ruling 1072
by the New York Court of Appeals. “That law suit was a protracted ordeal”, recalls McGreal. She remembers MoorJankowski as a “charming person, an impressive person”, who became increasingly interested in the protection of primates during his life. For much of the duration of the libel case, Moor-Jankowski was the sole defendant after the others settled. In 1996, he explained to The Scientist magazine why he persevered. “As a very young boy I fought the Germans for freedom”, he said. “I didn’t want to stand up for muzzling.” In fact, Moor-Jankowski had been just 15 years old when the German army invaded his native Poland, and that same year he joined the Polish army. When the country was overrun, he joined the resistance and was repeatedly incarcerated by the Nazis. In 1944, in Berlin, he impersonated a German officer as part of a Polish underground scheme to help Jews and other deportees move between Berlin and Poland to escape persecution. Later that year, an explosive bullet burst in his knee and he was moved from hospital to hospital until, in 1945, he escaped to Switzerland. He earned his medical degree in Switzerland, writing a thesis on a flexible leg brace he invented for himself and wore throughout his life, but his main interest was in blood types, a subject that would remain one of his prime research areas. In 1959, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, he began studying primates as models of human immunity, and in 1965, at the invitation of New York University, he established LEMSIP, which became a centre for the research of blood diseases, hepatitis and, later, AIDS. But on Aug 9, 1995, 30 years after LEMSIP was founded, Moor-Jankowski’s leadership came to an end when he was fired by the University and barred from the laboratory. The dismissal came soon after the US Department of Agriculture informed the university that Moor-Jankowski, a member of the university’s animal use oversight committee, had reported violations at another of its laboratories. The university at the same time was working to divest itself of LEMSIP, which eventually closed in December, 1997. “I think he should be remembered as a fighter”, said Mahoney, who now works as a consultant to primate sanctuaries worldwide. “Once he believed in something he’d see it through to the bitter end. He didn’t seem to care if it had a bad outcome for his personal position.” Moor-Jankowski was awarded the William J Brennan Defense of Freedom Award by the Libel Defense Resource Center in 1994. In 1995, he was elected to the French Academy of Medicine, succeeding Linus Pauling as the only American member. He was decorated with the French National Order of Merit and the Polish Order of Merit. He was given a full military burial in Poland and is survived by his wife, Deborah; his children, Bernard, Sarah, and Tadeusz; two grandsons; and two great-granddaughters.
Stephen Pincock [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 366 September 24, 2005
Jan Moor-Jankowski Primatologist and immunologist who founded New York University’s Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates. He was born on Feb 5, 1924, in Warsaw, Poland, and died of a stroke on Aug 27, 2005, in New York, USA, aged 81 years. Jan Moor-Jankowski, director of New York University’s Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) between 1965 and 1995, believed strongly that animal research should be done openly. “It is not necessary to hide [animal research]”, he told Scientific American in 1996. “I find that open discussion in a democracy is a basis for formulating judgment.” On that principle, recalls Louis Dinetz, who served as assistant director of LEMSIP in the early 1990s, Moor-Jankowski was committed to having a totally open research facility, “with a standing invitation to animal rights organisations to visit LEMSIP and observe how the research animals were treated”. James Mahoney, who worked with Moor-Jankowski for 20 years at LEMSIP, puts it this way: “He was an animal researcher and he used primates for research; but although he was committed to that, he had a great sympathy for those who were appalled by such use, and tried to meet them half way.” Moor-Jankowski’s professional life was marked by several hard-fought battles. In 1983, as chief editor and founder of the Journal of Medical Primatology, he published a letter from Shirley McGreal, chairwoman of the International Primate Protection League, which criticised an Austrian drug company’s plans to capture wild chimps for hepatitis research. The publication of the letter prompted the firm, Immuno AG, to sue for libel against Moor-Jankowski, the journal publisher, McGreal, and the publisher of New Scientist, which had written a news story about the plan. The suit triggered a 7-year legal battle that was eventually thrown out in a ruling 1072
by the New York Court of Appeals. “That law suit was a protracted ordeal”, recalls McGreal. She remembers MoorJankowski as a “charming person, an impressive person”, who became increasingly interested in the protection of primates during his life. For much of the duration of the libel case, Moor-Jankowski was the sole defendant after the others settled. In 1996, he explained to The Scientist magazine why he persevered. “As a very young boy I fought the Germans for freedom”, he said. “I didn’t want to stand up for muzzling.” In fact, Moor-Jankowski had been just 15 years old when the German army invaded his native Poland, and that same year he joined the Polish army. When the country was overrun, he joined the resistance and was repeatedly incarcerated by the Nazis. In 1944, in Berlin, he impersonated a German officer as part of a Polish underground scheme to help Jews and other deportees move between Berlin and Poland to escape persecution. Later that year, an explosive bullet burst in his knee and he was moved from hospital to hospital until, in 1945, he escaped to Switzerland. He earned his medical degree in Switzerland, writing a thesis on a flexible leg brace he invented for himself and wore throughout his life, but his main interest was in blood types, a subject that would remain one of his prime research areas. In 1959, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, he began studying primates as models of human immunity, and in 1965, at the invitation of New York University, he established LEMSIP, which became a centre for the research of blood diseases, hepatitis and, later, AIDS. But on Aug 9, 1995, 30 years after LEMSIP was founded, Moor-Jankowski’s leadership came to an end when he was fired by the University and barred from the laboratory. The dismissal came soon after the US Department of Agriculture informed the university that Moor-Jankowski, a member of the university’s animal use oversight committee, had reported violations at another of its laboratories. The university at the same time was working to divest itself of LEMSIP, which eventually closed in December, 1997. “I think he should be remembered as a fighter”, said Mahoney, who now works as a consultant to primate sanctuaries worldwide. “Once he believed in something he’d see it through to the bitter end. He didn’t seem to care if it had a bad outcome for his personal position.” Moor-Jankowski was awarded the William J Brennan Defense of Freedom Award by the Libel Defense Resource Center in 1994. In 1995, he was elected to the French Academy of Medicine, succeeding Linus Pauling as the only American member. He was decorated with the French National Order of Merit and the Polish Order of Merit. He was given a full military burial in Poland and is survived by his wife, Deborah; his children, Bernard, Sarah, and Tadeusz; two grandsons; and two great-granddaughters.
Stephen Pincock [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 366 September 24, 2005