In Memoriam: David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate and founder of the Whitehead Institute
In 1975, Dr. Baltimore received the Nobel Prize for his 1970 discovery of reverse transcriptase
David Baltimore, a former MIT Professor of Biology and founder of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, died on Sept. 6 at his home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was 87.
In 1975, Baltimore, Dr. Howard Temin, and Dr. Renato Dulbecco received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the enzyme reverse transcriptase. This development, which revealed that DNA could be derived from an RNA template, revolutionized the field of molecular biology just 17 years after the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953.
Dr. Harvey Lodish, an MIT Professor of Biology since 1968, fondly recalled his time working with Baltimore, whom he met at graduate school at Rockefeller University over 60 years ago. Lodish, who described the 1960s as “a tumultuous period” in molecular biology in an interview with The Tech, emphasized Baltimore’s pioneering work in the replication of animal viruses as a graduate student.
After a brief stint at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Baltimore joined the faculty of MIT, whose biology department was rapidly growing, in 1968. In Lodish’s words, MIT had made an active effort to recruit so-called “Young Turks,” led by soon-to-be Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria. Lodish added that, out of the “talented, smart young people who everyone thought was going to revolutionize biology,” Baltimore “was the smartest.”
In the late 1960s, Baltimore, his wife Dr. Alice Huang, and others in the MIT biology department began to study vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). They discovered that VSV, which invades animal cells, encodes a RNA-dependent polymerase that enables the RNA to be replicated and transcribed without the presence of DNA.
At the time, Baltimore was also teaching a graduate course at MIT on viruses, where he and his students read papers authored by Temin. Temin’s work showed that certain RNA viruses were able to cause permanent genetic changes to cells, making them tumorigenic. These results suggested that RNA becomes converted into DNA via enzymatic activity, and in the spring of 1970, Baltimore began work that led to the discovery of reverse transcriptase. The finding upended the central dogma of molecular biology, which postulated that genetic information is only conveyed from DNA to RNA to protein. Since then, reverse transcriptase has become pivotal in both experimental biology and therapeutic development.
In 1970, MIT was shut down for two weeks due to campus protests over the Vietnam War. As a leader in the faculty movement against the war, Baltimore led a march to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where two graduate students, including Jon Kabat-Zinn, were beaten by the Cambridge police.
Despite his involvement in protests, Baltimore was able to continue his research into reverse transcriptase, which he mainly pursued “with his own hands” despite a large research group, according to Lodish. When Baltimore called Temin informing him of his discovery, the two realized that they had achieved the same result independently. Baltimore was just 32.
Lodish described reverse transcriptase as a discovery that changed “everyone’s research.” During this “huge ferment,” Professor Luria founded the MIT Center for Cancer Research (a precursor to the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research). Luria, Baltimore, and Lodish were able to recruit more faculty to MIT, including Professor of Biology Robert Weinberg ’64, PhD ’69, who is known for research on human oncogenes.
In 1982, Edwin Whitehead approached Baltimore with a proposal to start a biomedical research institute affiliated with MIT after being rebuffed by several other institutions. Baltimore was able to overcome doubts in the MIT community following a year of intense discussion over the potential impact of hosting a separate entity. Once the Whitehead Institute was approved, Baltimore began recruiting faculty, including Lodish and Weinberg.
Ruth Lehmann, the current director of the Whitehead Institute and MIT Professor of Biology, wrote to The Tech that upon its foundation, Whitehead’s “nimble administration and financial independence,” which was unique among biology institutions, “offered flexibility and support” to scientists to pursue “high-risk research directions aimed at exploring the unknown.” Baltimore also launched the Whitehead Fellows program, which enabled talented early-career biologists to jumpstart their research careers as principal investigators in lieu of the typical time-consuming postdoctoral, pre-tenure process.
One notable Whitehead Fellow is Professor of Biology Eric Lander, who later became the Founding Director of the Broad Institute. The Broad was also launched with the help of Baltimore, along with the financial contributions of Eli and Edythe Broad. In a tribute to Baltimore published on the Broad’s website, Lander praised Baltimore’s approaches to science, mentorship, and administration, writing, “David had a singular ability to inspire people.”
Both Lodish and Lehmann emphasized how the unusual physical structure of the Whitehead building, which includes a cafeteria, auditorium, open spaces, and long interior corridors, encouraged scientists to collaborate. Lodish said that this environment has allowed him to publish research papers with many other Whitehead faculty. Lehmann also underscored Baltimore’s influence on the Kendall Square-based biotechnology hub and the establishment of other research institutes at MIT.
Lehmann credited Baltimore for discoveries across fields from immunology to virology. For instance, Baltimore discovered Rag genes, which are critical in mediating antibody diversity, a hallmark of adaptive immunity. Baltimore also contributed to science policy and the private sector.
After leaving Whitehead in 1990, Baltimore became the president of Rockefeller University. Around this time, a researcher affiliated with him was accused of scientific fraud. Although the allegations were cleared, Baltimore resigned as president in 1991, but remained on the Rockefeller faculty until 1994.
After returning to MIT for a few years, Baltimore was appointed the president of the California Institute of Technology in 1997. He held this role until 2006, but remained Caltech faculty until his death. There, he studied HIV and AIDS at a time when many scientists were afraid to touch an increasingly politicized subject — a reflection of Director Lehmann’s words that Dr. Baltimore’s “most important lesson for young scientists is not to be afraid to tackle big questions.”