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Human genetics in post-WWII Italy: blood, genes and platforms

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Abstract

Italian Life sciences in post-WWII faced important challenges: the reconstruction of a scientific panorama suffering heavily after two decades of Fascism and the damages of war. Modernization was not only a matter of recreating a favorable environment for research, by modernizing Italian biomedical institutions and connecting the Italian scientists with the new ideas coming from abroad. The introduction of new genetics required a new array of concepts and instruments, but also, the ability to connect to international networks and to become active members of a broader scientific community. Because of the several socio-cultural issues involved (eugenics, racism, religion, politics), human genetics is a good case study in order to analyze how Italian life sciences managed the transition towards a new research system, and the influences Italian human geneticists received. The paper focuses primarily on the development of the early career of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, probably the most prominent scientist in post-WWII human genetics in Italy, and his friend and colleague Ruggero Ceppellini. In following their path, a healthy mix of local traditions and international stimuli emerges, allowing for the establishment—within and beyond national borders—of the discipline.

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Notes

  1. Serology in blood groups research is based on the reactions (agglutination, precipitation, haemolysis) occurring when serum is mixed with blood red cells. The ABO system, for example, identifies specific groups of antigens present on the surface of red blood cells: in an individual, the serum contains antibodies against the antigens absent in that individual’s red blood cells. By exposing red cells to different sera, it is possible to determine which ABO antigens groups are reacting to the ABO antibodies present in the serum. Serological reactions were extremely useful in human genetics research, since several antigens present in blood cells depend on simple Mendelian inheritance. “The blood groups were easily definable as Mendelian unit-characters, with a simple, direct relationship between genotype and phenotype. […] Blood-group serology offered a model system for human genetics.” (Mazumdar, 1996, p. 620)

  2. There is scant biographical information about Carlinfanti. Apart from a few obituaries (Maurizi, 1951; Puntoni, 1950; Zironi, 1950), the main source is the Archivio Storico dell’Università degli Studi di Milano (ASUM), Fascicoli Docenti, “Carlinfanti Erminio”.

  3. An account of the history of seroanthropology in the twentieth century—including an analysis of Lattes’ career—is provided by Pogliano (2005, in chp.3).

  4. Montalenti eventually became a dominating figure in Italian genetics, being part of the management of the Naples Zoological Station and directing the Genetics department at the University of Rome (De Sio, 2006).

  5. During WWII, Ceppellini fought in North Africa and was detained several months as a prisoner of war in Palestine where he worked with the geneticist Chaim Sheba, who sparked his interest in medical genetics (Bodmer, 1989). Detailed information about Ceppellini’s career can be found in Archivio Storico Università degli Studi di Milano (ASUM), Fascicolo Studente, nr 2404, “Ceppellini, Ruggero”, and Fascicolo Docente by the same name.

  6. More details on Cavalli-Sforza life and career are found in Stone and Lurquin (2005), Cavalli-Sforza (2008), Edwards (2021), Pogliano (1998).

  7. From an ancient and wealthy family of Milanese origin, and first cousin to the famous director Luchino Visconti, Niccolò Visconti di Modrone in the late 1940-50s worked mostly on phage genetics, spending a lot of time in the USA. Later, he left research to direct a pharmaceutical company, the Pierrel, very active in the development and production of antimicrobial drugs (Zeller, 2011; Capocci, 2013).

  8. Race was ranked among the two foreign “illustrious guests”, together with Arnault Tzanck from Paris (Formentano et al., 1946). The text of the talk delivered by Race is available in his personal papers (Wellcome Archive, PP/SAR/C/11, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pr9y5r86).

  9. An autobiographical account of this research is provided in Cavalli (1992).

  10. About the invention of “sexuality” in bacteria, see Bivins (2000).

  11. About Lederberg and Zimmer, see Sapp (2021) and Schindler (2021).

  12. This document has been shared as a courtesy by Audra J. Wolfe, who discusses the source in Wolfe (2018).

  13. The quote is from the presentation of the grant in aid of Ceppellini by the Rockefeller Foundation, 1961. Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), RF, 1.2, series 751, box 4, folder 46.

  14. According to Pauline Mazumdar “The blood-grouping laboratory was the fly-room of the human species” (1996, p.620).

  15. Archivio Adriano Buzzati-Traverso (ABT), box 35, folder 121. The archive is located at Sapienza Università di Roma, Unit of History of Medicine.

  16. The report is available at the CIA website: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp66r00546r000200100002-1 (last accessed 12/10/2021).

  17. The project, called “International Institute for Scientific Research” (shortened as Interist) was managed by Magni and Cavalli: they involved Lederberg as a consultant with a quite large amount of money and almost no duties. The annual fee was 4000 USD (Lederberg annual salary in Stanford amounted to 16000 USD, as stated in Alway to Lederberg, 21.07.1958; The Joshua Lederberg Papers (JLP), box 73, folder 3, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X17905) plus expenses if travelling to Italy was deemed necessary (Magni to Lederberg, 23.12.1959; JLP, box 11, folder 81, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X11855).

  18. JLP, box 9, folder 129, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X5555.

  19. JLP, box 11, folder 98, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X10510.

  20. JLP, box 73, folder 3, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X17890.

  21. JLP, box 5, folder 22, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X18429.

  22. Trofim Denysovyč Lysenko was the Soviet agronomist that built his career on the hypothesis that organisms could inherited acquired characters, so that Mendelian genetics and the Darwinian theory of evolution should be refuted. “Lysenkoism” was supposedly based on agricultural experiments, and it promised to create new plant varieties to increase crop output in USSR. Lysenko was strongly supported by Stalin, so that in 1938 the agronomist became the President of the V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a position he held until 1956. Under his domination, several geneticists were executed or sent to labor camps for supporting “bourgeois genetics”. Lysenkoism was part of the effort to expand Soviet influence in science, so that in several Western European countries a debate about Soviet genetics ensued, fostered by scientists involved with local Marxist and Communist parties. A recent and comprehensive reconstruction of Lysenkoism is provided by the collection of essays edited by William deJong-Lambert and Nikolay Krementsov (2017).

  23. Although the article was anonymous, before its publication Ceppellini sent Lederberg the final text of the interview. In the accompanying letter, Ceppellini wrote: “I hope to have interpreted faithfully what you have said and also what you haven’t said” (Ceppellini to Lederberg, 10.8.1959; JLP, box 9, folder 130, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X4929).

  24. Ceppellini to Lederberg, 5.11.1959 (JLP, box 9, folder 130, available at https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X4933).

  25. Ibid.

  26. Cold War colonialism is obviously part of this story, but it is beyond the scope of this paper. Further research would be needed in order to understand to what extent Cavalli-Sforza’s research was integral to the “Cold War network” envisaged by Susan Lindee (2014).

  27. Leslie Clarence Dunn was a prominent murine and human geneticist. Together with Theodosious Dobzhansky, Dunn founded and directed the Institute for the Study of Human Variation at Columbia, and was an outspoken opponent of eugenics and racism. He visited Italy several times, since he conducted in 1953–1955 a large genetic analysis of the Jewish Community in Rome (Gormley, 2009).

  28. Ida Bianco and Ezio Silvestroni, physicians, pioneered genetic counselling in Italy against thalassemia (Canali & Corbellini, 2006). Marcello Siniscalco grew up as a student of Giuseppe Montalenti, later working in Leiden and the USA. A founder of the Human Genome Organization, he established a human genetics laboratory in Sardinia, before spending his final years in the USA (Capocci, 2014b).

  29. RAC, RF 1.2, series 751, box 4, folder 46.

  30. Ibid.

  31. These antigens are exposed on the surface of white cells and determine the tissue compatibility between two individuals. Consider the transplant between a donor and a recipient: The more the white cell antigens differ in the two individuals, the stronger the immune reaction of the recipient will be against the donated organ.

  32. The importance of the discovery of HLA was recognized by the 1980 Nobel prize to the French hematologist Jean Dausset.

  33. Walter Bodmer is among the most important post-WWII human geneticists, and he acted as well as a leading British scientific organizer. He co-authored with Cavalli-Sforza an influential comprehensive treatise on human evolution (Cavalli-Sforza & Bodmer, 1971).

  34. Archives are currently missing or are unavailable for research, such as Cavalli’s personal papers or his correspondence with sir Walter Bodmer: the latter’s archive in Oxford is available, but the folders pertaining to Cavalli are still embargoed. Sadly, COVID19 pandemic further hindered research for the present paper.

  35. See Capocci & De Sio (Capocci, 2006; De Sio, 2006; De Sio & Capocci, 2008)

  36. This is the subject of several letters by Buzzati-Traverso to several Italian physicists: the biologist expressed great admiration for the way in which the physics community cooperated in Italy and participated to the creation of European scientific facilities (Cassata, 2013). On the other side, other scientists (Ceppellini among them) believed that the academic system could be reformed and even revolutionized, from the inside, without the creation of separate institutions (see letters written by Ceppellini to representatives of the Rockefeller Foundations, RAC, RF 1.2, series 751, box 4, folder 46).

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the staff at the University archives in Milan and at the Archives of the Unit of History of Medicine in Sapienza University of Rome. Two anonymous reviewers have read the earliest version of the paper: their comments have greatly contributed to its improvement. Many thanks to Francesco Cassata, Daniele Cozzoli, Fabio De Sio, Audra J. Wolfe, and Claudio Pogliano for help and comments; and to Sir Walter Bodmer and Jon J. van Rood for sharing recollections and personal papers.

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Capocci, M. Human genetics in post-WWII Italy: blood, genes and platforms. HPLS 45, 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-022-00555-2

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