The Pathway to Bacterial Genetics

This chapter reviews Esther Zimmer’s early training, as she set out on a parallel career pathway, from Neurospora to bacteria, to her future husband Joshua Lederberg. While still a junior at Hunter College, Zimmer found the best possible mentor in Bernard Ogilvie Dodge, the foremost expert in Neurospora, the new model organism of genetic research. After graduation, Dodge helped her gain further research experience at the Industrial Hygiene Research Laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland, where she worked with Alexander Hollaender, an expert in radiation biology. After two years of training in the procedures for developing X-ray and UV induced mutations, Zimmer acquired her bona fides for graduate school. She was accepted to graduate school at Stanford University because of Dodge’s association with George Beadle, who, with Edward Tatum, had developed a new paradigm for biochemical genetics: “one gene: one enzyme.” In 1946, their similar experiences in Neurospora research brought Joshua and Esther together.