2002 Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees

Dr. Gordon Sato:
Dr. Sato received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Southern California and his PhD degree at the California Institute of Technology under Nobel Prize winner, Max Delbruek. His post-doctoral training was at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Colorado Medical School. He was a professor of Biochemistry at Brandeis University from 1958 - 1969 and later joined the Department of Biology at the University of California – San Diego as professor from 1970 - 1983.

Dr. Sato is best known for his contribution to the understanding of the multiple factors required for the culture and husbandry of mammalian cells outside the body. He also pioneered the field of serum-free defined culture of differentiated cells, discovered the role of local-acting hormones and polypeptide regulators in the process, and was the first to pioneer the concept of the for-profit company. The ultimate in this concept is Upstate Biotechnology, Inc., a foundation that was designed to provide products from the efforts of basic researchers to others, while also building profits for endowment to a unique non-profit graduate research institute in NY, the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center.

As the Center’s Director, Dr. Sato was the first to apply modern protein chemistry and molecular biology applied to cell culture biology problems, and he also established a PhD program with Clarkson University with 30 students in residence at the peak. In addition, he continued the advanced educational mission of the Center and increased its visibility by establishing the Cell Center-sponsored International Symposium on Cellular Endocrinology.

Since 1993, Dr. Sato has devoted himself to the humanitarian effort, The Manzanar Project. The Project is a global action project offering simple, practical, and effective solutions to the planet’s most critical problems: reduction of poverty, hunger, environmental pollution, and global warming through seawater aquaculture and silvaculture in deserts. Its working prototype and base is located in the Republic Eritrea. He was named an Honorary Admiral in the Navy of the Republic. Dr. Sato conceived the project while he was Professor at the University of California-San Diego, and pilot experiments in waste-algae-brine shrimp culture and the food chain were begun on the Manzanar Project at test site in the Salton Sea. The Project was further developed under the administration of Dr. Sato and Dr. Wallace McKeehan at the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center, where the Eritrean test project began during Eritrea’s war of independence from Ethiopia. The Manzanar Project has been described as “low-tech, biotech.” While administering the project, Dr. Sato has continued to publish research based on this, and has most recently established an international school so other countries of the world might benefit from on-site training in the Eritrea. His ideas and methods have enormous worldwide potential to impact the use of deserts, seawater, and reforestation.

Dr. Sato was President of the Tissue Culture Association (now SIVB) from 1984 to 1986 and was Editor-in-Chief of In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology from 1987 to 1991. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Adjunct and Honorary Professor at many universities throughout the world. He is the author or coauthor of over 150 publications in cell and molecular biology. (Information provided by Wallace McKeehan)

Dr. Sadar S. Sohi:
Dr. Sohi received his bachelor’s degree in Agriculture at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, and both his Masters and Doctorate in Entomology from Oregon State University. His research experience includes being a Research Scientist at the Canadian Forest Service from 1965-1999, a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan from 1964-1965, and a visiting scientist at Kyushu University in Japan from 1985-1986.

Dr. Sohi’s research interest and responsibility have been the development of continuous cell lines from forest insects, investigations of insect control agents in vitro, and developing in vitro systems for the mass production of insect pathogens. With the recent advances in biotechnology, insect tissue cultures have assumed an increasingly prominent role in basic biological research and biotechnology during the last decade. Insect cell cultures are essential for investigations of most insect pathogens and their use in other entomological research is increasing every year. They are used for the bioassay and strain selection of viruses and Bacillus thuringiensis toxins. Insect cell cultures will be crucial for the mass production of insect pathogenic viruses for use in the integrated pest management, because they offer a cleaner, viable, and, probably, in the long run, a cheaper alternative to insect larvae for producing viral pesticides. Also, insect cell culture systems are required for producing foreign gene products using baculovirus and entomopoxvirus expression vectors.

Dr. Sohi is internationally known for the development of continuous insect cell lines and other in vitro systems required for the development of biorational and environmentally friendly insect control agents. His research has led to the development of over 80 continuous cell lines from the tissues of several important forest insect pests, such as the eastern spruce budworm, western spruce budworm, forest tent caterpillar, red-headed pine sawfly, white-marked tussock moth and white pine weevil, and an agricultural pest, the tobacco hornworm. Some of these cells have been in culture since 1969, and all the cell lines have been freeze-preserved in liquid nitrogen storage. Dr. Sohi has demonstrated that many of his cell lines are susceptible to microsporidia, and the delta-endotoxin and beta-exotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis, and, additionally, some of them respond to the molting hormone, ecdysone, and its agonists, such as the Rohm and Haas insecticidal compounds RH-5849, RH-5992, and the juvenile hormone. Several of these cell lines are being used by many researchers around the world in countries such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, and USA for the in vitro investigations of insect pathogens and other insect control agents.

Dr. Sohi has been a member of the Society for In Vitro Biology for over 30 years and was one of those responsible for organizing the Invertebrate Section within TCA in the early 1970’s. He served as the first secretary of the Invertebrate Section from 1971-1975 as well as serving on the Constitution Committee from 1971-1972 and reviewing papers for In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Animal. Dr. Sohi has authored or coauthored over 70 publications, and has presented over 100 papers at national and international scientific meetings. (Information provided by Sadar Sohi and Melissa Hinga)