Dr. Arnold Lester Demain -A Giant of Industrial Microbiology.

DR. ARNOLD LESTER DEMAIN :- A GIANT OF INDUSTRIAL MICROBIOLOGY

BRIEF BACKGROUND: Dr. Arnold L. Demain also called as Arny by his friends and relatives, was born on April 26,1927 to Henry Demain and Gussie Demain in Brooklyn, New York. The year of his birth is not an ordinary one as he was born in the year when Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean to paris all alone in 33 and a half hours. When asked in an interview Dr. Demain himself said that “I have no trouble remembering the year of my birth because in that year two most important records were set. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs of the New York Yankees and Charles Lindbergh flew the first solo flight across the Atlantic ocean to paris”. (biotechnol.j.2007,2,1469-1473)

That year was indeed not an ordinary year because one of the World’s leading Industrial Microbiologist and a great teacher was born in it. Dr. Demain gave 60 years of his life to the field of Industrial Microbiology including some special interests like:-

• Biotechnology 

• Industrial fermentation 

• Industrial Microbiology

• Antibiotics and Enzymes

• Secondary metabolism

• Biofuels technology

• Bioconversions

According to the peoples who knew Dr. Demain , he was a very generous, kind, lovable, hard working and a wonderful man with a good sense of humour , for his students he w as one of the best mentor and a friend. A Research Microbiologist and a University professor who have mentored several generations of scientists and Doctors in his 90s and was beloved by all.

His father Henry Demain was in the pickle manufacturing industry working for Vita Foods Corp. in Chestertown. His Grandfather was also in the same business. However, his mother Gussie demain was a secretary and Office administrator .

EDUCATION: During his learning years, Dr. Demain have attended five different Public Elementary Schools in Brooklyn and Bronx before he got graduated from high school at the age of 16. (microbiology Australia,,biotechnol.j.2,1469-1473) then he got enrolled at the Michigan High College (now university) for Bsc. Degree in Bacteriology. At the age of 17, in 1945 Dr. Demain got enlisted in the U.S. Navy towards the end of Second World War and spent two years in Philadelphia taking care of the injured amputees of the war. He returned back to Michigan State in 1947 when the war was over, and completed his  Bachelors as well as Masters degree in Bacteriology from the Michigan State college from Department of Microbiology and public health in 1949 and 1950 respectively. His family’s keen interest and involvement in the pickle industry worked as a motive force that attracted Dr. Demain to the field of Fermentation as his topic for Master’s research was “the spoilage and softening of pickles during fermentation” which he  concluded was caused by pectic enzymes.  (biotechnol.j.2.1469-1473)  

      

                    After this, he joined University of California to pursue his Ph.D. project based on Polygalactouronase of Sachharomyces  fragilis , from Department of Food Science situated at the Berkeley campus. At Berkeley, he was incharge of the cultures in University of California’s Yeast Collection Centre. Two years later from then his department relocated to US campus at Davis  where he completed his project with four papers on pectic enzymes and one of the paper got published in Nature. In 1954 he received his Ph.D.

PERSONAL LIFE: Dr. Arnold Demain met his wife, Joanne Demain (kaye) in University of California during Masters. Joanne is from Youngstown, ohio. After receiving the Master’s degree, they got married on August 2,1952 .they were married from last 68 years and had two childrens, daughter Pamella Demain and a son Jeffrey Demain who is married to Lauren Brenner for whom he was a very ;loving father. Dr. Demain have also welcomed his two grandchildren Megan and Andrew , their spouses and his two  great-grandchildren Grant Carter Neilson and Parker Reid Neilson. He loved his family so much that after his early retirement, in 2000 Arnold demain and his wife moved to Madison, New Jersey to live with their children and great-grandchildren. During his lifetime, Joanne was very supportive and proved to be biggest strength.

    

 16 YEARS OF RESEARCH AND HARD WORK:1954-1970

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Demain moved to Danville, Pennsylvania in early 1954.  There he started his 16 years long career starting at Merck Sharp and Dohme where he used to work as a Research Microbiologist, studying the synthesis of Pennicillin. His work on Pennicillin revealed the amino acids that form the Nucleus of Pennicillin , he also established the mechanism that enable primary metabolites and carbon sources to regulate Secondary metabolite synthesis, and he demonstrated that Pennicillin was the product of synthesis and inactivation during Fermentation (microbiology Australia,,biotechnol.j.2.1469-1473)  but in the late 1955, Dr. Demain moved on to Merck’s Pennicillin Research Laboratory in Rahway, New Jersey where his work on Fermentation Microbiology ,a^-lactam antibiotics ,flavor nucleotides and Microbial nutrition were extraordinary. 

After working for 9 years at Merck Sharp and Dohme , looking at his hardwork and intellect ; in 1964 he was asked to form a new department at Merck which would involve the improvement of product Biosynthesis in Microbial strains.

So, Dr. Demain  established it and named it the Department of Fermentation Microbiology and here he directed research and development on processes for “Monosodium glutamate , Vitamin B12 , Streptomycin, Riboflavin, Cephamycin, Fosfomycin and Interferon inducers”. (drew.edu)         He aslo elucidated a mechanism by which the biosynthesis of Cephalosporin from Cephalosporium acremonium was stimulated by the presence of Methionine –a new mechanism that had not been reported before. This work is described as ‘remarkable’ in its ‘level of innovation’ by Australia Microbiology. By using these processes the team at Merck managed to boost production yield of Vitamin B12 and was capable of improving natural levels of production by thousandfold. (drew.edu,,Australia Microbiology,,biotechnol.j.2.1469-1473) 

By 1969 he was Head of the Fermentation Microbiology Department at Merck, when he was recruited by MIT .(Massachusettes Institute of Technology)

DR. ARNOLD DEMAIN’S GOLDEN ERA: In 1968, Nevin Scrimshaw Head of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT) invited Dr. Demain to become a full time professor at the University. Dr. Demain accepted the proposal but joined the MIT in 1969 and then became professor of Industrial Microbiology in Scrimshaw’s Department at MIT  and also set up a fermentation laboratory there. For the next 32 years he remained there until his full retirement .  

In 1970, Dr. Demain attended his First Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms Symposium in Prague where he presented a closing Planery Session on topic   “Marriage of genetics and Industrial  Microbiology”. 

     At MIT,  he made a team of Researchers and students where they pioneered a research on the elucidation and regulation of the biosynthetic pathways leading to Penicillin and Cephalosporin. .(Microbiology Australia,,semgen)  Here the research led to a breakthrough discovery of a “key enzyme in cephalosporin synthesis-i.e. deacetooxycephalorin C synthetase also known as ‘expandase’.” This discovery established an important role of Penicillin as an intermediate in Cephalosporin C synthesis and disproved the previous hypothesis that these are two separate end products of Cephalosporium acremonium formed by branched secondary metabolite pathway. 

 In 1971, Dr. Demain’s involvement in the field of then emerging Biotechnology led him to become a part of the First Biotechnology Company , the Cetus  Corporation in Berkeley as an Advisor.

In the mid 1990’s Dr. Demain and his team started doing a series of NASA sponsored experiments to determine “the effect of Simulated Microgravity (SMG) on secondary metabolism” and they found that the regulation of microbial processes under SMG was quite different from that at normal gravity. 

In his last MIT project he was working on Clostridium tetani and Clostridium difficile  with an aim of production of improved Tetanus and antibiotic associated diarrhea vaccines. After the completion of the project, he revealed that “the effort was successful, ( summing up his years at MIT he later said ) he was very lucky to have had a fantastic group of bright and hardworking visiting Scientists ,post doctoral associates , graduate students , undergraduate students and high school students . I owe my all success to them and to my two most amazing lab supervisors- Nadine A. Solomon and Aiqi Fang ………..success at MIT  would not been possible without them.” (biotechnol.j.2.1469-1473)

At the age of 75, he took his early retirement from MIT however he kept contact with the students so that he could guide them.  After the retirement he moved back to New Jersey with his wife. In 2001 , he became a part of a small group of research fellows – Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti or R.I.S.E at Drew University in New Jersey . At RISE he trained many Undergraduate students and other researchers in conducting Research in Microbial Chemistry until May 2019, after which he got fully retired at the age of 92. Over the years , he taught and welcomed to his laboratory hundereds of students from all around the world at all levels. At MIT Dr. Demain’s  team called themselves “Arny’s Army and Friends” (AA&F) an informal group that got bigger and bigger every year during Dr. Demain’s lifetime. Since his retirement from MIT his students held “Arny’s Army and Friends symposia” in his honor , every 3 years around the world.

END OF THE GREAT: Dr. Arnold L. Demain was an outstanding Microbiologist and a teacher . During his lifetime, he received many honorary degrees and awards from different parts of the world like Spain , Germany, Belgium, Israel etc. He was also elected president of the Society for Industrial Microbiology in 1990 and was also a member of different communities being organized for the development of Microbiology and Biotechnology in different countries like IUMS  and SIMB. 

He also held his pen to co-edit or co-author around 14 books , published over 500 papers and also had 21 U.S. patents in his name.

But sadly on April 3,2020 at the age of 92 ,this great legend passed away due to the complications from COVID-19 . It was  just few weeks before his birthday. His family members are sad but more proud of him because all his life he kept working on a single goal that is the development of applied sciences and had contributed a lot. 

His life journey sets an example for the upcoming young researchers and Industrialists in Microbiology and Biotechnology . Finally he found his peace and the world found a legendary inspiration to follow.

 He will be missed but true honor to him will be taking his knowledge and experiences  of his life ahead to accomplish a goal that is the production of useful products by Microorganisms.

      FOR HIM IT IS TRUE THAT- 

                           “ SCIENCE IS ORGANISED KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM IS ORGANISED LIFE”.

                                      ~By Immanuel Kant