Harry Eagle
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
July 13, 1905 - June 12, 1992
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Scientific Discipline: Cellular and Developmental Biology Membership Type:
Emeritus
(elected 1963)
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Harry Eagle made several contributions to the field of immunology, the most vital of which was the creation of Eagle’s growth medium in 1959. At that time, studies using mammalian cells in culture, or in vitro, required cells to be grown in crude extracts. Eagle determined the specific amino acids and the minimum vitamin and sugar requirements for cells, allowing researchers to grow and study cells and viruses in a defined medium that remained constant across experiments. For his research on this subject, he received the National Medal of Science in 1987. Among Eagle’s other important contributions were his diagnostic test for syphilis, his discovery that blood clotting was an enzymatic process, a treatment for arsenic poisoning, and a description of differences in metabolism between healthy and malignant mammalian cells.
Eagle attended Johns Hopkins University and received his A.B. degree in 1923 and his M.D. degree in 1927. He taught at Johns Hopkins and then the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of immunology for several years before becoming the chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1961.
