CLASS OF 1953 WHO'S WHO & WHERE - The City College Fund

Jack Preiss: I was born in Brooklyn, New York and wasraised mainly in the Williamsburg and Borough Park neighborhoods,with a short residency in the Manhattan East Side area atthe ages of 5 through 8. I attended Brooklyn Technical HighSchool (1945-49), graduating with a Chemistry degree. I thenattended The City College of New York (CCNY) graduating inJune 1953, with a B.S. degree in Chemistry. My original objectivewas to find a reasonable paying job, such as working for achemical company. However, in the last two years at CCNY, Idid undergraduate research under the guidance of Harry Wagreichand Benjamin Harrow and they advised me to go to graduateschool. A problem at that time was the Korean War and theBrooklyn, N.Y. Draft Board. They would not give me an extensionfor my working with a company, but, on the basis of myrecord at CCNY, they would allow me to go to graduate school. Fortunately, I had a choice to goeither to Duke University and enter their Ph.D. Biochemistry program, or remain in New York andget my Ph.D. in Chemistry at Columbia University. Despite being a confirmed New Yorker, I listenedto many people including my parents who urged me to become aware of other parts of theUSA and go to Duke University.I still remember my first trip to Durham, N.C.: an overnight train ride from Grand Central Stationin New York arriving in Durham, and then a taxi ride to the Men’s Graduate Center on campus toestablish residence. On that same day in June 1953, I went to meet Dr. Handler in his office, andalso Irwin Fridovich, who was then a graduate student. It was easy to recognize that both Dr. Handlerand Irwin were CCNY graduates. I quickly learned that coming to Duke in the summer wasthe best decision I could have made, as I immediately became involved in research. With invaluableadvice and help from Irwin and expert guidance from Dr. Handler, my research progress wentsmoothly.The Department was somewhat small at that time, as the only other professors, I believe, wereGeorge Schwert and Henry Kamin, another CCNY graduate. In subsequent years, other new facultycame, notably, Seymour Korkes, Bill Byrnes, Norman Kirschner and Bob Wheat, and so it was avery thriving and active Department. Much of this of course had to do with Dr. Handler’s supervisionas Chairman. My life went well both socially and more important, research-wise. First, thepathway to nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) synthesis was solved, and most importantly, thefirst discovery of the ribose-P donor, pyrophosphoryl-ribose-5’-P (PRPP). Unfortunately, JohnBuchanan’s group at MIT was first to publish on this PRPP and its involvement in the synthesis ofimidazolecarboxamide ribotide, an intermediate in purine biosynthesis. Nevertheless, the studiesof NMN led to the finding of the relevant pathway of NAD synthesis, from nicotinate to nicotinatemononucleotide to deamido-NAD and finally, the novel amidation reaction catalyzed by NAD synthetase.This pathway has been referred many times as the Preiss-Handler pathway.When I told Dr. Handler in 1956 (please note I never referred or called him Phil. It was always Dr.Handler) that I believed that I had completed all my research and was eligible to receive a PhD, heindicated to me that he wanted to get 4 years of work from me. So we negotiated and agreed thatin the last year, 1956-57, I would receive a Post-doctoral salary. We then started to discuss where Ishould go to do further Post-doctoral studies and still being the confirmed New Yorker I suggested