Jordi Casals-Ariet

Abstract

Virologist who created modern taxonomy of species. Born May 15, 1911, in Viladrau (Girona), Spain; died on Feb 10, 2004, after a hospital stay for back pain of unclear causes, in New York, NY, USA; aged 92 years.In the 1940s, George Hirst, working with a technician at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, found that if he broke blood vessels while inoculating incubating eggs with influenza virus, the blood clotted. What they had discovered was agglutination—a function of the virus. Jordi Casals-Ariet, an investigator at Rockefeller, turned the agglutinin test, plus the complement neutralisation test, into a diagnostic tool. He started with eastern equine encephalitis virus. Casals-Ariet could see that eastern and western equine viruses were related, but realised that rabies, poliomyelitis, yellow fever, and Murray Valley were not related to one another. If two viruses were related, he said they formed a group. He called equines group A, and those related to yellow fever, group B.Because of the volume of samples reaching Rockefeller, which had laboratories around the world, and because of a lack of sensitivity of some of the tests, said Charles Calisher, professor of microbiology at Colorado State University, Casals-Ariet found himself in “way over his head”. He feared he would run out of letters, so he began naming each group by the first isolate identified. “And that's the way it is now”, Calisher said. Casals-Ariet refined the taxonomy to include viruses that were clearly in one group but that would react weakly with a virus in another group. “So he had to call it a supergroup”, Calisher said. “It sounded like he was backpedalling. But he really wasn't.”“While he was doing viral nomenclature, really what he devised was viral taxonomy before the molecular studies would allow that”, Calisher said. “He was more of an artist than anything. When he applied his art to science, you could count on it. He did everything in triplicate. He told me I would have a good career in science if every time I found something I tried to prove myself wrong. He would look at everything from 40 angles to find a flaw.”Casals-Ariet became internationally known for his taxonomy skills, serving as a consultant to organisations including the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, WHO, and the US National Institutes of Health. He earned his medical degree from the University of Barcelona in Spain in 1934. He was an intern in surgery there until 1936, when he emigrated to the USA and became a visiting investigator at Rockefeller and began working with Jules Freund at Cornell University's medical school in New York. He moved to Rockefeller in 1938, and worked there until 1965, when he moved with the Rockefeller laboratory to Yale University, New Haven, CT. After retiring from Yale in 1981, he became a visiting faculty member at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. He would eventually publish nearly 250 papers, the last in 1998.In 1969, laboratory and health-care workers in Nigeria, where Rockefeller had laboratories, would often nick themselves during autopsies, and many died. Blood samples were sent to Rockefeller. Casals-Ariet was working with the samples and acquired Lassa fever. He nearly died, Calisher said. Jack Woodall, who now runs a laboratory for the study of emerging viruses at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said Casals-Ariet noticed a strange phenomenon. “He said, ‘you know, I've never been so cheerful. I knew I was deathly ill but I felt great’”, Woodall told The Lancet. It was the opposite of what patients with dengue experience, he added—wishing they would die because they are suffering so much, even though they probably wouldn't.Casals-Ariet is survived by his wife and daughter. He was quite formal, “a real gentleman”, who was mainly interested in his work and talked about viruses rather than his hobbies, said Calisher, who recalled interviewing him for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. When he asked him about the most meaningful part of his career, Casals-Ariet “got all teary-eyed, which surprised me”, Calisher said. “‘It was the people I worked with’, he told me. Underneath all that he was just like the rest of us. He was a good man.” Virologist who created modern taxonomy of species. Born May 15, 1911, in Viladrau (Girona), Spain; died on Feb 10, 2004, after a hospital stay for back pain of unclear causes, in New York, NY, USA; aged 92 years. In the 1940s, George Hirst, working with a technician at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, found that if he broke blood vessels while inoculating incubating eggs with influenza virus, the blood clotted. What they had discovered was agglutination—a function of the virus. Jordi Casals-Ariet, an investigator at Rockefeller, turned the agglutinin test, plus the complement neutralisation test, into a diagnostic tool. He started with eastern equine encephalitis virus. Casals-Ariet could see that eastern and western equine viruses were related, but realised that rabies, poliomyelitis, yellow fever, and Murray Valley were not related to one another. If two viruses were related, he said they formed a group. He called equines group A, and those related to yellow fever, group B. Because of the volume of samples reaching Rockefeller, which had laboratories around the world, and because of a lack of sensitivity of some of the tests, said Charles Calisher, professor of microbiology at Colorado State University, Casals-Ariet found himself in “way over his head”. He feared he would run out of letters, so he began naming each group by the first isolate identified. “And that's the way it is now”, Calisher said. Casals-Ariet refined the taxonomy to include viruses that were clearly in one group but that would react weakly with a virus in another group. “So he had to call it a supergroup”, Calisher said. “It sounded like he was backpedalling. But he really wasn't.” “While he was doing viral nomenclature, really what he devised was viral taxonomy before the molecular studies would allow that”, Calisher said. “He was more of an artist than anything. When he applied his art to science, you could count on it. He did everything in triplicate. He told me I would have a good career in science if every time I found something I tried to prove myself wrong. He would look at everything from 40 angles to find a flaw.” Casals-Ariet became internationally known for his taxonomy skills, serving as a consultant to organisations including the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, WHO, and the US National Institutes of Health. He earned his medical degree from the University of Barcelona in Spain in 1934. He was an intern in surgery there until 1936, when he emigrated to the USA and became a visiting investigator at Rockefeller and began working with Jules Freund at Cornell University's medical school in New York. He moved to Rockefeller in 1938, and worked there until 1965, when he moved with the Rockefeller laboratory to Yale University, New Haven, CT. After retiring from Yale in 1981, he became a visiting faculty member at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. He would eventually publish nearly 250 papers, the last in 1998. In 1969, laboratory and health-care workers in Nigeria, where Rockefeller had laboratories, would often nick themselves during autopsies, and many died. Blood samples were sent to Rockefeller. Casals-Ariet was working with the samples and acquired Lassa fever. He nearly died, Calisher said. Jack Woodall, who now runs a laboratory for the study of emerging viruses at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said Casals-Ariet noticed a strange phenomenon. “He said, ‘you know, I've never been so cheerful. I knew I was deathly ill but I felt great’”, Woodall told The Lancet. It was the opposite of what patients with dengue experience, he added—wishing they would die because they are suffering so much, even though they probably wouldn't. Casals-Ariet is survived by his wife and daughter. He was quite formal, “a real gentleman”, who was mainly interested in his work and talked about viruses rather than his hobbies, said Calisher, who recalled interviewing him for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. When he asked him about the most meaningful part of his career, Casals-Ariet “got all teary-eyed, which surprised me”, Calisher said. “‘It was the people I worked with’, he told me. Underneath all that he was just like the rest of us. He was a good man.”