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Next, Bittner took babies from the immune Family B and set them to nurse with cancerous mothers from Family A. The result was that the young mice switched their cancer tendencies. Three out of four mice, which came from healthy Family B, developed cancer and died of it, while those originally from Family A remained healthy. Bittner noted that something in mouse milk appeared to pass the disease along. In other words, nursing mice transmit this agent, or "Bittner virus", in their milk, which ultimately leads to tumors in their offspring.
93:, who had previously been the President of the University of Michigan. Thus, aware of Bittner's research, Little offered him a position as a research associate at the Jackson Laboratory. In 1940 Bittner became the lab's Assistant Director, where he remained until December 1942. After a fire at the Jackson Laboratory in 1947, Bittner was one of the main contributors of replacement mice because he still had the purebred mouse strains needed to continue their research.
46:, on February 25, 1904, the son of the late Martin and Minnie Bittner. John was one of four children, he had a brother and two sisters all of whom were highly educated. As a young man he was so proficient in baseball, basketball, and track that he received offers of athletic scholarships at several schools. He chose to attend St. Stephen's College (now
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In addition, Bittner felt that genetic and hormonal influences, along with the milk agent, contributed to the origin of cancer. In 1966, it was proven that
Bittner's "milk factor" was a virus that remained dormant during the early life of the young mouse but produced cancer when hormonal conditions
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Bittner used two families of mice: in Family A, almost all the mice, across many generations, developed breast cancer; in Family B, cancer seldom occurred. He then took a number of newborn mice from Family A, away from their cancerous mothers, and set them to nurse with immune mothers in Family B.
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Throughout his career, Bittner served on numerous committees dealing with cancer research. During the summer of 1947, he was a member of the
Medical Teaching Mission to Austria, sponsored by the Unitarian Service Committee, of the World Health Organization to "promote international exchange of
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By far, the greatest impact of
Bittner's contributions to cancer research was the discovery in 1936, while working at the Jackson Lab, that a cancerous agent, which he called a "milk factor", could be transmitted by cancerous mothers to young mice while nursing.
100:. He held this appointment until his death, of a heart attack, on December 14, 1961. In addition, Bittner was a consultant for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York for almost a decade prior to his death.
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Ruddy, Kathleen T, MD "The End of Breast Cancer: A Virus and the Hope for a
Vaccine" Skyhorse Publishing Inc (2017)(Previously published as "Of Mice and Women: Unraveling the Mystery of the Breast Cancer Virus") (2015)
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Bittner authored, or co-authored, over 240 papers on cancer research, and contributed chapters to several books. He lectured widely in this country and abroad and attended many national and international meetings.
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In
January 1943 he became the George Chase Christian Professor of Cancer Research and Director of the Division of Cancer Biology at the
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Rader, Karen A. "Making Mice
Standardizing Animals For American Biomedical Research 1900-1955" Princeton University Press (2004)
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1957 Bertner
Foundation Award - M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, University of Texas Medical School, Houston
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research, which were of value, not only in cancer research, but also in a variety of other biological investigations.
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and was a member of their board of directors from 1945 to 1951. He also served on the editorial advisory board of
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Bittner received many awards, citations, and medals during his career. The most notable include the following:
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in mice, begun during his graduate years at
Michigan, was continued at the newly formed
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1950 Honorary Doctor of
Science Degree - Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
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degree in 1925, with honors in biology. He taught at
Donaldson Preparatory School,
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197:"University of Minnesota, Institute for Molecular Virology, UMN Virology Timeline"
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1951 1st Comfort Crookshank Award - Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London
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1941 The Alvarenga Award - American College of Physicians in Philadelphia
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A Genetic Study of the Transplantation of Tumors Arising in Hybrid Mice
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were right in middle age. The Bittner virus is now known as the
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biologist, who made many contributions on the genetics of
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1, May 1942 "The Milk-Influence of Breast Tumors in Mice"
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22:(February 25, 1904 – December 14, 1961) was a
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202:"Obituary, John Joseph Bittner, 1904-1961"
132:In 1947-48, Bittner was president of the
134:American Association for Cancer Research
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70:in 1930. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled "
163:1950 Medal of the American Cancer Study
89:. The founding director of the lab was
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228:May 24, 1971 Breast Cancer and Virus
175:1957 Doctor of Medicine and Surgery
288:People from Meadville, Pennsylvania
144:medical and scientific knowledge."
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293:20th-century American physicians
283:University of Minnesota faculty
179:- University of Perugia, Italy
62:. While there he received his
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273:University of Michigan alumni
238:June 9, 1941 Suckling’ Cancer
77:His work on the genetics of
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233:March 18, 1946 Cancer Virus
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119:Mouse mammary tumor virus
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66:degree in 1929, and his
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44:Meadville, Pennsylvania
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50:) where he received a
253:American geneticists
91:Clarence Cook Little
42:Bittner was born in
278:Bard College alumni
217:Journal of Virology
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20:John Joseph Bittner
16:American physician
87:Bar Harbor, Maine
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123:retrovirus
121:(MMTV), a
24:geneticist
127:Oncovirus
38:Biography
208:Science
152:Honors
28:cancer
68:Ph.D.
64:M.S.
52:B.A.
26:and
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85:at
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