The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

Hooke (1635-1703) was an English polymath, natural philosopher, and scientist. He was a contemporary of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek but “quite the opposite” (31) of him. Hooke was a trained scientist, naturalist, and mathematician. He came from an impoverished family and was a scholarship student at Oxford, where he apprenticed under renowned physicist Robert Boyle. Mukherjee notes that “Hooke’s intelligence was phosphorescent and elastic, like a rubber band that glows as it stretches. He would enter disciplines and then expand and illuminate them as if by an internal light” (31). For example, he built a new telescope that allowed him to see the surface of Mars, and he helped an architect redesign London after it was destroyed by a fire.

Hooke built a compound microscope, which was considered one of the best microscopes of his time. Based on his microscope observations, he wrote a book entitled Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made with Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon (1665). This book included drawings of “minute bodies, never seen before at such magnification” (32-33). His most famous observation was of thin slices of cork. He discovered that cork tissue had cell walls. In fact, he coined the term “cell.” Hooke’s contributions to cell biology remain largely unknown today, in part because he had so many interests and because of his more famous colleague and competitor Sir Isaac Newton.

A British biochemist and molecular physiologist, Hunt (born in 1943) was interested in understanding what controlled the cell cycle. Through studies of sea urchins beginning in the 1980s, he discovered proteins called cyclins. Cyclins control a cell’s progression through the phases of cell division by activating cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) enzymes. Hunt had found one-half of the answer to what controls cell division. His colleague Paul Nurse found the other half. The two shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

In 2017, He (born in 1984), nicknamed JK, met two couples on the campus of a Chinese university. Two other scientists were present at this meeting, though they supposedly didn’t hear JK’s conversation with the couples. Because the recording quality was substandard, little is known about the meeting. JK’s goal was to edit genomes in two human embryos to resist HIV. Despite numerous issues, JK successfully implanted the genetically altered embryos into the mothers’ wombs, and two babies were born. When JK announced this at the 2018 International Summit on Human Genome Editing, however, he faced immediate backlash. As Mukherjee notes, JK was “sentenced to three years in prison for violating fundamental protocols of informed consent and the improper use of human subjects” (119) in 2019. JK’s story illustrates the importance of ethics in conducting research.

A German physician, Koch (1843-1910) built on the work of Louis Pasteur and made several discoveries. After isolating anthrax bacteria from infected farm animals, he viewed the bacteria under a microscope and discovered that the bacteria could become dormant spores that were resistant to heat or drying; when he added water to these spores, they sprang back into potentially lethal bacteria. In addition to isolating the pathogen (anthrax bacteria) from an unhealthy animal, Koch discovered that he could introduce the pathogen to a healthy animal, and the pathogen would cause the same disease in that animal—and that he could re-isolate a pathogen from an unhealthy animal and then grow the pathogen “in pure form in a culture” (59), which would still cause the disease. Koch and Pasteur had a bitter rivalry regarding the use of microbes in vaccines.

M. K. was a 23-year-old Italian American man at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with severe pneumonia that remained unresponsive to antibiotics. Mukherjee describes this case as one of the most complicated he encountered, noting that “his body had been so devastated by chronic infection that he looked like he could have been just twelve or thirteen years old” (53). His veins were so frail that nurses and doctors had difficulty inserting IV lines.

Mukherjee originally thought M. K. had severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Strange microbes grew from his blood. However, Mukherjee underscores how there were aspects of this disease that didn’t make medical sense, which led him to think they were missing something. When Mukherjee examined M. K.’s blood “cell by cell” (54), he realized that they’d misdiagnosed M. K. His T cells were extremely low in number and were nonfunctional. This lack of T cell function caused dysfunction in the B cells, which resulted in the total collapse of M. K.’s immune system. Mukherjee treated M. K. through a bone marrow transplant, which helped the B and T cells communicate again and restored his immunity.

An English geneticist, Nurse (born in 1949) met Mukherjee on a car ride through the Netherlands. Mukherjee describes him as “an elderly, wizened version of Bilbo Baggins” (102). Like Tim Hunt, Nurse strove to understand what controlled the cell cycle. Through studies of mutant yeast, Nurse discovered cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) enzymes. CDK represented one-half of the discovery of what controls cell division, with Hunt’s discovery representing the other half.

Sam is the first friend and patient that Mukherjee discusses in The Song of the Cell. Sam noticed a “coin-shaped mole, purple-black with a halo-like aureole, near his check” (1) in 2016. Sam didn’t get the mole checked out immediately because of work commitments. He was a sportswriter for a major newspaper. By his first visit to Mukherjee, the mole had grown into a mass the size of his thumb, and the cancer had begun to aggressively spread from his cheek to his ear. Doctors tried an experimental treatment for Sam’s cancer, but it resulted in a battle between the cancer and an autoimmune disease. Sam didn’t survive his fight with cancer.

Pasteur (1822-1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist. Through experiments, he disproved two leading ideas of the time. The first was that inner decomposition of organisms caused rot. Pasteur demonstrated that rot occurred when bacterial cells landed on living creatures. The second idea was that miasmas caused infection. Pasteur showed that the invasion of microbes, or single-celled organisms, caused “pathological changes and tissue degeneration” (57) and thus infection. In addition, he showed that microbes cause fermentation. This discovery led to the process of preserving food called pasteurization.

A British nurse and embryologist, Purdy (1945-1985), alongside her colleagues Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, was responsible for the experiment that achieved the first in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, the scientific community and public did not recognize her contributions for decades, and she died of melanoma before they did. Mukherjee uses Purdy’s story to highlight how women scientists often don’t receive the credit they should for major scientific breakthroughs.

Raspail (1794-1878) was the first scientist “who tried to build a theory of cellular physiology” (39) from early microscopic observations. A self-taught scientist, he opposed religious thinking, which dominated politics and culture during his life. During the French Revolution of the 1830s, Raspail fought against the government and was imprisoned for eight years. During his imprisonment, he taught his fellow inmates about personal hygiene, sanitation, and antisepsis. These teachings, alongside his anti-government views, resulted in his exile to Belgium. Despite his lack of formal training, Raspail published numerous science-related articles. In addition, he began to “investigate the composition, function, and origin of cells” (40). Although the scientific establishment of his time never recognized his work, Mukherjee considers Raspail a pioneer in cell biology.

Originally trained as a lawyer, Schleiden (1804-1881) turned to botany after an attempted death by suicide. Like Hooke, he found a unitary structure in plant tissues. He collaborated with zoologist Theodor Schwann to found cell theory, and they were the first scientists to argue that cells were the building blocks of all living beings. Schleiden and Schwann developed the first two principles of cellular biology—the existence of a cellular nucleus and the uniformity of tissue.

A German zoologist, Schwann (1810-1882) found a unitary structure in animal tissues. Along with Schleiden, Schwann founded cell theory and developed its first two principles. While this theory changed the field of biology forever, Schwann struggled to explain where cells came from.

An English physician, Snow (1813-1858) is considered the “Father of Epidemiology” because of his investigations into cholera outbreaks in London. In one study, he determined where the person affected with cholera lived and worked. On a map, he marked both items as well as the location of water pumps because he suspected that tainted water was the cause of the cholera outbreak. He talked with residents about which pumps they used for their water. Using all of this evidence, Snow determined which pump was likely causing the cholera outbreak. He believed that cells in the water were the source of infection.

Mukherjee describes Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) as “a secretive Dutch trader [who] taught himself to visualize this invisible world” (27). Initially, Leeuwenhoek used a simple microscope, which he built himself, to examine the quality and integrity of thread. He soon compulsively looked at everything under a microscope. He was the first to see tiny organisms, or animalcules, in rainwater. Driven to better see these tiny organisms, he crafted almost 500 refined simple microscopes, “each a marvel of meticulous tinkering” (28). In 1675, he wrote to the Royal Society of London about his discovery of single-celled organisms. However, he provided few details, which became a pattern. Mukherjee notes that “the cloth merchant was notoriously reluctant to let observers or scientists examine his instruments” (29). In turn, many scientists dismissed van Leeuwenhoek because he didn’t have a scientific background; he corresponded with Robert Hooke after hearing about his microscopic observations, but Hooke rarely responded. Despite being largely self-taught in science and ignored by his contemporaries, Leeuwenhoek is considered the “Father of Microbiology.”

Vesalius (1514-1564), a Flemish scientist, was one of the most well-known anatomists of the 16th century. Before Vesalius, the field of anatomy was in disarray. Surgeons and their students still used the anatomical teachings of Roman physician Galen (AD 129-216). Based on animal studies, Galen’s teachings were outdated and not accurate for surgery on humans. Mukherjee notes how Vesalius described surgeons at the time:

They merely chop up the things which are to be shown on the instructions of the physician, who, having never put his hand to cutting, simply steers the boat from the commentary—and not without arrogance. And thus all things are taught wrongly, and days go by in silly disputations (20).

Using specimens from charnel houses and hospitals, Vesalius started to draw out his own maps of the human body. In doing so, he helped revolutionize the field of human anatomy and put it “at the center of medicine” (22).

Born in Pomerania, Prussia (now split between Germany and Poland), Virchow (1821-1902) was a physician, anthropologist, biologist, pathologist, writer, and politician. He was an excellent student and originally planned to be a pastor. However, he was concerned that he had too soft a voice for this career and instead turned to science and medicine. Mukherjee is grateful for Virchow’s soft voice because he revolutionized the field of pathology.

Mukherjee notes that after Virchow received his medical degree, he “yearned to find a systemic way to understand human physiology and pathology” (24). He studied patients with leukemia, who have an abundance of white blood cells in the body, and argued that these abnormal cells came from normal cells.

In addition, Virchow became involved in politics. He wrote anti-government articles, especially after typhus swept through Prussia. Virchow argued that the cause of disease “was not just the infectious agent but also decades of political misrule and social neglect” (47). In his view, the government represented a disease on the people. Unhappy with his writings, the government forced Virchow to resign from his medical position and sign a statement that he would not continue his political writings. Nevertheless, Virchow remained staunchly opposed to the government and a strong advocate for the equality of citizens. The latter idea was especially novel considering that racism and anti-Semitism ran rampant during this period. Virchow was elected to the Berlin City Council, where he witnessed “the resurgence of a malignant form of radical nationalism that would eventually culminate in the Nazi state” (51). Virchow combined his microscopic studies and political observations to further define cell biology.