Ames, Bruce (1928–)

Bruce Ames is the American biochemist and geneticist who developed the Ames test for chemical mutagens. This test made him a hero to environmentalists in the 1970s, but Ames has since changed his position on man-made chemicals. During the late 1980s, and especially the 1990s, he came into conflict with those green militants who had hailed him as an asset to their cause. Ames has also devoted much of his career to cancer and aging, summarizing his research in over 500 publications. His authority is invoked in many medical fields and he is frequently quoted.

Ames was born on December 16, 1928. He attended Cornell University from 1946 to 1950, graduating with a B.A. degree with a major in chemistry and a minor in biology. He then transferred to the biology department of the California Institute of Technology for his graduate study. After obtaining his Ph.D. in biochemistry, Ames moved to the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (NIAMD) in 1953 as a public health service fellow. There, he started work on what would later become the Ames test.

He conducted research to isolate the enzymes involved in the histidine pathway and to regulate genes in histidine biosynthesis using salmonella. Ames concluded that the histidine genes could be overexpressed if histidine availability reduced the [Page 122]growth rate. In 1962 Ames became a section head in the newly created laboratory of molecular biology at NIAMD, a position he held until 1967.

In 1968 Ames was appointed Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, a title he retained until 2000. Over his long career at Berkeley, Ames has chaired the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and acted as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center. He is currently a professor at the Berkeley Graduate School and a senior research scientist at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

Ames owes much of his celebrity to the Ames test, which he refined in the 1970s. The test targets chemical mutagens, the agents that tend to increase the frequency or extent of genetic mutation. Ames's version of the test is rapid and inexpensive and thus became more effective than the slower and more expensive epidemiological surveys and animal tests that were used before Ames devised his own test. It has been widely used to assess the mutagenic and carcinogenic risks of a large number of chemicals. The test allows scientists to discover whether the chemicals they are testing cause mutations in bacteria and could thus lead to cancer in humans. Thanks to Ames's analysis, synthetic chemicals that were commonly used have been banned. Tris, the flame retardant used in children's pajamas, was one of the most famous to be outlawed. The test and its results had a wide impact not only on the scientific community, but also on consumers’ choices.

The development of the mutagenic test earned Ames important environmental awards such as the 1985 Tyler Prize. The relevance of the test for cancer research was recognized with the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Prize in 1983. In addition, Ames was a member of the board of directors of the National Cancer Institute's National Cancer Advisory Board from 1976 to 1982. Yet, Ames soon changed from an environmentalist icon into a target of green activists who claim he has put his services to work in favor of big corporations.

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