George Calvin Royal Jr (August 5, 1921 - November 24, 2016) was an American microbiologist. George C. Royal was also part of one of the few African-American husband-and-wife teams in science, working with Gladys W. Royal, Ph.D. on research supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. George C. Royal is a professor emeritus at Howard University.
Royal was born in Williamston, South Carolina, [1] in 1921, the oldest boy of nine children of African-American and Native American descent. His father, George Sr., owned an auto garage there before migrating his family to Urbana, Ohio, during the Great Depression.
Royal attended Tuskegee Institute from 1939 to 1943, earning a B.S. in Biology before serving in the Army in World War II as a munitions sergeant, ending at the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. After the war, he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he received an M.S. in microbiology in 1947. Royal took on positions as Bacteriology instructor at Tuskegee in 1947–48; research assistant at Ohio State University and Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station from 1948 to 1952. He was assistant professor of Bacteriology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University) in Greensboro from 1952 to 1955. [2]
In 1955 Royal gained admission to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. in microbiology as a predoctoral fellow in 1957. Royal was associate and professor of Bacteriology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro from 1957 to 1965; and in 1959 he served a summer research fellowship for the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Biology Division, at Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. He was the dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro from 1961 to 1965. Following a postdoctoral study in allergy and hypersensitivity and an assistant professorship in Microbiology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia from 1965 to 1966, he joined the faculty of Howard University from 1966 to 1993. He became professor emeritus in 1993. [2]
Royal married Gladys Geraldine Williams in 1947 while attending the University of Wisconsin. Gladys W. Royal (1926–2002) was an African-American biochemist, who graduated from Dillard University with a B.Sc. at the age of 18 in 1944, received an M.Sc. from Tuskegee in 1954, and would receive her Ph.D. from Ohio State University several years later - a rare feat for an African-American female in the 1950s. [3] The Royals would collaborate on important research including that funded by the United States Atomic Energy Commission involving bone marrow transplants to treat radiation overdoses. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
African-American husband-and-wife teams in science were extremely rare in the early and mid-20th century due to the social, educational and economic climate regarding African Americans in the United States. [1] [9]
The Atomic Energy Commission supported at least five grants for funding research on bone marrow transplants, which were proposed jointly by George and Gladys W. Royal. [4] [7] Their work was written and presented at various conferences, including the Fifth International Congress on Nutrition Washington, DC 1960 [4] and the International Congress on Histochemistry and Cytochemistry held in Paris, France in 1960. [4]
George C. Royal collaborated at Howard University with Dr. Calvin Sampson and others to develop serological procedures having prognostic value in candidiasis; [10] with Dr. Arvind Nandedkar to study antigenic compounds associated with Candida albicans; [11] with Dr. Robert Watkins and Dr. Arvind Nandedkar to develop antibodies to nortriptyline as a method of reducing toxicity; and with Dr. Richard Garden in the department of Oral Surgery to study the effects of Chlorhexidine on the growth of clinical isolates of Candida species.
Royal had six children: George Calvin Royal III, [1] Geraldine Gynnette Royal, [1] Guericke Christopher Royal, [1] jazz musician Gregory Charles Royal, [15] Michelle Renee McNear, and Eric Marcus Royal.
Tuskegee University, formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogenic yeast that is a common member of the human gut flora. It can also survive outside the human body. It is detected in the gastrointestinal tract and mouth in 40–60% of healthy adults. It is usually a commensal organism, but it can become pathogenic in immunocompromised individuals under a variety of conditions. It is one of the few species of the genus Candida that cause the human infection candidiasis, which results from an overgrowth of the fungus. Candidiasis is, for example, often observed in HIV-infected patients. C. albicans is the most common fungal species isolated from biofilms either formed on (permanent) implanted medical devices or on human tissue. C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, and C. glabrata are together responsible for 50–90% of all cases of candidiasis in humans. A mortality rate of 40% has been reported for patients with systemic candidiasis due to C. albicans. By one estimate, invasive candidiasis contracted in a hospital causes 2,800 to 11,200 deaths yearly in the US. Nevertheless, these numbers may not truly reflect the true extent of damage this organism causes, given new studies indicating that C. albicans can cross the blood–brain barrier in mice.
Candida is a genus of yeasts and is the most common cause of fungal infections worldwide. In fact, it is the largest genus of medically important yeasts.
Gammaproteobacteria is a class of bacteria in the phylum Pseudomonadota. It contains about 250 genera, which makes it the most genus-rich taxon of the Prokaryotes. Several medically, ecologically, and scientifically important groups of bacteria belong to this class. It is composed by all Gram-negative microbes and is the most phylogenetically and physiologically diverse class of Proteobacteria.
Microbial art, agar art, or germ art is artwork created by culturing microorganisms in certain patterns. The microbes used can be bacteria, yeast, fungi, or less commonly, protists. The microbes can be chosen for their natural colours, or can be engineered to express fluorescent proteins and viewed under ultraviolet light to make them fluoresce in colour.
Oral ecology is the microbial ecology of the microorganisms found in mouths. Oral ecology, like all forms of ecology, involves the study of the living things found in oral cavities as well as their interactions with each other and with their environment. Oral ecology is frequently investigated from the perspective of oral disease prevention, often focusing on conditions such as dental caries, candidiasis ("thrush"), gingivitis, periodontal disease, and others. However, many of the interactions between the microbiota and oral environment protect from disease and support a healthy oral cavity. Interactions between microbes and their environment can result in the stabilization or destabilization of the oral microbiome, with destabilization believed to result in disease states. Destabilization of the microbiome can be influenced by several factors, including diet changes, drugs or immune system disorders.
Vaginal yeast infection, also known as candidal vulvovaginitis and vaginal thrush, is excessive growth of yeast in the vagina that results in irritation. The most common symptom is vaginal itching, which may be severe. Other symptoms include burning with urination, a thick, white vaginal discharge that typically does not smell bad, pain during sex, and redness around the vagina. Symptoms often worsen just before a woman's period.
Carolyn Branch Brooks is an American microbiologist known for her research in immunology, nutrition, and crop productivity.
David A. Williston (1868–1962) was the first professionally trained African American landscape architect in the United States. He designed many campuses for historically black colleges and universities, including Tuskegee University. He also taught horticulture and landscape architecture.
Gladys W. Royal is one of a small number of early African-American biochemists. Part of one of the few African-American husband-and-wife teams in science, Gladys worked with George C. Royal on research supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. She later worked for many years as principal biochemist at the Cooperative State Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Royal was also active in the civil rights movement in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Alfreda Johnson Webb was a professor of biology and a doctor of veterinary medicine. She was the first Black woman licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the United States.
Neil Andrew Robert Gow is a professor of Microbiology and deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Exeter. Previously he served at the University of Aberdeen for 38 years and retains an honorary Chair there.
Beatrice B. "Bebe" Magee is an American biochemist and geneticist with expertise in molecular mycology and fungal genetics. She earned her B. A. in chemistry from Brandeis University in 1962 and her M. A. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. She has been co-author on over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals and an invited speaker at scientific meetings including Woods Hole and Cold Spring Harbor courses as well as at professional mycology societies.
Kaustuv Sanyal is an Indian molecular biologist, mycologist and a professor at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR). He is known for his molecular and genetic studies of pathogenic yeasts such as Candida and Cryptococcus). An alumnus of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya and Madurai Kamaraj University from where he earned a BSc in agriculture and MSc in biotechnology respectively, Sanyal did his doctoral studies at Bose Institute to secure a PhD in Yeast genetics. He moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA to work in the laboratory of John Carbon on the discovery of centromeres in Candida albicans. He joined JNCASR in 2005. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 in the disciplines of Microbial Evolution and Genomics and has delivered invited speeches which include the Gordon Research Conference, EMBO conferences on comparative genomics and kinetochores. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2012. He has also been awarded with the prestigious Tata Innovation Fellowship in 2017. The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as a fellow in 2014. He is also an elected fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (2017), and the Indian National Science Academy (2018). In 2019, he has been elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology.
Alexander "Sandy" D. Johnson is an American biochemist and Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Carol Kumamoto is an American microbiologist who is Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University. She investigates the filamentous growth of Candida albicans, a fungal pathogen that causes several diseases. She is also interested in how C. albicans interacts with its host during colonisation and invasive diseases. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology.
George Richard Bolling I was a U.S. Army Air Force/U.S. Air Force officer and combat fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the famed Tuskegee Airmen. He was one of 1,007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.
Curtis Christopher Robinson was an American pharmacist and U.S. Army Air Force officer. He served as a fighter pilot during World War II with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron, a component of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Frank C. Odds was an English mycologist. He studied Candida albicans, establishing how modern researchers study fungal pathogens and the diseases they cause.
Robert Lyman Starkey was an American microbiologist. He was the president of the American Society for Microbiology in 1963.