Dilworth Wayne Woolley
{{Short description|Canadian-born American biochemist (1914–1966)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dilworth Wayne Woolley
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1914|07|20}}
| birth_place = Raymond, Alberta Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|07|23|1914|07|20}}
| nationality = Canadian-American
| other_names =
| occupation = Biochemist
| years_active = 1939-1966
| spouse = Janet Ruth McCarter
}}
Dilworth Wayne Woolley (July 20, 1914 – July 23, 1966) was a Canadian-born American biochemist, who did important work on vitamin deficiency, and was one of the first to study the role of serotonin in brain chemistry. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1939, 1948, 1949, and 1950.
Early life and education
Wayne Woolley was born in Raymond, Alberta, the son of Americans living in Canada. His extended family were prominent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; his great-grandfather was Edwin Dilworth Woolley, was a prominent Latter-day Saint bishop in Salt Lake City.Leonard J. Arrington, From Quaker to Latter-Day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley (Deseret Book Co. 1976). {{ISBN|9780877475910}}
Wayne Woolley (as he was known) was a precocious child who finished high school at age 13, and completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Alberta at age 19. He pursued graduate studies in the department of agricultural chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his PhD in 1939.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3215273/hometown_tribute_to_wayne_woolley_1941/ "A Tribute to Dr. Wayne Woolley"] Lethbridge Herald (February 25, 1941): 11. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} His graduate research with Conrad Elvehjem concerned nicotinic acid as a treatment for canine blacktongue, with implications for human pellagra.M. Y. Khan and Farha Khan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m_F6CgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA211 Principles of Enzyme Technology] (PHI Learning 2015): 211. {{ISBN|9788120350410}}
Career
Woolley spent much of his career at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City.George Washington Comer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TjVrAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA567 A History of the Rockefeller Institute, 1901-1953: Origins and Growth] (Rockefeller University Press 1965): 374-378. His major work focused on serotonin in brain chemistry: how substances such as LSD might affect the action of serotonin, how disorders of serotonin function might be responsible for mental disorders, and how serotonin might play a part in memory and learning.Patricia Mack Whitaker-Azmitia, [http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v21/n1s/full/1395355a.html "The Discovery of Serotonin and its Role in Neuroscience"] Neuropsychopharmacology 21(1999): 2S-8S. doi:10.1016/S0893-133X(99)00031-7D. Wayne Woolley, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dvREAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA108 "Involvement of the Hormone Serotonin in Emotion and Mind"] in David C. Glass, ed., Neurophysiology and Emotion (Rockefeller University Press 1967): 108-116. Though his career was shorter-lived than expected, subsequent work by others has developed many of Woolley's hypotheses in productive directions.Gaynor C. Wild and John G. Hildebrand, [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/woolley-dilworth.pdf Dilworth W. Woolley, 1914-1966] (National Academy of Sciences 2014).Brent Stockwell [https://books.google.com/books?id=TlysAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA169 The Quest for the Cure: The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines] (Columbia University Press 2013): 169. {{ISBN|9780231152136}}Walter Sneader, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Cb6BOkj9fK4C&lpg=PA254 Drug Discovery: A History] (John Wiley & Sons 2005): 254. {{ISBN|9780471899792}} One of his assistants, Robert Bruce Merrifield, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984, for work on peptide synthesis they did together in the 1950s.[http://www.americanpeptidesociety.org/memoriam/merrifield_announcement_rockefeller.asp "In Memoriam: R. Bruce Merrifield"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071023/http://www.americanpeptidesociety.org/memoriam/merrifield_announcement_rockefeller.asp |date=2016-03-04 }} American Peptide Society (2005).
In 1940 Woolley received the Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology. In 1948 he received Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3215233/woolley_wins_lilly_award_1940/ "Canadian Honored"] Ottawa Journal (December 30, 1940): 15. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3210013/dilworth_wayne_woolley_sightless/ "Sightless Scientist"] Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune (August 13, 1948): 1. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}{{Cite journal | doi=10.1021/cen-v026n016.p1148|title = Wayne Woolley Named Eli Lilly Award Winner|journal = Chemical & Engineering News| volume=26| issue=16| pages=1148–1149|year = 1948}} In 1952 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He served as president of the Institute of Nutrition in 1959.Thomas H. Jukes, [http://jn.nutrition.org/content/104/5/507.full.pdf "Dilworth Wayne Woolley, 1914-1966, A Biographical Sketch"] Journal of Nutrition 104(1974): 509-511.
Woolley was an author on over 200 research papers and book articles in his thirty-year career. Books by Woolley included A Study of Antimetabolites (1952),Dilworth Wayne Woolley, [https://books.google.com/books/about/A_study_of_antimetabolites.html?id=nh5qAAAAIAAJ A Study of Antimetabolites] (Wiley 1952). and The Biochemical Bases of Psychoses (1962).Dilworth Wayne Woolley, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_BrAAAAMAAJ The Biochemical Bases of Psychoses, or, the Serotonin Hypothesis about Mental Diseases] (Wiley 1962).
Personal life
Woolley married bacteriologist Janet Ruth McCarter in 1945. Woolley had Diabetes mellitus type 1 from childhood, and in 1923 was among the first children to receive insulin to treat the condition. He nonetheless experienced blindness as a complication of his diabetes, and was completely blind from age 25 until his death from a heart attack at age 52, while hiking in Cuzco, Peru.[https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm66/bm66-nov.html#a1 "Dr. D. Wayne Woolley Dies"] Braille Monitor (November 1966).Gaynor C. Wild and John G. Hildebrand, [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/woolley-dilworth.pdf "Dilworth W. Woolley, 1914-1966: A Biographical Memoir"] National Academy of Sciences (2014).
A small collection of the papers of D. Wayne Woolley are at the Rockefeller University Archive Center.[http://dimes.rockarch.org/FA205/overview A Guide to the D. Wayne Woolley papers] Rockefeller University Faculty FA205.
References
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Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumni
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:20th-century American biochemists
Category:People from Raymond, Alberta
Category:University of Alberta alumni