Johan Hultin

Hultin was born into a wealthy family in Stockholm on October 7, 1924.{{Cite news|last=Kolate|first=Gina|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/health/dr-johan-hultin-dead.html|title=Dr. Johan Hultin Dies at 97; His Work Helped Isolate 1918 Flu Virus|date=January 27, 2022|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 28, 2022|archive-date=January 27, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127230710/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/health/dr-johan-hultin-dead.html|url-status=live}} His father, Viking Hultin, was a businessman, and his mother was Eivor Jeansson Hultin, who later remarried the pathologist Carl Næslund. Hultin grew up with two sisters, one of them succumbed to sepsis at the age of six and the other died in a traffic collision at 32. Hultin was initially pursuing a degree in medicine at Uppsala University, but decided to immigrate to the U.S. in 1949 with his first wife, Gunvor,{{Cite magazine |last=McKnight |first=Michael |date=May 27, 2020 |title=Into the Wild. Twice. For Mankind |url=https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/05/27/johan-hultin-the-virus-hunter |magazine=Sports Illustrated |language=en-us |access-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-date=May 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501105640/https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/05/27/johan-hultin-the-virus-hunter |url-status=live }} and earned his Master's degree and an M.D. at the University of Iowa.{{Cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2002%2F02%2F17%2FCM40502.DTL |title=The Virus detective |access-date=January 28, 2022 |archive-date=December 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218121257/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2002%2F02%2F17%2FCM40502.DTL |url-status=live }} During his time there, he researched and warned against bioterrorism. After a brief career as a scientist, he switched gears and became a pathologist,{{Cite news|last=Bojs|first=Karin|url=https://www.dn.se/nyheter/vetenskap/svenska-forskare-i-topp/|title=Svenska forskare i topp|work=Dagens Nyheter|date=December 23, 2005|access-date=January 28, 2022|lang=swedish|archive-date=January 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128153732/https://www.dn.se/nyheter/vetenskap/svenska-forskare-i-topp/|url-status=live}} working at several hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his spare time, he developed ways to improve automotive safety which led to recognition by the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was an avid hiker and is the oldest person to ski Mustagh Ata in China. Hultin was also a builder. He constructed a log cabin in Bear Valley, California, that is a replica of Vastveitloftet, a 1355 A.D. loft house from Norway.

Hultin was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Iowa in 2000.{{Cite web|url=https://medicine.uiowa.edu/alumni/distinguished-alumni-awards/previous-alumni-award-recipients|title=Previous Alumni Award Recipients | Medicine Alumni|access-date=August 12, 2020|archive-date=January 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128153646/https://medicine.uiowa.edu/alumni/distinguished-alumni-awards/previous-alumni-award-recipients|url-status=live}} In 2009, the University of Iowa awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science.{{Cite news|title=Dr. Johan Hultin|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/johan-hultin-obituary?id=32454468|access-date=January 28, 2022|work=San Francisco Chronicle|via=Legacy.com|archive-date=January 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128153650/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/johan-hultin-obituary?id=32454468|url-status=live}}

The Hultin couple had some experience with permafrost excavation after assisting at an Alaska dig site under the supervision of paleontologist Otto Geist in the summer of 1949. In 1951, Johan Hultin tried to isolate the 1918 influenza virus from victims who had been buried in the Alaskan permafrost of a town called Brevig Mission. During the pandemic, 72 of the town's 80 residents perished from the flu. In his search, he unearthed bodies but failed to find any live viruses.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF17/1772.html |title=Villager's remains lead to 1918 flu breakthrough |access-date=April 28, 2009 |archive-date=October 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029164852/http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF17/1772.html |url-status=live }}

Nearly 50 years later, in July 1997, Hultin read an article in the journal Science written by virologist Jeffery Taubenberger who published the initial genetic sequence of the 1918 flu virus.{{Cite journal|last1=Taubenberger|first1=Jeffery K.|last2=Reid|first2=Ann H.|last3=Krafft|first3=Amy E.|last4=Bijwaard|first4=Karen E.|last5=Fanning|first5=Thomas G.|date=March 21, 1997|title=Initial Genetic Characterization of the 1918 "Spanish" Influenza Virus|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.275.5307.1793|journal=Science|language=en|volume=275|issue=5307|pages=1793–1796|doi=10.1126/science.275.5307.1793|issn=0036-8075|pmid=9065404|s2cid=8976173|access-date=July 25, 2020|archive-date=July 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725024515/https://science.sciencemag.org/content/275/5307/1793|url-status=live}} Hultin offered his services to recover lung tissues from victims of 1918 and returned to Brevig Mission. Again he received permission to dig for victims of the 1918 flu pandemic, and this time he unearthed the remains of an obese woman, roughly thirty years old, whom he christened "Lucy". The fat had protected her lungs from decay, and he took both of them. It turned out that in Lucy's case there was enough material to sequence the complete 1918 virus many times over.{{Cite web|last=CDC|date=December 17, 2019|title=The Discovery and Reconstruction of the 1918 Pandemic Virus|url=https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html|access-date=July 25, 2020|website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|language=en-us|archive-date=March 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325201749/https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html|url-status=live}} The first sequence from the sample was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with Hultin as a co-author.{{Cite journal|last1=Reid|first1=A. H.|last2=Fanning|first2=T. G.|last3=Hultin|first3=J. V.|last4=Taubenberger|first4=J. K.|date=February 16, 1999|title=Origin and evolution of the 1918 "Spanish" influenza virus hemagglutinin gene|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=96|issue=4|pages=1651–1656|doi=10.1073/pnas.96.4.1651|pmid=9990079|pmc=15547|bibcode=1999PNAS...96.1651R|issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free}} This sample provided scientists a first-hand opportunity to study the virus, which was inactivated with guanidinium thiocyanate before transport. This sample and others found in U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) archives allowed researchers to completely analyze the critical gene structures of the 1918 virus.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6271833.stm Lethal secrets of 1918 flu virus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321125545/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6271833.stm |date=March 21, 2009 }}; BBC Using the recovered traces, scientists revealed that the virus originated from birds and mutated to infect humans.{{Cite web |url=http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=6 |title=1918 flu |access-date=April 28, 2009 |archive-date=May 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505233438/http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=6 |url-status=dead }}

With his first wife, Gunvor (1924–2011), Hultin had four children; he and Gunvor later divorced, and, in 1985, he married English-born Eileen. In 2020, they were living in Rossmoor, California.{{Cite news |last=Tallyn |first=Cathy |date=June 10, 2020 |title=Dr. Johan Hultin is 'Indiana Jones' of scientists |language=en-US |work=Rossmoor News |url=https://www.rossmoornews.com/rossmoornews/2020/06/09/dr-johan-hultin-is-indiana-jones-of-scientists/ |url-status=live |access-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-date=September 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906163318/https://www.rossmoornews.com/rossmoornews/2020/06/09/dr-johan-hultin-is-indiana-jones-of-scientists/ }}

He died at his home in Walnut Creek, California, on January 22, 2022, at the age of 97.

“It is absolutely certain another pandemic will come, but we don’t know what form it will be. The question is, How can we be forewarned?” (February 2002)

“There are only two things that can threaten mankind in the short term. One is an influenza virus, and the other is nuclear war.” (2020)

• 1918 flu pandemic
• Spanish flu research
• Kirsty Duncan

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hultin, Johan}}

Category:1924 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:American pathologists

Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States

Category:University of Iowa alumni

Category:Scientists from Stockholm