Othello Washington
{{Short description|African American microbiologist}}
Othello Washington was an African-American microbiologist who worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from as early as the late 1950s (probably earlier) until at least the late 1980s.{{Cite book|last=Falkow|first=Stanley|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1225499908|title=And what's beyond that? : a memoir by the father of microbial pathogenesis|date=2020|isbn=979-8-6873-4014-4|location=[United States]|oclc=1225499908}} Othello went by "Wash" and was a lab technician, although he was known for being very experienced and skilled.
Career
He worked with Stanley Falkow during Stan's PhD thesis work and assisted him in isolating and discovering plasmids. Washington published a paper on the GC content of Proteus species with Stan Falkow, contributing the earliest knowledge of this genus of organisms as distinct species.{{Cite journal|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|doi=10.1128/jb.83.6.1318-1321.1962 |title=DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID BASE COMPOSITION OF PROTEUS AND PROVIDENCE ORGANISMS |date=1962 |last1=Falkow |first1=Stanley |last2=Ryman |first2=I. R. |last3=Washington |first3=O. |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=1318–1321 |pmid=13891463 |pmc=279453 }} After working with Falkow, Washington continued to work under Samuel B. Formal, and contributed to multiple fundamental studies of bacterial pathogenesis.
Washington is an author on a study titled "Invasion of HeLa Cells by Salmonella typhimurium: A Model for Study of Invasiveness of Salmonella".{{Cite journal|last1=Giannella|first1=R. A.|last2=Washington|first2=O.|last3=Gemski|first3=P.|last4=Formal|first4=S. B.|date=1973-07-01|title=Invasion of HeLa Cells by Salmonella typhimurium: A Model for Study of Invasiveness of Salmonella|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/infdis/128.1.69|journal=Journal of Infectious Diseases|volume=128|issue=1|pages=69–75|doi=10.1093/infdis/128.1.69|pmid=4577975 |issn=0022-1899|url-access=subscription}} This paper helped establish HeLa cells as an appropriate cell line to model Salmonella infection of intestinal epithelium. Washington also was a contributing author on a 1986 study of Shigella pathogenesis.{{Cite journal|title=Effect of guinea pig or monkey colonic mucus on Shigella aggregation and invasion of HeLa cells by Shigella flexneri 1b and 2a|journal=Infection and Immunity|date=1986 |language=en|doi=10.1128/iai.51.3.975-978.1986 |last1=Dinari |first1=G. |last2=Hale |first2=T. L. |last3=Washington |first3=O. |last4=Formal |first4=S. B. |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=975–978 |pmid=3081449 |pmc=260999 }}
References
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Category:Possibly living people
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American microbiologists
Category:African-American biologists
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