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Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence
In 1949, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence made a revolutionary discovery while studying tuberculosis. He determined that an immune response could be transferred from a donor to a recipient by injecting an extract of white blood cells (leukocytes) from a previously infected, now healthy, subject into a newly infected patient. He found that this extract contained a factor capable of transferring immunity. He named the substance "transfer factor."
Dr. Lawrence's discovery came in the midst of the discovery and use of antibiotics. Transfer factors have been used throughout the antibiotic age in different regions of the world such as China, Poland, Italy and others, but never have been available commercially due to the lack of technology.
In the fifty years since Lawrence's pioneering work, an estimated $40,000,000 has been spent on research resulting in over 3,000 published scientific papers documenting the benefits of transfer factors. The world's leading scientists and physicians have established the safety and remarkable immune system benefits of transfer factors. The processing methods that allow for large-scale extraction of transfer factors have only recently been perfected and a commercial product has only been available within the last few years.
Recent in vitro and in vivo studies on Transfer Factor Plus documented an increase in Natural Killer cell activity.by 248% and 269% respectively, over baseline immune response. The NK cell is the animal's first line of defense against many pathogens... bacteria, viruses, parasites, and of course malignant tumor cells.
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The History of Transfer Factors
In 1949, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence discovered that when you transfer blood to another person, some of the donor’s immunity is transferred to the receiving person. From this discovery, research began its journey through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Scientists believed they had found that ultimate immune system and health enhancer. They believed that transfer factors would be the ultimate natural medicine. As technology increased, more and more was learned about the benefits of transfer factors. More than 3000 studies were conducted and $40 million (USA) was invested into research. Scientists from more than 60 countries were involved in this research. Two developments stopped this progress. First was the development of antibiotics. Antibiotics were inexpensive to manufacture. They were effective. Antibiotics took the show.
Another development was the contamination of the world’s blood supply by HIV and hepatitis C virus. Up until this time, the only known source of transfer factors was derived from blood. Research stopped in its tracks.
In 1986, two hog scientists discovered that mothers passed down their transfer factors to their babies through the placenta and colostrum in order to give the baby’s immune system a chance to survive a hostile environment of pathogens. These scientists found the cows did the same thing. Often calves will not survive if for some reason they do not receive the colostrum from the mother. Research began to move forward again. Antibiotics still reigned as king in the medical world. Many scientists that worked with transfer factors derived from blood didn’t think transfer factors from colostrum would work, so they didn’t enter the research.
Three events in history changed all of this. First, technology advanced. Secondly, germs began to become resistant to antibiotics. Third, 4Life Research created a large consumer base from which they derived a great deal of information about how transfer factors affected the health and immune systems of more than a million customers. Now research is exploding!
Every year and sometimes every month, something new is discovered about the effectiveness and roles of transfer factors. 4Life Research was the first to bring a line of Transfer Factor products to the market that contained transfer factors from cow colostrum. Next, their in-house scientists discovered that eggs contained transfer factors and the combination of the two increases their effectiveness by 185%. Transfer factors from colostrum and eggs were found to be actually superior to transfer factors from humans because animals are exposed to many more species of bacteria, viruses and fungi. Animals live in the wild while humans try to keep sterile. Animal transfer factors have hundreds of years of more exposure creating a more functional transfer factor.
Back to TopPRESENTATION OF THE ACADEMY
MEDAL TO H. SHERWOOD LAWRENCE, M.D.*
LUDWIG W. EICHNA, M.D.
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center Brooklyn, N. Y.
*Presented at the Annual Meeting of the New York Academy of Medicine, April 24, 1974.
HONORS are far from new to the New York Academy of Medicine medalist for 1974, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence. Let me call the roll. He has been the recipient of the New York University Alumni Meritorious Scientific Achievement Award (1970), the von Pirquet Gold Medal of the Annual Forum on Allergy (1972), and the American College of Physicians Award for Distinguished Contributions in Science Related to Medicine (1973). He has delivered prestigious lectures, among them the Anna H. Westoff Memorial Lecture of the American Rheumatism Association (1964), the 6oth Anniversary Lecture of the American Thoracic Society (1965), the Blumenthal Lecture of the University of Minnesota (1964 and 1973), the keynote address before the Fifth National Scientific Meeting of the Reticuloendothelial Society (1968), and a Harvey Lecture (1973).
His research has earned for Dr. Lawrence membership and office in a host of scientific societies, including societies with the strictest criteria for admission to membership: American College of Physicians, Association of Immunologists, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Harvey Society (secretary, 1957-I960), Peripatetic Clinical Society, Infectious Disease Society (charter member and councillor, 1970-72), the Interurban Clinical Club, American Academy of Allergy, Transplantation Society (charter member and councillor, I966), American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, and, the ultimate distinction, National Academy of Sciences. Recognition and honours have also come from abroad. Dr. Lawrence is an affiliate member of the Royal Society of Medicine, EnglandH. Sherwood Lawrence, 87,
Immunology Pioneer
Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence, a pioneering immunologist who helped found the branch of biology that explores the function of lymphocytes, a type of white cell in blood and lymph nodes, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 87.
His death was announced by officials of New York University, where he had taught and conducted research for more than 50 years.
Dr. Lawrence, who was known as Jerry, was also an expert in infectious diseases, and his research generated other advances in immunology. Dr. Lawrence conducted research on the way the body rejects transplanted organs and how various conditions can damage tissue.
Dr. Lawrence was best known for his discovery, in 1949, of a substance known as ''transfer factor,'' a product of T-lymphocytes, which play crucial roles in defending against a wide variety of infectious agents.
He named the product after showing that the type of immune response that lymphocytes could transfer to nonimmune animals could sometimes be transferred to enhance the body's defenses.
Transfer factor is a small molecule, and it has been the center of scientific mystery, in part because Dr. Lawrence and other scientists were unable to identify it precisely. Some scientists suspect that transfer factor represents bits of many molecules.
''Although there was significant controversy surrounding transfer factor, Jerry doggedly pursued the concept of immune reconstitution that has become a very important field of immunology,'' said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Lawrence predicted many aspects of the functioning of lymphocytes and immune cells, and his work provided clues to the later discovery of immune substances known as cytokines.
Dr. Lawrence also identified a link between the way cells respond immunologically to microbes like the bacterium that causes tuberculosis and the type of immune responses involved in the rejection of transplanted organs, said Dr. Fred T. Valentine, an immunologist who worked with Dr. Lawrence at N.Y.U.
Henry Sherwood Lawrence was born in Astoria, Queens. He graduated from New York University in 1938 and its medical school in 1943.
After a year's internship, Dr. Lawrence served in the Navy in World War II as a medical officer aboard a number of ships. He participated in the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach and in the invasions of southern France and Okinawa, Japan, and received Bronze Stars in each.
After the war, he completed his training as a specialist in internal medicine at New York University and joined its medical faculty in 1949.
In 1959, he became head of infectious diseases and immunology, a position he held until his retirement in 2000. He was co-director of medical services at Bellevue and New York University Hospitals from 1964 to 2000.
Dr. Lawrence was also director of N.Y.U.'s cancer center from 1974 to 1979, and director of its AIDS research center from 1989 to 1994.
Dr. Lawrence was the founding editor of the journal Cellular Immunology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Lawrence is survived by his wife, the former Dorothea Wetherbee; a daughter, Dorothea Lawrence Browne of New York City; two sons, Dr. Victor John of Greenwich, Conn., and Geoffrey Douglas of Lawrenceville, N.J.; and four grandchildren.
Photo: H. Sherwood Lawrence in 1993. (Photo by New York University)
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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