A new $3, 500, 000 Institute of Microbiology was opened at Rutgers University here Monday for research purposes on funds obtained from royalties from the sale of streptomycin, one of the new “wonder drugs.”
The center, also known as the Waksman Institute, was set up and will be supported by a foundation established by Prof. Selman Waksman, director of the institute and 1952 Nobel Prize winner for discovery of streptomycin. Eighty-two and one-half percent of the royalty imcome from an estimated $100, 000, 000 in annual sales in the United States alone of streptomycin has been turned over to the foundation by Prof. Waksman. He keeps five percent, five percent goes to another microbiological research foundation and seven and one-half percent of the total has been assigned to assistants and former students who worked on the research projects with the Jewish scientist.
Sixty-six years of age, Dr. Waksman was born in Priluki, the Ukraine, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1916. In 1938 he visited Palestine to help work on medical projects in connection with the development of the Huleh region. In 1952 he went to Israel to help establish an anti-biotics institute there to produce the new drugs.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
