Parr Tate

Parr Tate (27 April 1901 – 7 November 1985) was an Irish parasitologist, particularly known for his research on malaria. He spent his entire academic career in Cambridge, England, where he was Reader in Parasitology (1949–68) and head of the Department of Parasitology at the University of Cambridge, director of the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology (1953–68), and one of the founding fellows of what is now Wolfson College, Cambridge. He was the editor of the journal Parasitology (1952–68).

Parr Tate

Biography

Tate was born in County Cork on 27 April 1901.[1][2] He had severe whooping cough as a child; this required him to be educated at home and resulted in asthma, from which he never recovered.[1] As a child he bred canaries, winning prizes with them at shows;[1][3] Malcolm Peaker suggests this might have contributed to his asthma.[3] In 1920, Tate went up to University College, Cork, of the National University of Ireland, where he graduated in zoology and botany (1923) and then gained an MSc (1924).[1][2]

In 1924, after being awarded a Travelling Scholarship, he moved to Cambridge to study for a PhD at the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology under the supervision of George H. F. Nuttall;[1][2][4] he spent the rest of his career there.[1] In 1949, Tate was appointed Reader in Parasitology,[5] and in 1953, succeeded David Keilin as the director of the Molteno Institute, remaining in the position until his retirement in September 1968.[1][2][6] He was also head of the university's Department of Parasitology.[7] Tate served as editor of the journal Parasitology from 1952 to 1968 (with Keilin until his death in 1963).[2][6] In 1965, he was one of the founding fellows of University College (now Wolfson College).[1]

He was interested in natural history, and for three decades, visited Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales during the summer vacation, with the biochemist Malcolm Dixon and his sister, Lilian Tate.[1][8] In retirement, he continued to keep a house in Cambridge but spent part of his time with Lilian in Cork.[1][3] He died in Cork on 7 November 1985.[1][2]

Research

Tate's earliest research was on respiratory enzymes in the fungi that cause ringworm.[2]

His best-known research was on malaria. Towards the end of the 1920s, he started to work on avian malaria, using his expertise in canaries to develop the only British laboratory method for testing antimalarial drugs, using the model system of Plasmodium relictum in canaries, in association with M. Vincent and later Ann Bishop.[1][2][9] In the mid-1930s, Tate turned to the newly isolated Plasmodium gallinaceum, which infects chickens, at first continuing to test antimalarials; this line of research was continued by Bishop.[2][4] In 1937–38, with Sydney Price James, using chickens infected with P. gallinaceum sporozoites, Tate demonstrated a novel Plasmodium life-cycle stage outside red blood cells in which the parasite infects endothelial cells, particularly in the brain. The finding undermined the long-held view that Plasmodium sporozoites infected red blood cells directly, and was later replicated in primates by Henry Shortt and Cyril Garnham.[2][10][11]

His other research was wide ranging, including work on other protozoa and on flies and mosquitos.[2][7]

Key research papers
  • S. P. James, P. Tate (1937). New knowledge of the life cycle of malaria parasites. Nature 139: 545–46
  • S. P. James, P. Tate (1938). Exo-erythrocytic schizogony in Plasmodium gallinaceum Brumpt, 1935. Parasitology 30: 128–39 doi:10.1017/S0031182000010891

References
  1. D. W. T. Crompton (1986). Parr Tate, 1901–1985. Parasitology 93 (2): 249–50 doi:10.1017/S0031182000051416
  2. Dr Parr Tate. The Times (62293) (12 November 1985)
  3. Malcolm Peaker (12 December 2021). Scientists who kept animals. 1. Parr Tate, Canaries and Antimalarial Drugs, Zoology Jottings (accessed 22 October 2023)
  4. Sherman, p. 21
  5. Universities And Colleges. The British Medical Journal 1 (4821): 1228–29 (1953) JSTOR 20311461
  6. R. Stephen Phillips (2009). A note on the editors of Parasitology. Parasitology 136 (12): 1663 doi:10.1017/S0031182009006490
  7. Papers presented to Parr Tate to mark his retirement—30 September 1968. Parasitology 59 (1): 1 (1969) doi:10.1017/S0031182000069778
  8. R. N. Perham (1988). Malcolm Dixon. 18 April 1899–7 December 1985. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 34: 98–131 JSTOR 70048
  9. L. G. Goodwin, K. Vickerman (1992). Ann Bishop. 19 December 1899–7 May 1990. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 38: 28–39 doi:10.1098/rsbm.1992.0002 JSTOR 769994
  10. Sherman, pp. 31–32
  11. Francis E. G. Cox (2010). History of the discovery of the malaria parasites and their vectors. Parasites & Vectors 3: 5 doi:10.1186/1756-3305-3-5

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