Robert Huebner

[3] Local physicians hadn't initially reported the cases to authorities, as most presented with a rash and fever, but recovered within two weeks without any specific treatment.

[3] The New York City Department of Health was informed after a "minor epidemic" broke out at the Queens housing complex and individuals had been sent to hospitals with violent fevers and skin lesions.

[2] Huebner's investigations on the site led to the conclusion that tenants had been bitten by a mite identified as Allodermanyssus sanguineus, found on mice that infested the storerooms and incinerator areas in the buildings.

After culturing and isolating the organism in laboratory mice, the pathogen they named Rickettsia akari was identified as the ultimate cause of the disease now called rickettsialpox.

[4] He was recognized by the American Society of Tropical Medicine for his efforts with the Bailey K. Ashford Award in 1949, which included a $1,000 prize from Eli Lilly and Company that he later used as a down payment for a farm in Frederick, Maryland.

[2] Dairy farmers were upset by the insinuation that they were responsible for the outbreak and put pressure on local health officials to ask Huebner to leave the area.

[5] While trying to grow common cold viruses, he and his colleague Dr. Wallace Rowe first tried to use adenoid and tonsil tissue, before using a culture based on tumor cells.

[1] In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1969, Huebner advanced his theory that oncogenes, then only a hypothetical construct, could cause normal cells to mutate and become cancerous.

[1] President of the United States Richard Nixon presented Huebner with the National Medal of Science at a White House dinner held on February 16, 1970, recognizing his "contributions to the modern understanding of the biology of viruses and their role in the induction of diverse diseases.