science · 12 December 1903 · 121 years ago
birth
Born 12 Dec 1903; died 4 Oct 1989 at age 85.
Ross Franco Nigrelli was an American marine biologist who was an expert on diseases of sea life, and was first to discover virus-induced tumours in fish. He investigated plankton blooms, such as the red tides of the 1940s along Florida's Gulf Coast that caused a die-off of millions of fish. He studied how the health of marine organisms was affected by, as well as changes in salinity or water temperature. As one of the earliest systematic researchers of venoms released by some marine life, and their uses of their extracts as sources of useful drugs. For example, he discovered that a secretion of Bahamian sea cucumbers that was fatal to fish, even in minute quantities. Yet, it could slow the growth of tumours in mice. He also found that certain secretions of sea sponges had antibacterial properties, and that the blood of horseshoe crabs could detect blood poisoning in humans.
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