Oral History Project: K. Frank Austen, M.D.-Interview with K. Frank Austen, M.D.

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dr. K. Frank Austin recounts a path from Akron, Ohio—where he was raised by European immigrant parents (an engineer father and arts-oriented mother)—to Amherst College and Harvard Medical School. A pivotal event was contracting polio in 1946, which sidelined his athletic ambitions and redirected him toward medicine. After Harvard (1950–54) and highly competitive training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Austin’s career was shaped again by the 1956 polio epidemic. Caring for critically ill polio patients in iron lungs, he observed that “vascular collapse” was due to inadequate oxygenation/ventilation-perfusion failure, leading to a New England Journal of Medicine publication and improved management.<br /><br />Military service unexpectedly brought him to Walter Reed, where working with immunologist Elmer Becker convinced him to specialize in immunology. He pursued broad training—England’s NIH with John Humphrey (and exposure to slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis, later cysteinyl leukotrienes) and Johns Hopkins with Manfred Mayer—while maintaining clinical work.<br /><br />Recruited to the Robert Brigham Hospital, he helped build a major Harvard immunology program with colleagues John David and Peter Schur, which expanded into a large division. His research centered on three themes: the complement amplification loop (including factor H, later linked to age-related macular degeneration), cysteinyl leukotrienes and asthma (contributing to mechanism-based leukotriene receptor antagonists), and mast cell biology.<br /><br />Austin reflects on changes in medical education and hospital practice, strong support for women caregivers in science, concerns about sustaining physician-scientists amid tighter NIH funding, and his long involvement with AAI, emphasizing the enduring value of basic discovery over narrowly “applied” research.

Asset Caption

K. Frank Austen (1928–2023) was the Astra Zeneca Professor of Respiratory and Inflammatory Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He was president of The American Association of Immunologists from 1977 to 1978 and served on the AAI Council from 1972 to 1976. Dr. Austen was elected a Distinguished Fellow of AAI in 2019.

Keywords

K. Frank Austin

polio epidemic 1956

ventilation-perfusion failure

iron lung care

New England Journal of Medicine publication

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Harvard immunology program

complement amplification loop

factor H and age-related macular degeneration

cysteinyl leukotrienes and asthma

mast cell biology