Edward (Ted) J. Steele is a controversial Australian molecular immunologist formerly with the
University of WollongongThe University of Wollongong is a public university with approximately 22,000 students, located in the coastal city of Wollongong, which is 80 kilometres south of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.-History:...
, now listed as a visiting fellow at the
Australian National UniversityThe Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public teaching and research university located in Canberra, Australia, the federal capital city...
. Steele's research has led a resurgent interest in the French scientist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, the man who developed the first theory of evolution, pre-dating
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
by fifty years. Steele was also the subject of a dispute with his employer, which led to his widely publicized dismissal and subsequent reinstatement.
Ted Steele developed the theory of reverse transcription from the
somaticThe term somatic refers to cells of the body, rather than gametes . In humans, somatic cells contain two copies of each chromosome , whereas gametes only contain one copy of each chromosome...
(body) cells to the germline (reproductive cells).
Edward (Ted) J. Steele is a controversial Australian molecular immunologist formerly with the
University of WollongongThe University of Wollongong is a public university with approximately 22,000 students, located in the coastal city of Wollongong, which is 80 kilometres south of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.-History:...
, now listed as a visiting fellow at the
Australian National UniversityThe Australian National University, commonly abbreviated to ANU, is a public teaching and research university located in Canberra, Australia, the federal capital city...
. Steele's research has led a resurgent interest in the French scientist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, the man who developed the first theory of evolution, pre-dating
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
by fifty years. Steele was also the subject of a dispute with his employer, which led to his widely publicized dismissal and subsequent reinstatement.
Scientific interests
Ted Steele developed the theory of reverse transcription from the
somaticThe term somatic refers to cells of the body, rather than gametes . In humans, somatic cells contain two copies of each chromosome , whereas gametes only contain one copy of each chromosome...
(body) cells to the germline (reproductive cells). This reverse transcription process enables characteristics or bodily changes acquired during a lifetime to be written back into the
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
and passed on to subsequent generations. This is what used to be known as neo-Lamarckism. Steel's theory provided the first mechanism to explain Lamarckian evolution: when successful somatic (body) cell changes occur due to environmental changes, copies of the copious new messenger-RNA that have been produced by the successful cells are picked up by harmless retroviruses acting as gene shuttles and transported across the tissue barrier – the
Weismann BarrierThe Weismann barrier is the principle that hereditary information moves only from genes to body cells, and never in reverse. In more precise terminology hereditary information moves only from germline cells to somatic cells .This does not refer to the central dogma of molecular biology which...
– to the
germlineIn biology and genetics, the germline of a mature or developing individual is the line of germ cells that have genetic material that may be passed to a child.For example, sex cells such as the sperm or the egg, are part of the germline...
. Finally, the new genetic information is integrated into the
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
by a process involving reverse transcription.
This process of writing or translating new information into the DNA provides the essential precursor to acquired changes being passed on to progeny; to the next generation, thereby demonstrating Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characters. Darwinian
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
then goes to work on the progeny and subsequent generations: those fit for survival do so and those not fit die out. This recombination of Darwin and Lamarck by Steele has been described as meta-Lamarckism.
During the 1980s and 1990s Ted Steele clashed with the scientific establishment, particularly in the UK, over this theory and his support for Lamarck's place in modern science. Steele has stated publicly in an interview with the
ABCThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
program
LatelineLateline is an Australian television news and current affairs program, airing weeknights at on ABC1, similar in format to the BBC's Newsnight program. The program has developed a reputation for head-to-head debates on current issues and political interviews. Lateline is followed by its sister...
that his controversial theories have had a strong impact on his career "To be branded a heretic and a pariah meant that my career to keep doing research in this area were extremely limited."
His book,
Lamarck's Signature was variously praised and criticized by the scientific mainstream.
Dismissal and dispute
In January 2001, Steele made several allegations to the media in regard to 'soft' marking resulting in the upgrading of full fee paying international students. Steele was summarily dismissed by UoW's Vice-Chancellor Gerard Sutton, stating that the university's reputation was "placed at a serious and imminent risk as a result of Associate Professor Steele's claims." Steele declared his dismissal unfair and instituted legal proceedings.The case received wide media coverage
In August 2001, the Australian
Federal CourtThe term "federal court", when used by itself, can refer to:* Any court of the national government in a country that has a federal system such as that of the United States or Mexico or to a particular federal court, such as the United States district courts.* In some countries, a particular court,...
found that the University of Wollongong had breached its staff enterprise agreement and did not following correct conduct and dismissal procedures in Steele's case. Following the verdict Steele expressed publicly that he wanted his job back.
On 5 April 2002, UoW Vice Chancellor Gerard Sutton acceded to
NTEUThe National Tertiary Education Union is an Australian trade union for University academic and general staff.NTEU is a specialist national union solely representing staff in tertiary education. In all Australian universities, NTEU represents academic and research staff, general staff, ELICOS...
demands and reinstated Dr Ted Steele to his position within the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong. It was made public that Steele's reinstatement was unconditional and involved backpay. President of the National Tertiary Education Union, Dr Carolyn Allport announced the importance of the victory and precedent that the court's ruling set. "The NTEU has said all along that Dr Steele was dismissed illegally. The union's position has been completely vindicated by the findings of four judges of the Federal Court and Dr Steele's subsequent reinstatement. The reinstatement comes after a 15 month legal and political campaign by the NTEU. It is a victory for all NTEU members because it clearly demonstrates that university staff cannot be dismissed without a proper and fair hearing. This requirement is the fundamental protection of intellectual freedom in Australia's universities and the successful campaign to reinstate Dr Steele has reaffirmed that protection for all Australian university staff and for the community that our universities serve."
The University of Wollongong subsequently appealed the court's decision, but again lost and was ordered to pay Steele's court costs (estimated to be approx. AUD$40000). The University set out with further investigations into the allegations of soft marking in an effort to legitimately incriminate Steele, however there appeared to be a conflict of interest with Steele's former line manager being promoted to Dean, and chair of a subsequent enquiry. This led to Steele describing the UoW arbitration system as a 'Kangaroo court'.
The unfair dismissal issue was resolved on 6 July 2002 when Steele and the University of Wollongong came to a confidential agreement. Although little is known in regard to the settlement, Steele did not return to the University of Wollongong.. Further reading.,
Steele is currently based at the Genomic Interactions Group & CILR at the Australian National University.
Neo-Lamarckism and Research Legacy
In July 2006, Dr Corrado Spadafora published a paper providing evidence that male sex cells or sperm could indeed receive foreign genetic material - information from body cells being written back into the germline DNA. Spadafora presented evidence that a green fluorescent protein, a genetic tag attached to the sperm of a father subsequently showed up in the tissue or body cells of his progeny. He announced that there is in all mature spermatozoa, an efficient machinery to receive information from external DNA molecules and that this behavior is widespread. It has been observed in sperm from more than 30 species, from sea urchins to honey bees to humans. In about a quarter of cases the foreign genes have appeared in the next generation.
Spadafora announced in his paper that the genetic transfer mechanism he had discovered involves the generation and 'non-Mendelian' spread of new genetic information beyond that supposedly locked up in the chromosomes.
Simultaneously, Patrick Fogarty was one of a number of scientists working with animals to develop new genetic transfer technologies for drug target discovery. In his experiments, transgenic animals that have ‘knock-in’ genes or ‘knockout’ genes are used to provide useful animal models for the development of gene therapies. In the process of conducting the early trials, scientists are finding that the genome of animals can integrate new genes, or have selected genes deleted, and that the progeny of new transgenic animals inherit the new genetic alterations.Fogarty, has developed two new delivery vectors that can be used to incorporate a new gene into the genome, or to replace a similar gene with a new one. In the laboratory he uses a mechanism to envelope foreign DNA which is then injected into the tails of mice. Each animal is directly injected with a mix containing the new gene and a vector designed to assist the integration of the new gene into the animal’s genetic makeup. In his experiments, Fogarty and his colleagues injected the vectors with the new DNA cargo into mice, and achieved effective gene transformations to create the transgenic effects they aimed for. He showed that over time, the new DNA became integrated into almost all somatic cells tested. There also appeared to be no side effects using this technique. What is most remarkable about this work, is that the progeny of the StealthGeneTM and the TGD transgenic animals were also transgenic. The new genetic material had not only entered the somatic cells. It had also altered the genome of the animals injected. Using only the male line, the new genetic information was inherited by twenty five to eighty percent of the progeny of the transgenic animals, depending on the test variables used. The new genome was stable for the four generations tested, and there appeared to be no strain or sex dependencies.
Selected publications
- Steele, E.J.- Somatic Selection and Adaptive Evolution: On the Inheritance of Acquired Characters. 2nd Edition. Revised with an author's Postscript, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1981.
- Steele, E.J., Lindley, R.A. & Blanden, R.V. Lamarck's Signature: How retrogenes are changing Darwin's natural selection paradigm. Allen & Unwin, Frontiers of Science: Series Editor Paul Davies, Sydney, Australia, 1998. In the USA, published by Addison-Wesley-Longman under Perseus Book imprint, Reading, MT, 1998
See also
- http://lamarcksevolution.wordpress.com/evolution-an-introduction Ross Honeywill's new book, Lamarck's Evolution: two centuries of genius and jealousy
- Marion J. Lamb
Marion J. Lamb was Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, before her retirement. She studied the effect of environmental conditions such as heat, radiation and pollution on metabolic activity and genetic mutability in the fruit fly Drosophila...
- Eva Jablonka
Eva Jablonka is a theorist and geneticist, known especially for her interest in epigenetic inheritance. Born in 1952 in Poland, she emigrated to Israel in 1957. She is a professor at the Cohn Institute for the History of Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University...