Ogden Bruton
Encyclopedia
Immunology
Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...
as an immunologist.
The condition he discovered is sometimes referenced by his name: "Bruton-type agammaglobulinemia".
The gene associated with this defect is also named after him: Btk
Bruton's tyrosine kinase
Bruton's tyrosine kinase is a type of kinase enzyme implicated in the primary immunodeficiency disease X-linked agammaglobulinemia . Its exact mechanism of action remains unknown, but it plays a crucial role in B cell maturation as well as mast cell activation through the high-affinity IgE receptor...
, abbreviation for Bruton's tyrosine kinase.
Education
He matriculated at age 16 into Trinity College, which later became Duke UniversityDuke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. He graduated from Duke in 1929, and then Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine is a medical school located in Nashville, TN. Currently ranked 15th out of 126 accredited medical schools in the U.S News & World Report 2010 rankings, the school of medicine has a reputation as a center of research and high-quality clinical care. Vanderbilt...
in 1933, the latter with honors. He remained at Duke for his pediatric residency, completing his training in 1936. Thereafter he remained at Vanderbilt as faculty.
Medical and Military Career
Dr. Bruton received a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in 1938-1939 and spent a year at the Child Guidance Clinic of Los Angeles and at the Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic of Babies Hospital in New York. He returned to Vanderbilt, where he entered the peacetime Army as a reserve officer to serve one year in 1940. However, this turned out to be his first step in his subsequent 21-year military career.He went on tours at Walter Reed, the 210th General Hospital, Fort Gulick
Fort Gulick
Fort Gulick was a U.S. Army base in the former Panama Canal Zone located on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal near Fort Davis, on Gatun Lake.-History:It was perhaps best known as the location of the School of the Americas...
, Panama, the Army Regional Hospital, Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, Kentucky, and Tripler General Hospital
Tripler Army Medical Center
Tripler Army Medical Center is the headquarters of the Pacific Regional Medical Command of the armed forces administered by the United States Army in the State of Hawaii. It is the largest military hospital in the Asian and Pacific Rim region and serves a military sphere of jurisdiction that spans...
, Hawaii. On May 28, 1944, he married Melda Kathryn (Kay) Dove of Winchester, Virginia
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
. She would give birth to a daughter, Kathryn Jo, and a son, Odgen Carr, Jr. In 1946, Dr. Bruton went briefly into private practice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, but he returned to Walter Reed that same year to serve as a consultant to the Army Surgeon General's Office.
He received a regular Army commission and went to Europe on an assignment to improve the health conditions of immigrating war brides and their children. Thereafter, he returned to Walter Reed a second time to develop the Army’s first pediatric training program. Concurrently, he became a clinical professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools. It is located on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, adjacent to the University's main campus...
. He also served as a consultant at the Children’s Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Children's National Medical Center
- Introduction :Children’s National Medical Center , is the only exclusive provider of pediatric care in the Washington, D.C., area and the only freestanding children’s hospital between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Norfolk, and Atlanta...
From 1955 to 1958 while he served as the pediatric chief at Tripler General Hospital, Hawaii starting a pediatric training program there as well. Colonel Leo Geppert served at Walter Reed in the interim, but Bruton returned in 1958 to serve again as chief until he retired in 1961, whereupon he turned the department over to Colonel Ed Tomsovic.
In 1992, Dr. Bruton was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award
Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award
The Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest civilian award given by the United States Department of Defense. This award and accompanying Distinguished Civilian Service Medal is the Department's highest award given to career DoD civilian employees whose careers...
, the highest Department of Defense award given to civilians requiring the approval of the Secretary of Defense.
Discovery of Bruton’s Agammaglobulinemia
While at Walter Reed during his second tour, Bruton studied an 8 year-old boy, Joseph S. Holtoner, Jr., who had recurrent pneumonia infections and who lacked gamma globulin in his serum. This type of agammaglobulinemia is now called Bruton's syndrome or X-linked agammaglobulinemia, which was later found by others to be an X-linked congenital condition. The gene defect has since been mapped to the gene code for Bruton tyrosine kinase (Btk), at band Xq21.3.Dr. Bruton wrote to medical schools in the United States of America that had a pediatric service to ask if they had any such patients with agammaglobulinemia. His findings were published in June 1952 in the journal "Pediatrics". Dr. Bruton was also the first physician to provide specific immunotherapy for this X-linked disorder by administering intramuscular injections of IgG immunoglobulin. Time magazine featured Dr. Bruton and his medical discovery in the May 18, 1953 issue.
There is also a milder form of X-linked congenital Swiss-type agammaglobunemia referred to as Bruton-Gitlin syndrome. It is characterized by decreased amounts of humoral gammaglobulin in serum, with cellular functional deficiencies as well. There is also a defect in the Btk gene in this condition.
The Ogden C. Bruton Award
This citation is an award given annually for the best paper submitted by a military pediatrician for either basic or applied research on the development, evaluation, or application of technology in pediatrics. The award is named in honor of Dr. Bruton. List of award recipients since 1969: http://www.aap.org/sections/uniformedservices/brutonpastrecipients.htmlThe Ogden C. Bruton Lectureship
This lectureship is an honor bestowed on a speaker at the military section of the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting each year. List of speakers since 1980: http://www.aap.org/sections/uniformedservices/brutonlecturshippastrecipients.htmlSelected works
- Bruton OC. Diet of infancts and children in disaster. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1962 Nov;9:1025-31
- Bruton OC. A decade with agammaglobulinemia. J Pediatr. 1962 May;60:672-6
- Andrews BF, Bruton OC, De Baare L. Serum amino acid nitrogen in infancy and childhood. J Pediatr. 1962 Feb;60:201-5.
- Andrews BF, Bruton OC, Knoblock EC. Sweat chloride concentration in children with allergy and with cystic fibrosis of the pancreas. Pediatrics. 1962 Feb;29:204-8
- Bruton OC. Agammaglobulinemia. Pediatrics 1952 Jun:9(6):722-8
- Moseley RW, Bruton OC. Hemophilia in children: with a suggestion for prophylactic control; report of four cases. Arch Pediatr. 1951 Nov;68(11):526-32.
- Bruton OC. Agenesis of abdominal musculature associated with genitourinary and gastro-intestinal tract anomalies. J Urol. 1951 Oct;66(4):607-11.
- Rosenzweig L, Bruton OC. Pernicious anemia in an eight year old girl; additional observations in a case previously reported as nutritional anemia in an infant responding to purified liver extract. Pediatrics. 1950 Aug;6(2):269-76.