UNIVERSITY NEWS Study of Toxins and Antitoxins Western Reserve University has been given $12,600 by W y e t h , Inc., of Philadelphia, pharmaceutical and biological manufactur ers, to conduct studies of toxins and anti toxins in order to determine more closely the active principles of these substances. T h e research work will be carried o n by Louis Pillemer, research immunologist of the university's I n s t i t u t e of Pathology, under the direction of Ε . Ε. Ecker, professor of immunology. T h e scientists will endeavor to isolate the a c t i v e substance or substances given ofT, for instance, by the tetanus which causes lockjaw and the antitoxic serum which affords "protection in this disease. They will purify t h e toxin and the antitoxin of tetanus to a high degree, u p to t h e point of h o m o geneity, if possible. T h e active substances involved in these agents are extremely com plex. I t is possible that certain chemical groups in the protein molecules are involved in t h e production of the poisonous qualities of t h e toxin a n d the immunizing qualities of the ant* toxin. This study has obvious prac tical significance; and information gained from it will b e useful in future efforts to solve problems of infection and immunity. D u r i n g World War I lockjaw was very c o m m o n , but in the U.S. military" service is t o d a y almost nonexistent, thanks to t h e use of the toxoid. A n t i t o x i n g i v e s almost immediate, but temporary, protection in preventing lockjaw after the infection has ^ptered a puncture wound, deep burn, or othei injury. The toxoid, which gives protection over a long period of t i m e , is now ad-ministered t o men and women a s t h e y enter th
