ADVENTURES IN SERENDIPITY

This book is a mixture of Kaback’s life and his development as a scientist, both of which involve numerous serendipitous events. Thus, the title “Adventures in Serendipity”. For readers who may not be scientists, most of the science described can be scanned superficially or skipped altogether, as an equally important aspect of the book is to emphasize that there is more to science than just science. Also to be emphasized--if a good fairy appears with a magic wand and offers you the choice between being smart or being lucky, always pick lucky. But put your heart and soul into it whatever you do.

H. R. (Ron) Kaback is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physiology, as well as Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, and a Member or the Molecular Biology Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). His interest in research began at Haverford College in the 1950s when a crazy idea led to the development of bacterial membrane vesicles as a model system in which to study active transport at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Once bitten by the creative aspects of biochemical research, he pioneered the development of the modern field of transport, focusing on a specific membrane transport protein, the lactose permease of Escherichia coli.