Turning Catabolism into Usefulness—A Jaundiced View

Featured Article: Stocker R, Yamamoto Y, McDonagh AF, Glazer AN, Ames BN. Bilirubin is an antioxidant of possible physiological importance. Science 1987;235:1043–6.2My interest in bilirubin, a product of heme catabolism in mammals, was sparked by 2 momentous and interrelated events in 1983. The first was the premature birth of my eldest daughter, Sophie. The second was her treatment with “blue light” therapy for jaundice, which was successful despite my initial fears of its potential harmful effects. However, it was not until I joined the Bruce Ames laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, in early 1986 that I was presented with the opportunity to work with this golden bile pigment as a postdoctoral scientist. At that time, natural antioxidants were a major interest of Bruce Ames in the context of cancer prevention (1). His close colleague, Alex Glazer, who carried out …