Dr. James S. Hatfield - Alum and Donor
In his own words ... Dr. Hatfield's recollection of his time at UToledo working on his graduate studies in the Department of Biological Sciences and his eventual career path.
In the summer of 1969, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana
with a B.S. in Physiology in the school of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I was promptly
drafted and would likely have been shipped off to Viet Nam, but I failed my physical
examination and was reclassified to 4F, i.e., ineligible for service. I considered
applying to medical school, but finances were tight, so I decided to seek out graduate
educational opportunities. My parents lived in Findlay, Ohio, an hour drive from Toledo,
so I came to the UToledo campus to look into their programs of study while providing
proximity to home.
I happened to find Dr. Clifford J.V. Smith in the Department of Biology and he kindly took the time to sit down with me and discuss graduate studies and research opportunities. We found mutual interests in mammalian physiology, particularly regarding control of hunger and food intake in rats. I had done an undergraduate research project at the University of Illinois in this area, so I was familiar with basic protocols and handling small animals for research study. Dr. Smith agreed to take me into his laboratory to work with him on this area of investigation. I applied to UToledo for graduate studies, I was accepted into their master’s degree program, and I started classwork and research in the fall of 1969. A graduate teaching assistantship opened up in the second quarter of that year, and I was selected to teach undergraduate laboratory sections in basic biology and physiology. Dr. Smith became the Chairman of Biology later that year, replacing Dr. Maimon Nasatir.
The graduate teaching assistantship opened up several major advantages for me. I was able to take graduate courses tuition free, I was given a desk and office space in an unused laboratory, and I received a small stipend. I found that I truly enjoyed interacting with and teaching undergraduates and helping to prepare experiments in these laboratory courses.
My research project involved stereotaxic surgery on rats, ablating areas of the hypothalamus and giving various hormones via cannulation, then measuring food intake. I also participated in a food consumption project involving chickens. Dr. Smith included me as a coauthor in several abstracts and short papers on these subjects. He asked me to build a plexiglass chamber system for gel electrophoresis studies at an early stage of this research protocol.
My coursework and research efforts resulted in receiving my M.S. in Biological Sciences in 1972. At this point I was enthusiastically engaged in my research projects; I was enjoying being a teaching assistant and I was glad to be allowed to continue my work towards a Ph.D. Even more encouraging, all of my previous graduate courses and research was to be counted towards my doctoral studies.
Parenthetically, at the beginning of the fall quarter, 1973 I met a new graduate teaching assistant, Susan Butcher. I offered to help her become acquainted with the Department of Biology and the laboratory teaching protocols. Soon we began going out together and we eventually married in July 1975, a relationship which has lasted now for 47 years.
Part of my research efforts involving rat brain cannulation required verifying the exact placement of the cannulas. This was accomplished by postmortem removal of the brain, dissection of the hypothalamus and processing, paraffin embedding, sectioning and staining the tissue for microscopic examination of the cannula tracts. This aspect of the research became most intriguing, and I wanted to learn more about the histology of brain structures. Dr. Smith's laboratory was somewhat limited in the availability of equipment such as tissue processors, microtomes and staining supplies.
With the consent of Dr. Smith, I approached Dr. Ben Pansky, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the newly formed Medical College of Ohio. Dr. Pansky also had research interests in neurobiology, as well as being a nationally recognized anatomist with authorship of several textbooks of anatomy and physiology. Dr. Pansky agreed to allow me to utilize his brand-new histology laboratory facilities to investigate further the hypothalamic structures involved in food intake and metabolic regulation. Dr. Pansky also strongly suggested that I should acquire additional training in histological procedures, including immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. We utilized these procedures in examining uptake of several hormones, notably insulin, in frozen sections of the hypothalamus. We discovered that certain astroglial cells, particularly tanycytes, which line the ventricles, had an affinity for insulin. We hypothesized that these cells might provide a conduit bypassing the blood-brain barrier which would allow insulin to exert an influence on hypothalamic metabolic regulation. This published research was the basis for my doctoral thesis. I successfully defended this thesis in 1978 and I was subsequently awarded the Ph.D.
My interest in glial function and histology led me to apply for a postdoctoral research position in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Skoff in the Department of Anatomy at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. There I studied astroglial proliferation in mutant mouse models of dysmyelinization. After three years in Dr. Skoff's lab and many publications, I needed to look for a more permanent position. I had already purchased a home in northwest Detroit, and I wanted to stay in the area, so I accepted a position with Harper Hospital, the teaching hospital of WSU, as supervisor of diagnostic electron microscopy in the Department of Pathology. This position allowed me to perform diagnostic services, mostly involving tumor identification, to teach pathology residents and technicians and to collaborate with many investigators in various research projects which required electron microscopic and immunohistochemical approaches.
After five years of this the Department of Pathology was purchased by an outside commercial laboratory which decided to economize and to eliminate the electron microscopy program. I then applied and was accepted to the Department of Pathology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Allen Park, Michigan, as Section Head of Anatomic Pathology. The entire medical center moved to new facilities in Detroit in 1996. This position allowed me to continue my multifaceted efforts of diagnostic services, administration of histology lab personnel, teaching and collaborative research with many investigators, including gastroenterologists, neurologists, dermatologists among others. Although I cannot claim expertise in so many areas of specialization, I was in a unique position to provide histological and morphological data for their various studies.
After 24 years I retired from this position in 2011. My wife and I currently live outside Whitmore Lake, Michigan in a rural area, where we are enjoying the natural beauty of our three acres.
This is a summary of my career in as concise a description as I can provide. I have remained in occasional contact with my mentors through the years and I have thanked them many times for their roles in my education and professional accomplishments. Dr. Pansky passed away three years ago, still productive as a medical illustrator and textbook author.
As I recall my career advancements, I must acknowledge the major impact that my graduate education at the University of Toledo provided. I was given many opportunities to study, to acquire specific knowledge in neurobiology, to learn research protocols and techniques which I utilized throughout my career, to develop teaching skills while interacting with students at many levels of education, and to collaborate with researchers in many areas of study, resulting in a plethora of research publications (see PubMed.gov for a partial list).
My gratitude to the University of Toledo has now extended to the establishment of funded scholarships in the College of Medicine and in the College of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. My hope is that new generations of students will be encouraged to pursue studies which will lead to professional accomplishments and to the advancement of scientific knowledge for the betterment of humanity.