Gustave Freeman, MD, pursued the highest quality of medical research to understand the pathogenesis of human cancer and respiratory diseases. As an extension of that legacy, he maintained a high level of expertise in his Department of Medical Sciences. In a highly competitive environment, he won grants from the National Public Health Service and the Environmental Protection Agency for a quarter of a century to support his research with his team at SRI.
He collaborated with other scientists in both the Life and Physical Sciences Divisions. With expertise in virology, Dr. Freeman advised SRI chemists that a compound they had synthesized as a potential anticancer agent for the National Cancer Institute should be evaluated for antiviral activity. It did prove to be active and was developed into the first successful antiherpes drug for human use. With physical chemists at SRI, he discovered the endogenous presence of nitric oxide (NO) and hemoglobin complex by electron spin-resonance. Simultaneously, he led his colleagues to complete a series of animal studies that modeled the pathogenesis of human respiratory diseases (emphysema and chronic obstructive lung disease). His studies proved that these diseases were caused in humans by common contaminants of air derived from industrial and automobile exhausts and tobacco smoke. The results were fundamental to national and international efforts in setting allowable limits of NOx and ozone contents in industrial exhausts and indoor air-quality standards.
In 1982, Dr. Freeman, as Acting Director, organized a competitive new group of scientists and established the Biotechnology Department, later the Biomedical Research Laboratory. Current activities in life sciences at SRI benefit from the Freeman legacy in terms of the academic excellence that continues to be characteristic of SRI's research in drug development, preclinical evaluation, or delivery for human cancer chemotherapy. With that legacy, SRI can continue to compete successfully with both the academic and industrial worlds while meeting the formal requirements of national regulatory agencies.