Synopsis - Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Technological Applications - page 40

since the greening process was proceeding very rapidly in the excised cotyledons,
I may be able to detect some carry-over Chl biosynthesis in the filtrate exposed
to light for a brief period to time. After a few minutes of illumination the filtrate was
extracted with aqueous acetone and the amount of Chl in the aqueous acetone was
evaluated before and after exposure of the filtrate to light, with a very sensitive
Unicam null-point spectrophotometer. In order to increase the sensitivity of the
procedure, spectrophotometric cells with 10 cm path length were used. Mixed
results were obtained and I decided to shift to the more sensitive usage of
14 C -ALA as a substrate for the Chl biosynthetic work.
2.6.2 Establishment of the Joint Master of Sciences Research
Program at Tal-el-Amara and the Faculty of Pedagogy
of the Lebanese University
In 1967, I met a very enthusiastic Professor of Chemistry by the name of Elie Trad, at
the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Lebanese University. Dr. Trad had gotten his
doctorate in Tcheckoslovakia. Soon thereafter Professor Trad became Dean of
the Sciences Department at the faculty of Pedagogy and visited my laboratory at
Tal-El-Amara. He invited me to teach part-time, an introductory biochemistry
course at the Faculty of Pedagogy, on my regular week-end visits to Beirut. He
also invited Carole to teach introductory plant physiology. Very soon we realized
that the classes were made up of very bright students that deserved exposure to
graduate work. I discussed with Dean Trad the possibility of initiating a Master of
Sciences Program administered jointly by my Laboratory in Tal-El-Amara and
the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Lebanese University. We started the program by
recruiting four bright students who did their research in my laboratory and did their
course work at the Faculty of Pedagogy. The students started by shuttling between
my laboratory in the Bekaa valley for their research and the Faculty of Pedagogy, in
Beirut, for their course-work. Then in early 1968 my whole laboratory was moved to
the suburb of Beirut where the National Research Institute had built a new research
center in the Fanar district. That was very convenient for everybody. Carole and I
moved back to our house in Beirut, and the students shuttled between my 5,000
square feet Laboratory in Fanar, and the Faculty of Pedagogy, a few miles away.
With the new laboratory came new equipment, namely a refrigerated high speed
centrifuge, an ultracentrifuge, a sophisticated Beckman gas chromatograph, a Hewlett
Packard radio chromatogram scanner, a Beckmann 100 S liquid scintillation counter,
a Beckman recording double beam spectrophotometer, and all the needed accessory
equipment. Soon my facility was transformed into a state-of-the-art laboratory.
With the new equipment, it became possible to finally perform sophisticated
experiments involving in vivo and in vitro studies of the Chl biosynthetic pathway
using 14 C-ALA as substrate. Other pigment and lipid research was also initiated.
I started working jointly with the students on four different projects. With Mounir